Screensaver Problems

It could have been a serious, problem, but NOOOOOOOOOO it just had to be some minor irk that if not fixed COULD turn into a serious problem.
Every freakin distro I've ever tried, the screensaver has NEVER worked. I set it to automatically go off at about 6 minutes of idle time. Of course it just brings up a blank screen. Now if I right click on my desktop, Configure Desktop => Screen Savers and preview any one I want, it will work, without fail. But if I try to set it to run automatically... that blank screen comes up. Absolutely no idea what could be the cause.
Thanks fellas, and thanks Vgui for trying to help on that last post, I was writing my fix as you were sending your suggestion.

Hehe, maybe I'll get some help for you on this one.
So you are using xscreensaver? Maybe try running "xscreensaver -demo" from command line, and setting things up there. You should be able to run it as your local user, since each user has their own settings.

Lets try this, change the group of xscreensaver. First find xscreensaver, it should be in /usr/bin in most distros. Once found run the command as root ' chgrp wheel xscreensaver '. This is one fix I have tried on Redhat/FC* distros.

From what I see it looks like you are using KDE. Another way is to disable screensaver from the configuration tool. Then start xscreensaver manual from a terminal screen run the command ' xscreensaver & '. When it starts you can make the changes you want. Note need to be quick to access the configuration tool or it will disappear. The way to access it again after that is run the command ' xscreensaver-demo '.

Brian1

I have been having the same problem for a while. Looking at your solution Brian (I have FC3), I wonder if the file you are refering to is

xscreensaver.kss

as that is the only one that I see in /usr/bin. Is that the correct file?

If so is the command still 'chgrp wheel xscreensaver' or would it be 'chgrp wheel xscreensaver.kss'?

I don't think thats the one. I forget what kss extension means. Don't have time to look it up, but do a search for xcreensaver from the terminal session with the command ' whereis xscreensaver '. Since it is fc3 the first one worked for me. But was using the last one till I found the first answer. By the way, I am not using the xscreensaver rpm. I compiled from the source but still had the same problem till I did the chgrp command. Check back tommorrow.

Brian1

Thanks a lot. I will await your answer.

Sorry for the delay, working. I pulled down a fc3 rpm of xscreensaver and the xscreensaver app is in the /usr/X11R6/bin directory. change the groupship.

Brian1

Thanks for the reply, and no problem about the delay. It's only a screensaver.

Unfortunately, the command either did not work, or I didn't enter it right. I used 'chgrp wheel xscreensaver' in the /usr/X11R6/bin/ subdirectory. Was that the right command, or was I supposed to substitute wheel for something (or something along those lines)?

It's not that big of deal. As long as I keep the setting to random it works just fine.

Also, drache, did you get your screensaver working?

Just to make sure you left out the ' ' symbols. I used to define the beginning and end of the command so it would be this. Note it needs to be run as root access.

chgrp wheel xscreensaver

Brian1

Thanks for the reply, Brian.

This is what I entered for the command (tried it as both root and user), but it just didn't work for me. Oh well, I wasn't that worried about it anyway. I can't put a lot of time into the screensaver, so I will just live with it for now.

Thanks again for your time and effort.