Screensaver issues on KDE

Hey guys, I seem to be having a little trouble with my screensaver. I'm running KDE on Slackware. When I go to the screensaver configuration screen, there's an option to 'Test' the screensaver. When I click Test, the screensaver displays correctly and prompts for a password input when the screensaver is interrupted by clicking.

When the screensaver runs on it's own.. I just get a blank screen instead of the selected screensaver being displayed. When I click, I'm still prompted for a password and i'm able to log back in without problems, the screensaver is just never displayed. Why would the 'test' work, but the real deal wouldn't?

P.S. The matrix screen saver is SWEET!

I have never been completely happy with the way the KDE implementation of xscreensaver works. So, I ensure that xscreensaver is disabled in the KDE Control Canter and that the Slackware package for xscreensaver is installed. Then I do the following:
In /home/bill/.kde/Autostart/ I place a file named xscreensaver.desktop.
This file should contain the lines:

[Desktop Entry]
Exec=xscreensaver -no-splash
Name=XScreensaver
Type=Application
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false

Permissions should be set 644. This will start xscreensaver whenever KDE starts. xscreensaver can then be configured using the xscreensaver-demo program from the command line.

the faq on xscreensaver site
addresses how poor kde is

I had this problem in FreeBSD and adding "DPMS-dependent=false" in the screensaver section of ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc solved the problem. No need to use xscreensaver.

oh i knew that this would be too good to be true =)
i have the same problem bur DPMS-dependent=false" is already in this file - i have a feeling mine has to do with APM though as i have a laptop and it seems to blank the screen rather than run the screen saver - i have setting 'make aware of power management' in KDE turned off as well...

Originally Posted by -=Graz=- oh i knew that this would be too good to be true =) i have the same problem bur DPMS-dependent=false" is already in this file - i have a feeling mine has to do with APM though as i have a laptop and it seems to blank the screen rather than run the screen saver - i have setting 'make aware of power management' in KDE turned off as well...

I use kpowersave on my laptop and it can handle multiple profiles depending on the situation. If you enable APM, you could configure kpowersave to blank the screen when you are using the battery and run a screensaver when you are using an AC electricity.

Screw KDE. I'm using Gnome now and I like it much better. Screensavers along with everything else work beautifully.

I'm using Gnome now and I like it much better.

Well, I'm glad that you are happy, but

Screw KDE.

is not a statement that is liable to encourage me to try to help you again.
Bill

Originally Posted by kwikness Screw KDE. I'm using Gnome now and I like it much better. Screensavers along with everything else work beautifully.

I am not sure such a statement is justified just because KDE screensavers work fine for other people. I have noticed that the probelm is common in Slackware (I have a thread about this somewhere in the Slack forum) so don't rush to blame or curse KDE.

Originally Posted by reddazz I have noticed that the probelm is common in Slackware (I have a thread about this somewhere in the Slack forum) so don't rush to blame or curse KDE.

I've run across the issue on other distros and there are some bug reports at KDE regarding these instances going back a number of years, for which there has been no official resolution. As for the distros that have no such problems, I'm not sure if they have fixed the issue in-house or just have some configuration that prevents the problem for coming into play. In any case, I would encourage anyone who continues to have issues to file these as a bug with either their own distro or KDE.

Originally Posted by reddazz I had this problem in FreeBSD and adding "DPMS-dependent=false" in the screensaver section of ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc solved the problem. No need to use xscreensaver.

Thank you! My screensaver now starts as it should.

Originally Posted by reddazz I had this problem in FreeBSD and adding "DPMS-dependent=false" in the screensaver section of ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc solved the problem. No need to use xscreensaver.

I got all excited to see the following in the kde-3.5.4 changelog:

Fix kscreensaver not starting. Fixes bug 128610. See SVN commit 548008.

I've had problems with KDE's screensaver for a long time now so I've been using xscreensaver instead.

Anyway, argghhh, I was disappointed to see that the kde-3.5.4 upgrade on my Slackware -current box didn't actually solve the problem. I decided to, once and for all, figure this damn thing out and I came to this thread. The above solution worked a dream.

Saaaweeeeet!

Thanks reddazz!

LocoMojo

Originally Posted by LocoMojo I got all excited to see the following in the kde-3.5.4 changelog: I've had problems with KDE's screensaver for a long time now so I've been using xscreensaver instead. Anyway, argghhh, I was disappointed to see that the kde-3.5.4 upgrade on my Slackware -current box didn't actually solve the problem. I decided to, once and for all, figure this damn thing out and I came to this thread. The above solution worked a dream.

For me, screensavers broke when I upgraded my Slack 10.2 install to KDE 3.5.3. Upgrading to 3.5.4 fixed it. I'm not sure what broke there.

Originally Posted by marnold For me, screensavers broke when I upgraded my Slack 10.2 install to KDE 3.5.3. Upgrading to 3.5.4 fixed it. I'm not sure what broke there.

I had the opposite problem, my screensavers broke when I upgraded from KDE supplied with Slackware 10.2 (I think it was 3.4.?) to 3.5.4.

Searching the forum, I found the hints about adding "DPMS-dependent=false" in the screensaver section of ~/.kde/share/config/kdesktoprc, but that didn't help.

I then downloaded the xscreensaver package & installed that. As soon as I did that, the normal KDE screensavers started working without any problems. I didn't even try to run the xscreensaver program.

The only thng I can think of is that when I upgraded to 3.5.4, a link/dependancy didn't get updated correctly & installing xscreensaver fixed that as part of its own install.

Hope this is of help to somebody else if they get a similar problem.

The DPMS-dependent=false didn't work for me, I'm using kde 3.5.4 btw. However if I go into kde's control center, and enable the powermanagment option, under Control Center>Peripherals>Display, the screen saver will work. If I disable this option, it just goes back to going blank when the screensaver launches.

I thought it to be an odd quirk, I'll poke around some source code, am not a very accomplished programmer, but hey, it can't hurt to look.

Hopefully this solution will help a few ppl, am using FreeBSD 6.1.

Chylde