Only a couple screensavers work at random...
 

I couldn't find any other threads on this topic, and I also tried googling with no luck.

Only some of my screensavers work (and now most of those don't work either)

I think the problem started when I installed dropline gnome (then uninstalled, then reinstalled again). I don't know what else to write about it, so ask questions and I'll answer :)

Thanks

I don't know about Slackware. I play a little with Mandrake. You should have a package manager that lets you look up screensaver packages. There's probably more than one set of screensavers available. Your manager may separate the files into what's installed and what's not installed, so you'd have to search both categories to see what you have. A generic Unix set of screensavers is called Xscreensavers, and there may be some for KDE or your distribution---I don't know exactly where they come from. But if you look up "screen" to get screensavers (and other packages with that text) listed, you can uninstall and re-install screensavers and that ought to make them available in your menus.

In my installation, Xscreensaver doesn't start automatically with the window manager. But you can find the path/programname to start Xscreensaver and add it to your autostart folder if you use KDE. It's a hidden folder under your /home/username folder. I think Konqueror may have a facility to add a program to the autostart folder. I'll try to post again with details.

Under my package manager, i type in screen and the only one that comes up is xscreensaver. I tried reinstalling that with the same slackware package and still no luck.

Question: what video drivers do you use? It could be that the screen savers that aren't working are OpenGL savers, and maybe you aren't using the right vid driver.

If I remember rightly, dropline changes some settings. Maybe you should have a look at what driver is listed in the device section of xorg.conf.

Also you can use command xscreensaver-demo to bring up screensaver options and preview some to see which are working or not.

Xscreensaver has a bunch of enjoyable ones. But it doesn't start automatically. You have to add it to the autostart folder of your window manager. I'm running Windows now so I can't check on it. But you should have access to the KDE window manager and Konqueror. In your /usr folders (/usr/bin or /usr/sbin, I would guess), you should find xscreensaver. Highlight it with Konqueror and then check the menues for something about autostarting. Otherwise, you should be able to start it from your user menu. If you run it with the right commandline argument, you'll get the configuration menu for xscreensaver. Otherwise, there's a button on the startup screen that you have to click promptly to configure it. Here's to the Bouncing Cows screensaver.

Do you get any error messages about permissions? Try adding yourself to the video group (in /etc/group) or change the permissions of /dev/nvidia* (assuming you have an nvidia graphics card). If the latter you have to do this on every boot (through udev if you're using it, for example).

Which screensavers are working properly? Are there any error messages? It may be useful to add yourself to the "video" group, as suggested above.

Random off-topic question -- Influx, are you the same great Influx from NHP?

xscreensaver-demo got it working, but what I don't understand is why nothing works when i use the control center's screensaver dialog, nothing works. I don't like the feel of gnomes xscreensaver-demo. I added the user to video as well (no change). I have the nvidia graphics driver installed properly. There is no error messages, just blank screens in the preview, and nothing happens if i hit the preview button to test it full screen.

You prefer KDE's control center interface to xscreensaver? Personally I can't stand it - for one thing, you can't select which screensavers you want active and which are disabled. Gnome uses the one provided by the author of xscreensaver, and I find has much more options. Besides, how often do you change the screensaver settings? Best use the one that works.

If you get blank screens on preview there must be a problem with your vid drivers I would have think
Is the glx module loading properly in xorg.conf? Should be simlar to:


Section "Module"
Load "record"
Load "extmod"
Load "dbe"
Load "glx"
Load "xtrap"
Load "type1"
Load "freetype"
EndSection