Xfce Forum

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

I have a fresh install of Xubuntu on a Dell Latitude 7275 2-in-1 computer. First I installed 20.04.2, then did a dist-upgrade to 21.10. When I open the Settings window there are two icons for Screensaver, each displaying the same settings. Whichever I click on, in the screensaver popup I see the preview of the screensaver that I selected, but the computer's display never goes to the screensaver; it just goes to black. And it goes to black after ten minutes, even though I set the screensaver to 60 minutes.

I checked power management and several other possibilities to see if something is overriding the screensaver, but I haven't found anything.

I think the first step is to get rid of the duplicate Screensaver icon, but I don't know where all the icons in the Settings window come from. If getting rid of the duplicate doesn't solve the problem, then I need to figure out what is making the display go to black after ten minutes instead of to the screensaver after 60 minutes.

Suggestions?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

Sounds like you maybe have two screensavers installed?

dpkg -l | grep -E 'saver|locker'

Also, what is running:

ps -ef | grep -E 'saver|locker'

There might also be something in your power manager settings. Can we see what you have?

xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv

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KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

That sounds like you have compiled xfce4-screensaver on top of the default one.

What's the output of the following four commands?

which -a xfce4-screensaver ; which -a xfce4-screensaver-preferences ; ls /usr/local/bin ; ps -ef | grep '[x]fce4-screensaver'

You can execute the whole line, they will run sequentially.

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

Thanks to both of you. I think I am close to the solution.

First, I probably did install something on top of something else. The default installation of Xubuntu 20.04.2 only gave me a choice of half a dozen screensavers, so I opened Synaptic and installed several more. The packages include xfce4-screensaver, xscreensaver, xscreensaver-data, xsceensaver-gl, and xscreensaver-extra.

Unfortunately, I am writing this on my main computer, not the new one. To log in here, the main computer pumps in my password, but doesn't show me what it is, and I can't remember it, so I can't log in on the new computer. I can view the thread there, and so I copied the commands above and ran them, but I'd never be able to retype them here; too complex.

Edit: And just now I tried to change my password here, but I can't do that either, because it requires me to type in my old forgotten password. <Sigh>

Last edited by John Jason Jordan (2022-02-06 05:00:37)

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

OK, I copied the output of the commands from the terminal on the new computer and put it into a text file which I sneakernetted to this computer so I can paste it here. Sorry, it's kinda hard to read:

dpkg -l | grep -E 'saver|locker'
ii  xfce4-screensaver                     4.16.0-1                            amd64        screen saver and locker that is integrated with the xfce4 desktop
ii  xscreensaver                          5.45+dfsg1-2ubuntu1                 amd64        Screensaver daemon and frontend for X11
ii  xscreensaver-data                     5.45+dfsg1-2ubuntu1                 amd64        Screen saver modules for screensaver frontends
ii  xscreensaver-gl                       5.45+dfsg1-2ubuntu1                 amd64        GL(Mesa) screen saver modules for screensaver frontends
ii  xscreensaver-gl-extra                 5.45+dfsg1-2ubuntu1                 amd64        Extra GL(Mesa) screen saver modules for screensaver frontends
jjj@jjj-Latitude:~$ ps -ef | grep -E 'saver|locker'
jjj         1349       1  0 16:46 ?        00:00:00 xscreensaver-systemd
jjj         5134    4750  0 20:37 ?        00:00:00 xscreensaver -no-splash
jjj         5154     785  0 20:37 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver
jjj         6787    6738  0 20:42 pts/0    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -E saver|locker
jjj@jjj-Latitude:~$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-ac                        60
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-ac             100
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-battery        100
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-battery              9
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch                  0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch-restore-on-exit  1
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-enabled                       false
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-off                     60
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-sleep                   60
/xfce4-power-manager/general-notification               true
/xfce4-power-manager/power-button-action                3
/xfce4-power-manager/show-tray-icon                     false
jjj@jjj-Latitude:~$ which -a xfce4-screensaver ; which -a xfce4-screensaver-preferences ; ls /usr/local/bin ; ps -ef | grep '[x]fce4-screensaver'
/usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver
/bin/xfce4-screensaver
/usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver-preferences
/bin/xfce4-screensaver-preferences
jjj         5154     785  0 20:37 ?        00:00:00 /usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

Yeah, that sounds infuriating. I feel your pain.

If you can still access your new computer, you can enter those commands and pipe it them to termbin or pastebinit (the former is preferred) like so:

(which -a xfce4-screensaver ; which -a xfce4-screensaver-preferences ; ls /usr/local/bin ; ps -ef | grep '[x]fce4-screensaver') | nc termbin.com 9999

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

I think you are going to have to remove the last three packages: xscreensaver-data, xscreensaver-gl and xscreensaver-gl-extra. On Xubuntu 20.04, I don't have them and my screensaver works flawlessly.

Also, a little tip for the future: dpkg-query --list already accepts shell globbing, even multiple. They have to be escaped, though:

dpkg -l '*saver*' '*locker*'

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

@KBar,
I decided to start with removing the three you mentioned above, but after doing so my favorite screensaver (gl-matrix) was removed. So I reinstalled just xscreensaver-gl. That restored gl-matrix, which was already selected, so I just closed the popup window. And in the Settings window I now have just one Screensaver icon. I'll have to wait an hour to see if it works.

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

Great. Could you also please edit your post and include code tags?

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!

John Jason Jordan

Member

Registered: 2019-11-22

Posts: 76

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

It's working!

Oops, I don't understand what 'code tags' are.

Last edited by John Jason Jordan (2022-02-06 07:41:30)

KBar

Member

Registered: 2021-11-05

Posts: 689

Re: Screensaver - two instances in Settings window, and not working

They're explained here. There are four link right below your reply box.

Also, please don't forget to edit the subject of your topic and prepend [SOLVED] to it.

Thanks.

Last edited by KBar (2022-02-06 08:26:59)

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Remember to edit the subject of your topic to include the [SOLVED] tag once you're satisfied with the answers or have found a solution (in which case, don't forget to share it as well), so that other members of the community can quickly refer to it and save their time. Pretty please!