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Jakob77

Member

Registered: 2022-11-03

Posts: 72

Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

About the Screensaver in MX25 Xfce

In my ~/bin folder (to where there is PATH) there is one of the good old screensavers named "gears" (just one file).

I execute it by this Terminal command in a script:

gears -count 8 -speed 0.25 -window & sleep 1; wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,fullscreen

I have used it that way for years and it works very well.

However it would be nice if I could make the Xfce Screensaver start the program automatically and close it just by moving the mouse.

I wish for (almost request ;) an easy way to put it in by GUI.
Perhaps running simple terminal commands instead of showing pictures but I can't find any way to put it in.

Instead I have been testing a desktop file in some different versions.

/usr/share/applications/screensavers/Gears.desktop

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Gears
Exec=/home/testrunner/bin/gears
TryExec=/home/testrunner/bin/gears
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Screensaver;
OnlyShowIn=XFCE;
Hidden=false

I can see the name in the screensaver program but when I choose it there is only a dark screen to look at.

What am I doing wrong.?

Thank you in advance.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

xfce4-screensaver supports xscreensaver screensavers. See: https://docs.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screen … reensavers. You probably won't need to add the sleep and wmctrl commands to the string in the xml file.

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Jakob77

Member

Registered: 2022-11-03

Posts: 72

Re: Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

xfce4-screensaver supports xscreensaver screensavers. See: https://docs.xfce.org/apps/xfce4-screen … reensavers. You probably won't need to add the sleep and wmctrl commands to the string in the xml file.

Thank you very much.

/usr/share/xscreensaver/config/abstractile.xml

config folder and xml files do not exist, so I am supposed to create from the bottom.?

I don't want to mess it all up but I understand it like this:

I create this file:

/usr/share/xscreensaver/config/gears.xml

With this exact content:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>

<screensaver name="gears" _label="Gears">

  <command arg="-root"/>
  ...

And then the desktop file will be created automatically ready to run.?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

The following instructions worked for me:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/xscreensaver/config

sudo cp gears.xml /usr/share/xscreensaver/config

sudo mkdir -p /usr/lib/xscreensaver/

sudo cp ~/bin /usr/lib/xscreensaver/gears

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/applications/screensavers/

...and the contents of /usr/share/applications/screensavers/gears.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Gears
Exec=/usr/lib/xscreensaver/gears -root
TryExec=/usr/lib/xscreensaver/gears
Categories=Screensaver;
NoDisplay=True

I added the NoDisplay line so it doesn't create a new menu item in the menu, as it can be accessed through xfce4-screensaver's configuration dialog.

And here are the contents of gears.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<screensaver name="gears" _label="Gears" gl="yes">

  <command arg="--root"/>

  <video href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHamiC1tcdg"/>

  <number id="delay" type="slider" arg="--delay %"
          _label="Frame rate" _low-label="Low" _high-label="High"
          low="0" high="100000" default="30000"
          convert="invert"/>

  <number id="speed" type="slider" arg="--speed %"
          _label="Speed" _low-label="Slow" _high-label="Fast"
          low="0.01" high="5.0" default="1.0"
          convert="ratio"/>

  <number id="count" type="slider" arg="--count %"
          _label="Gear count" _low-label="0" _high-label="20"
           low="0" high="20" default="0"/>

  <hgroup>
   <boolean id="wander" _label="Wander"    arg-unset="--no-wander"/>
   <boolean id="spin"   _label="Spin"      arg-unset="--no-spin"/>
   <boolean id="wire"   _label="Wireframe" arg-set="--wireframe"/>
   <boolean id="showfps" _label="Show frame rate" arg-set="--fps"/>
  </hgroup>

  <xscreensaver-updater />

  <_description>
Interlocking gears.

See also the "Pinion" and "Möbius Gears" screen savers.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involute_gear
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicyclic_gearing

Written by Jamie Zawinski; 2007.
  </_description>
</screensaver>

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Jakob77

Member

Registered: 2022-11-03

Posts: 72

Re: Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

Thank you very much for showing me.

That is some configuration just to execute and kill a Terminal command.

I understand there are some disagreements among high level developers but only two or four screensavers to choose from seems a little poor to me.
Do you have any predictions about when the developers will come up with better streamline options.?

We don't even have a screensaver with time and date.
I used to use Gluglo but it was not in the repo this time, and it is more a clock than a screensaver.
I was thinking about maybe using this one instead:

gltext -program 'date +%b-%d-Time:-%R' -no-spin -wireframe -scale 0.010 -delay 7000000 -window & sleep 1; wmctrl -r :ACTIVE: -b add,fullscreen

I am sure the Xfce developers can do better, so for a while I will just enjoy the mouse screensaver.

In case other users wants to know the Xfce screensaver can also be started by a Terminal command like this:

xfce4-screensaver-command --activate

I use that in a startup script and for a launcher in the desktop corner.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,478

Re: Screensaver executing Terminal commands.?

I understand there are some disagreements among high level developers but only two or four screensavers to choose from

xfce4-screensaver supports all xscreensaver screensavers. If you install xscreensaver (and make sure that its not running so it doesn't conflict), you will get all the others showing up in the list provided you create the associated .desktop files for each one (if your distro doesn't already do that).

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