No way to configure screensaver

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement]

There is no UI to configure the screensaver hack in Oneiric.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: gnome-control-center 1:3.1.3-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0-3.4-generic 3.0.0-rc5
Uname: Linux 3.0-3-generic i686
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Jul 10 23:15:37 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-control-center
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-06-27 (13 days ago)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, what settings do you want to configure?

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

I want to change the screensaver hack.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

GNOME3 doesn't support screensaver hacks by design...
see https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/desktop-o-screensaver

[Brendan Donegan (brendan-donegan)]

Is it the case here that a screensaver application will be implemented for Ubuntu?

---
Ubuntu Bug Squad volunteer triager
http://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

That blueprint seems to be able to tweak text or what not pre screen-saver. I would just happy to be able to set one. At the moment if i walk away from PC when i get back the screen is locked (like the screen-saver lock) but i cant get back to desktop i end having t6o reboot

[Alessio "Spinus" Moscatello (spinus)]

I've just upgraded from natty to oneiric and I have the same issue: if I leave the pc idle for a while the screen goes black and if I leave it black for some minutes, than I cannot resume the session, because no password dialog appears...If I manually lock the screen and than try to resume the session it works well, because the password dialog appears.
So I'm wondering if there is no way to configure a screensaver, what program is triggering the black screen? (in may system is installaed xscreensaver package...maybe it conflicts with gnome3?) John do you know if there are other bug report concerning our problem?
Thank you

[Alessio "Spinus" Moscatello (spinus)]

I've just noticed that the issue of "black screen" is triggered also by manually locking the screen, so I've opened a separate bug #841109, because I'm not sure that the cause of the problem is the lack of a default screensaver...

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

This bug should definitely be addressed. Having no way to configure a screensaver is clearly a regression, and is an UI competitive disadvantage compared to all other common OSes.

[Laurent Dinclaux (dreadlox)]

For sure it is clearly a regression, and has nothing to do in a wish list but in a bug list! We have lost so many configurable options with oneiric... so many regressions....

In these days where OSes like Android make their success because of being highly customizable, the way Ubuntu is evolving is simply silly and out of sense.

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

As a workaround, try installing xscreensaver.

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

We're not looking for a workaround, we're requesting a bugfix.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The simplication is coming from GNOME and the Ubuntu team has items to add this back but got too busy this cycle and didn't get to it, patches are welcome for that though or we will try to add it back for the LTS

[Wayne Davison (wayned)]

There needs to be a way to just turn the screensaver off. It is so annoying to have the screen go black just trying to watch a video. (Or to have to jiggle the mouse every 10 minutes.)

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

Wayne, you can file a bug against any app that does not inhibit the screensaver while playing a video.

However, if you're talking about a Flash video (which I am guessing you are), that's not really something that can can be fixed.

[Swâmi Petaramesh (swami-petaramesh)]

About the screen going black while watching a video, you might want to check bug #857168 (and possibly mark yourself affected by this bug).

[Alexander Kallenbach (kallenbachalex)]

From my point of view this is a quite big regression!

[Markov Chaney (keno888)]

I don't mind the screen going black, but I'd like to choose a timeout greater than 10 minutes but less than 30.

[OzzyFrank (ubuntu-ozzyfrank)]

Not being able to choose a screensaver is something I've never come across in my 18 years on the PC, hehe. I thought the settings were just hidden on upgrade to Ubuntu 11.10, but after extensive Googling, I've only seen out of date info on using gnome-screensaver-preferences (which no longer seems to exist, or should I say doesn't exist yet for Gnome 3). Seen some complicated guides on how to migrate xscreensaver files, but that won't help me pick any in the new default screensaver. Hopefully this lack of foresight will be rectified soon.

[Alexander Kallenbach (kallenbachalex)]

Still no screensaver in Precise.

[Matt Fischer (mfisch)]

Still exists in Raring, marking a new dupe today.

[rosencreuz (rosencreuz)]

This may not be important for technical users but screensaver is one of the top desktop functions. How you can explain broken screensaver functionality to a non technical user? This shouldn't be in "wishlist", it should be "high-priority"

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The features requests like that make more sense upstream, Ubuntu isn't going to add that in a distribution specific way