Have the optional ability to have a screensaver

[Wise Melon]

Even though I understand that we early on decided to move away from screensavers and to just have a black screen, not all users will like this. So I think that it would be good if there was at least the optional ability in the gnome-control-center to have a screensaver.

This would be good because some still do want a screensaver rather than just a black screen, and even if it is not the default, there should at least be an option allowing it because most third-party tools seem to just break things as they are not integrated very well...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Dave Stroud (bigdavesr)]

I installed xscreen saver and set it to start in the start up section of gnome control center. Works just find. But it would be nice if it were easier.

[Wise Melon (wise-melon-deactivatedaccount)]

Just marked it as confirmed as it affects not just me know, and the Launchpad Janitor only did it for one of the listed packages/projects, and it clearly applies for both.

[Bruce Pieterse (octoquad)]

This requires input from a developer.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

We don't install gnome-screensaver since it is not used under gnome-shell, in fact the lock screen is an integration between gnome-shell/gdm. using gnome-screensaver or xscreensaver is likely to break that.

Adding a screensaver to gnome-shell and a panel to configure it would be a pretty big task, far too large to carry as a Distro patch. So would have to be something upstream agreed on (I'm not sure what their take on screensavers is though)

Short of that the closest you could probably get, is to create an animated background and set the for the lockscreen and disable dpms

[Dave Stroud (bigdavesr)]

 I have been using xscreensaver since gnome stopped using a screensaver. I dont use lock screen,and it has had no effect on gnome shell that I could determine.One way of doing it is to have screen saver in the start menu. Xscreensaver works as a stand alone and would need no patch. The way it is now you have to set it up to start at boot and most people would have trouble doing that.

[Tim Lunn (darkxst)]

@dave, sure if you disable the lock screen, it will work, but that is not something we can ship by default....

[Wise Melon (wise-melon-deactivatedaccount)]

I have now also filed a report on this issue upstream: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=763461

[Wise Melon (wise-melon-deactivatedaccount)]

Changing in accordance with upstream.