How to add Screensaver in Linux Mint 13

[Magan]

Done with Linux Mint 13 installation. I .iso file that I had downloaded was Linux Mint Mate. It is not Cinnamon. I checked the desktop settings where I cannot locate screensavers. But when the computer is idle the screensaver loads. It is the default one. I want settings for that. Also how I can I add more screensavers to this new operating system.

[Algernon]

To change the screensaver settings just type, ScreenSaver in the Menu Search box. The one which you will locate is the default one. Whatever screen saver that comes pre-installed comes inside this service only. You can download from internet and add more of your choice.

[mesterio]

There are some screensavers only present in the default settings. The only one that I like is random picture slideshow which pulls images from Pictures folder. I hope there would be better alternative to add more screensavers. Linux Mint Mate looks abit dull in comparison to Cinnamon. It does not has cool effect that I was usually expecting. I am wondering, if it is possible then I can add some modules of Cinnamon in Mate.

I had checked many resources on web along with default Mint guide. But there is nothing mentioned in that. I forget to download the Cinnamon iso. When I added the desktop separately through Software Manager, it did not worked at all. I am noticing a bit performance issue also. Mint does not provide better desktop customization feature that you can go for. To some extent this is better as it saves your system resources. Adding different customization option can make your system too slow. Compared to Mint, Ubuntu is quiet better I think.

[Xylina]

To get additional screensaver you have to remove the default utility and install Xscreensaver instead of that. You can do that via terminal. It works fine. I am using that with many random screen saver support.

[Remmco]

You do not need to play with the terminal settings. You can install that directly from Software Manager. Mint Mate supports Xscreensaver. Just go on Software Manager and search for it. Once you found the same you can type ScreenSaver in the Menu Search bar. There are some default screensaver added in that.

To add more you have to download and install xscreensaver-gl-extra. This will give you more screensavers in the same. There are some hacks provided in Software Manager. You can download some new themes from it. It worked fine and easy to configure. The second addon that I had shown is around 4MB of download. The menu is simple. Once everything is installed then you can find a number of different screensavers added inside it. I find this a much better option available from Linux Mint. It is not resource intensive also.

[Mahua]

You can also try gnome-screensaver. This is another free and best utility that you can go for. It loads up a quick screensaver on your screen giving a better effects. I would not recommend you to for xscreensaver, as it is a bit heavy in usage.

[Sydney_7]

No it is not correct. I am using xscreensaver and the same works quiet fine. I had added tons of hacks inside that. The most famous is BSOD. It gives a different blue-screen type interface on the screen. The images are taken from many different operating system. The screensaver creates a perfect illusion of crashed system. There is no other screensaver utility you can go for.

The BSOD hack provides a number of different operating system inside it. You can set the time interval of what you want. There are nice effects and some of them are 3D also. You need to add some extra packages which support opengl, to render a better quality of image output, or else it will be bit laggy. If you have a good gpu in your system then xscreensaver works in more better way.

I tried to locate some other screensaver utility for this operating system but there are hardly any support provided. You can stick with slideshow support which is the default one. Add good images in your picture folder and the same will work nicely.

[little-Jacqueline]

There are some animations which are not good enough. I had installed xscreensaver. I thought that this would give a nice look as you mentioned that there are 3D screensaver also. But this did not worked well for me. I am looking for a more better tool.

[Kim|ball]

There are no better screensaver utility available for Linux Mint. I am also trying to find something similar to that. But nothing yet found. Even when I search in Software Manager the most top tool which is listed is xscreensaver. It does work well. One thing good about xscreensaver is that it does not remove the default utility of Mint. You can still use that by choosing the one you want.

Another good part of using xscreensaver is that is that it provides you more settings and preferences. In that you can add up rss or any information that you want to see on your screen. Mint is nice operating system. Compared to Cinnamon if you add more customization feature on Mint, it works nicely. While Cinnamon is already loaded with different type of desktop support. I would recommend you to try xscreensaver once. There is nothing left other than this.

[Dev-Datta]

Yes there is no better screensaver software present. I can get some basic slideshow image or wallpaper changer. But I do not want to overload the system with useless apps. That would make the system worst in number of scenario.