xscreensaver
Section: XScreenSaver manual (1)
Updated: 5.30 (11-Sep-2014)
Index
Return to Main Contents
NAME
xscreensaver - extensible screen saver and screen locking framework
SYNOPSIS
xscreensaver
[-display
host:display.screen] [-verbose] [-no-splash] [-no-capture-stderr] [-log
filename]
DESCRIPTION
The
xscreensaver program waits until the keyboard and mouse have been
idle for a period, and then runs a graphics demo chosen at random. It
turns off as soon as there is any mouse or keyboard activity.
This program can lock your terminal in order to prevent others from using it,
though its default mode of operation is merely to display pretty pictures on
your screen when it is not in use.
It also provides configuration and control of your monitor's power-saving
features.
GETTING STARTED
For the impatient, try this:
xscreensaver &
xscreensaver-demo
The
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program pops up a dialog box that lets you configure the screen saver,
and experiment with the various display modes.
Note that xscreensaver has a client-server model:
the xscreensaver program is a daemon that runs in the background;
it is controlled by the foreground
xscreensaver-demo(1)
and
xscreensaver-command(1)
programs.
CONFIGURATION
The easiest way to configure
xscreensaver is to simply run the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program, and change the settings through the GUI. The rest of this
manual page describes lower level ways of changing settings.
I'll repeat that because it's important:
-
The easy way to configure xscreensaver is to run the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program. You shouldn't need to know any of the stuff described
in this manual unless you are trying to do something tricky,
like customize xscreensaver for site-wide use or something.
Options to xscreensaver are stored in one of two places: in
a .xscreensaver file in your home directory; or in the X resource
database. If the .xscreensaver file exists, it overrides any settings
in the resource database.
The syntax of the .xscreensaver file is similar to that of
the .Xdefaults file; for example, to set the timeout parameter
in the .xscreensaver file, you would write the following:
timeout: 5
whereas, in the .Xdefaults file, you would write
xscreensaver.timeout: 5
If you change a setting in the .xscreensaver file while xscreensaver
is already running, it will notice this, and reload the file. (The file will
be reloaded the next time the screen saver needs to take some action, such as
blanking or unblanking the screen, or picking a new graphics mode.)
If you change a setting in your X resource database, or if you want
xscreensaver to notice your changes immediately instead of the next time
it wakes up, then you will need to reload your .Xdefaults file,
and then tell the running xscreensaver process to restart itself, like so:
xrdb < ~/.Xdefaults
xscreensaver-command -restart
If you want to set the system-wide defaults, then make your edits to
the xscreensaver app-defaults file, which should have been installed
when xscreensaver itself was installed. The app-defaults file will
usually be named /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XScreenSaver, but different
systems might keep it in a different place (for example,
/usr/openwin/lib/app-defaults/XScreenSaver on Solaris.)
When settings are changed in the Preferences dialog box (see above)
the current settings will be written to the .xscreensaver file.
(The .Xdefaults file and the app-defaults file will never be
written by xscreensaver itself.)
COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
xscreensaver
also accepts a few command-line options, mostly for use when debugging:
for normal operation, you should configure things via the
~/.xscreensaver
file.
- -display host:display.screen
-
The X display to use. For displays with multiple screens, XScreenSaver
will manage all screens on the display simultaniously.
- -verbose
-
Same as setting the verbose resource to true: print diagnostics
on stderr and on the xscreensaver window.
- -no-capture-stderr
-
Do not redirect the stdout and stderr streams to the xscreensaver window
itself. If xscreensaver is crashing, you might need to do this in order
to see the error message.
- -log filename
-
This is exactly the same as redirecting stdout and stderr to the given
file (for append). This is useful when reporting bugs.
HOW IT WORKS
When it is time to activate the screensaver, a full-screen black window is
created on each screen of the display. Each window is created in such a way
that, to any subsequently-created programs, it will appear to be a "virtual
root" window. Because of this, any program which draws on the root
window (and which understands virtual roots) can be used as a screensaver.
The various graphics demos are, in fact, just standalone programs that
know how to draw on the provided window.
When the user becomes active again, the screensaver windows are unmapped, and
the running subprocesses are killed by sending them SIGTERM. This is
also how the subprocesses are killed when the screensaver decides that it's
time to run a different demo: the old one is killed and a new one is launched.
You can control a running screensaver process by using the
xscreensaver-command(1)
program (which see.)
POWER MANAGEMENT
Modern X servers contain support to power down the monitor after an idle
period. If the monitor has powered down, then
xscreensaver will
notice this (after a few minutes), and will not waste CPU by drawing
graphics demos on a black screen. An attempt will also be made to
explicitly power the monitor back up as soon as user activity is detected.
The ~/.xscreensaver file controls the configuration of your
display's power management settings: if you have used
xset(1)
to change your power management settings, then xscreensaver will
override those changes with the values specified
in ~/.xscreensaver (or with its built-in defaults, if there
is no ~/.xscreensaver file yet.)
To change your power management settings, run
xscreensaver-demo(1)
and change the various timeouts through the user interface.
Alternately, you can edit the ~/.xscreensaver file directly.
If the power management section is grayed out in the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
window, then that means that your X server does not support
the XDPMS extension, and so control over the monitor's power state
is not available.
If you're using a laptop, don't be surprised if changing the DPMS
settings has no effect: many laptops have monitor power-saving behavior
built in at a very low level that is invisible to Unix and X. On such
systems, you can typically adjust the power-saving delays only by
changing settings in the BIOS in some hardware-specific way.
If DPMS seems not to be working with XFree86, make sure the "DPMS"
option is set in your /etc/X11/XF86Config file. See the
XF86Config(5)
manual for details.
USING GNOME
For the better part of a decade, GNOME shipped xscreensaver as-is,
and everything just worked out of the box. In 2005, however, they
decided to re-invent the wheel and ship their own replacement for
the
xscreensaver daemon called "
gnome-screensaver",
rather than improving xscreensaver and contributing their changes
back. As a result, the "
gnome-screensaver" program is insecure,
bug-ridden, and missing many features of xscreensaver. You shouldn't
use it.
To replace gnome-screensaver with xscreensaver:
-
- 1: Fully uninstall the gnome-screensaver package.
-
sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
- 2: Launch xscreensaver at login.
-
Select "Startup Applications" from the menu (or manually
launch "gnome-session-properties") and add "xscreensaver".
- 3: Make "Lock Screen" use xscreensaver.
-
sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command \
/usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command
USING KDE
Like GNOME, KDE also decided to invent their own screen saver framework
from scratch instead of simply using xscreensaver. To replace the KDE
screen saver with xscreensaver, do the following:
-
- 1: Turn off KDE's screen saver.
-
Open the "Control Center" and
select the "Appearance & Themes / Screensaver" page.
Un-check "Start Automatically".
- 2: Find your Autostart directory.
-
Open the "System Administration / Paths" page,
and see what your "Autostart path" is set to: it will
probably be ~/.kde/Autostart/ or something similar.
- 3: Make xscreensaver be an Autostart program.
-
Create a .desktop file in your autostart directory
called xscreensaver.desktop that contains the following five lines:
[Desktop Entry]
Exec=xscreensaver
Name=XScreenSaver
Type=Application
X-KDE-StartupNotify=false
- 4: Make the various "lock session" buttons call xscreensaver.
-
The file you want to replace next has moved around over the years. It
might be called /usr/libexec/kde4/kscreenlocker,
or it might be called "kdesktop_lock" or "krunner_lock"
or "kscreenlocker_greet", and
it might be in /usr/lib/kde4/libexec/
or in /usr/kde/3.5/bin/ or even in /usr/bin/,
depending on the distro and phase of the moon. Replace the contents
of that file with these two lines:
#!/bin/sh
xscreensaver-command -lock
Make sure the file is executable (chmod a+x).
Now use xscreensaver normally, controlling it via the usual
xscreensaver-demo(1)
and
xscreensaver-command(1)
mechanisms.
USING UNITY
Guess what, they did it again! Ubuntu Unity's screen-locking
framework is
yet another rewrite, and it is completely broken,
bug-ridden and insecure. At this time I don't have any information on
how to turn it off and use xscreensaver instead. If you do, let me
know.
USING GDM
You can run
xscreensaver from your
gdm(1)
session, so that the screensaver will run even when nobody is logged
in on the console. To do this, run
gdmconfig(1)
and on the
Background page, type the
command
"xscreensaver -nosplash" into the
Background Program
field. That will cause gdm to run xscreensaver while nobody is logged
in, and kill it as soon as someone does log in. (The user will then
be responsible for starting xscreensaver on their own, if they want.)
Another way to accomplish the same thing is to edit the
file /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf to include:
BackgroundProgram=xscreensaver -nosplash
RunBackgroundProgramAlways=true
In this situation, the xscreensaver process will probably be running
as user gdm instead of root. You can configure the settings
for this nobody-logged-in state (timeouts, DPMS, etc.) by editing
the ~gdm/.xscreensaver file.
To get gdm to run the BackgroundProgram, you may need to switch it from
the "Graphical Greeter" to the "Standard Greeter".
It is safe to run xscreensaver as root (as xdm or gdm may do.)
If run as root, xscreensaver changes its effective user and group ids
to something safe (like "nobody") before connecting to the X server
or launching user-specified programs.
An unfortunate side effect of this (important) security precaution is that
it may conflict with cookie-based authentication.
If you get "connection refused" errors when running xscreensaver
from gdm, then this probably means that you have
xauth(1)
or some other security mechanism turned on. For information on the
X server's access control mechanisms, see the man pages for
X(1),
Xsecurity(1),
xauth(1),
and
xhost(1).
BUGS
Bugs? There are no bugs. Ok, well, maybe. If you find one, please let
me know.
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/bugs.html explains how to
construct the most useful bug reports.
- Locking and root logins
-
In order for it to be safe for xscreensaver to be launched by xdm,
certain precautions had to be taken, among them that xscreensaver never
runs as root. In particular, if it is launched as root (as xdm
is likely to do), xscreensaver will disavow its privileges, and switch
itself to a safe user id (such as nobody.)
An implication of this is that if you log in as root on the console,
xscreensaver will refuse to lock the screen (because it can't tell
the difference between root being logged in on the console, and a
normal user being logged in on the console but xscreensaver having been
launched by the
xdm(1)
Xsetup
file.)
The solution to this is simple: you shouldn't be logging in on the console
as root in the first place! (What, are you crazy or something?)
Proper Unix hygiene dictates that you should log in as yourself, and
su(1)
to root as necessary. People who spend their day logged in
as root are just begging for disaster.
- XAUTH and XDM
-
For xscreensaver to work when launched by
xdm(1)
or
gdm(1),
programs running on the local machine as user "nobody" must be
able to connect to the X server. This means that if you want to run
xscreensaver on the console while nobody is logged in, you may need
to disable cookie-based access control (and allow all users who can log
in to the local machine to connect to the display.)
You should be sure that this is an acceptable thing to do in your
environment before doing it. See the "Using GDM" section,
above, for more details.
- Passwords
-
If you get an error message at startup like "couldn't get password
of user" then this probably means that you're on a system in which
the
getpwent(3)
library routine can only be effectively used by root. If this is the case,
then xscreensaver must be installed as setuid to root in order for
locking to work. Care has been taken to make this a safe thing to do.
It also may mean that your system uses shadow passwords instead of the standard
getpwent(3)
interface; in that case, you may need to change some options
with configure and recompile.
If you change your password after xscreensaver has been launched, it will
continue using your old password to unlock the screen until xscreensaver
is restarted. On some systems, it may accept both your old and new
passwords. So, after you change your password, you'll have to do
xscreensaver-command -restart
to make xscreensaver notice.
- PAM Passwords
-
If your system uses PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules), then in order
for xscreensaver to use PAM properly, PAM must be told about xscreensaver.
The xscreensaver installation process should update the PAM data (on Linux,
by creating the file /etc/pam.d/xscreensaver for you, and on Solaris,
by telling you what lines to add to the /etc/pam.conf file.)
If the PAM configuration files do not know about xscreensaver, then
you might be in a situation where xscreensaver will refuse to ever
unlock the screen.
This is a design flaw in PAM (there is no way for a client to tell the
difference between PAM responding "I have never heard of your module",
and responding, "you typed the wrong password".) As far as I can tell,
there is no way for xscreensaver to automatically work around this, or
detect the problem in advance, so if you have PAM, make sure it is
configured correctly!
- Machine Load
-
Although this program "nices" the subprocesses that it starts,
graphics-intensive subprograms can still overload the machine by causing
the X server process itself (which is not "niced") to consume many
cycles. Care has been taken in all the modules shipped with xscreensaver
to sleep periodically, and not run full tilt, so as not to cause
appreciable load.
However, if you are running the OpenGL-based screen savers on a machine
that does not have a video card with 3D acceleration, they will
make your machine slow, despite
nice(1).
Your options are: don't use the OpenGL display modes; or, collect the
spare change hidden under the cushions of your couch, and use it to
buy a video card manufactured after 1998. (It doesn't even need to be
fast 3D hardware: the problem will be fixed if there is any
3D hardware at all.)
- XFree86's Magic Keystrokes
-
The XFree86 X server traps certain magic keystrokes before client programs ever
see them. Two that are of note are Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, which causes
the X server to exit; and Ctrl+Alt+Fn, which switches virtual consoles.
The X server will respond to these keystrokes even if xscreensaver has the
screen locked. Depending on your setup, you might consider this a problem.
Unfortunately, there is no way for xscreensaver itself to override the
interpretation of these keys. If you want to disable Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
globally, you need to set the DontZap flag in
your /etc/X11/XF86Config file. To globally disable VT switching,
you can set the DontVTSwitch flag. See the
XF86Config(5)
manual for details.
X RESOURCES
These are the X resources use by the
xscreensaver program.
You probably won't need to change these manually (that's what the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program is for).
- timeout (class Time)
-
The screensaver will activate (blank the screen) after the keyboard and
mouse have been idle for this many minutes. Default 10 minutes.
- cycle (class Time)
-
After the screensaver has been running for this many minutes, the currently
running graphics-hack sub-process will be killed (with SIGTERM), and a
new one started. If this is 0, then the graphics hack will never be changed:
only one demo will run until the screensaver is deactivated by user activity.
Default 10 minutes.
- lock (class Boolean)
-
Enable locking: before the screensaver will turn off, it will require you
to type the password of the logged-in user (really, the person who ran
xscreensaver), or the root password. (Note: this doesn't work if the
screensaver is launched by
xdm(1)
because it can't know the user-id of the logged-in user. See
the "Using XDM(1)" section, below.
- lockTimeout (class Time)
-
If locking is enabled, this controls the length of the "grace period"
between when the screensaver activates, and when the screen becomes locked.
For example, if this is 5, and -timeout is 10, then after 10 minutes,
the screen would blank. If there was user activity at 12 minutes, no password
would be required to un-blank the screen. But, if there was user activity
at 15 minutes or later (that is, -lock-timeout minutes after
activation) then a password would be required. The default is 0, meaning
that if locking is enabled, then a password will be required as soon as the
screen blanks.
- passwdTimeout (class Time)
-
If the screen is locked, then this is how many seconds the password dialog box
should be left on the screen before giving up (default 30 seconds.) This
should not be too large: the X server is grabbed for the duration that the
password dialog box is up (for security purposes) and leaving the server
grabbed for too long can cause problems.
- dpmsEnabled (class Boolean)
-
Whether power management is enabled.
- dpmsStandby (class Time)
-
If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor goes solid black.
- dpmsSuspend (class Time)
-
If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor goes into
power-saving mode.
- dpmsOff (class Time)
-
If power management is enabled, how long until the monitor powers down
completely. Note that these settings will have no effect unless both
the X server and the display hardware support power management; not
all do. See the Power Management section, below, for more
information.
- dpmsQuickOff (class Boolean)
-
If mode is blank and this is true, then the screen will be
powered down immediately upon blanking, regardless of other
power-management settings.
- visualID (class VisualID)
-
Specify which X visual to use by default. (Note carefully that this resource
is called visualID, not merely visual; if you set the visual
resource instead, things will malfunction in obscure ways for obscure reasons.)
Legal values for the VisualID resource are:
-
- default
-
Use the screen's default visual (the visual of the root window.)
This is the default.
- best
-
Use the visual which supports the most colors. Note, however, that the
visual with the most colors might be a TrueColor visual, which does not
support colormap animation. Some programs have more interesting behavior
when run on PseudoColor visuals than on TrueColor.
- mono
-
Use a monochrome visual, if there is one.
- gray
-
Use a grayscale or staticgray visual, if there is one and it has more than
one plane (that is, it's not monochrome.)
- color
-
Use the best of the color visuals, if there are any.
- GL
-
Use the visual that is best for OpenGL programs. (OpenGL programs have
somewhat different requirements than other X programs.)
- class
-
where class is one of StaticGray, StaticColor,
TrueColor, GrayScale, PseudoColor, or DirectColor.
Selects the deepest visual of the given class.
- number
-
where number (decimal or hex) is interpreted as a visual id number,
as reported by the
xdpyinfo(1)
program; in this way you can have finer control over exactly which visual
gets used, for example, to select a shallower one than would otherwise
have been chosen.
-
Note that this option specifies only the default visual that will
be used: the visual used may be overridden on a program-by-program basis.
See the description of the programs resource, below.
- installColormap (class Boolean)
-
On PseudoColor (8-bit) displays, install a private colormap while the
screensaver is active, so that the graphics hacks can get as many
colors as possible. This is the default. (This only applies when the
screen's default visual is being used, since non-default visuals get
their own colormaps automatically.) This can also be overridden on a
per-hack basis: see the discussion of the default-n name in the
section about the programs resource.
This does nothing if you have a TrueColor (16-bit or deeper) display.
- verbose (class Boolean)
-
Whether to print diagnostics. Default false.
- timestamp (class Boolean)
-
Whether to print the time of day along with any other diagnostic messages.
Default true.
- splash (class Boolean)
-
Whether to display a splash screen at startup. Default true.
- splashDuration (class Time)
-
How long the splash screen should remain visible; default 5 seconds.
- helpURL (class URL)
-
The splash screen has a Help button on it. When you press it, it will
display the web page indicated here in your web browser.
- loadURL (class LoadURL)
-
This is the shell command used to load a URL into your web browser.
The default setting will load it into Mozilla/Netscape if it is already
running, otherwise, will launch a new browser looking at the helpURL.
- demoCommand (class DemoCommand)
-
This is the shell command run when the Demo button on the splash window
is pressed. It defaults to
xscreensaver-demo(1).
- prefsCommand (class PrefsCommand)
-
This is the shell command run when the Prefs button on the splash window
is pressed. It defaults to xscreensaver-demo -prefs.
- newLoginCommand (class NewLoginCommand)
-
If set, this is the shell command that is run when the "New Login" button
is pressed on the unlock dialog box, in order to create a new desktop
session without logging out the user who has locked the screen.
Typically this will be some variant of
gdmflexiserver(1)
or
kdmctl(1).
- nice (class Nice)
-
The sub-processes created by xscreensaver will be "niced" to this
level, so that they are given lower priority than other processes on the
system, and don't increase the load unnecessarily. The default is 10.
(Higher numbers mean lower priority; see
nice(1)
for details.)
- fade (class Boolean)
-
If this is true, then when the screensaver activates, the current contents
of the screen will fade to black instead of simply winking out. This only
works on certain systems. A fade will also be done when switching graphics
hacks (when the cycle timer expires.) Default: true.
- unfade (class Boolean)
-
If this is true, then when the screensaver deactivates, the original contents
of the screen will fade in from black instead of appearing immediately. This
only works on certain systems, and if fade is true as well.
Default false.
- fadeSeconds (class Time)
-
If fade is true, this is how long the fade will be in
seconds (default 3 seconds.)
- fadeTicks (class Integer)
-
If fade is true, this is how many times a second the colormap will
be changed to effect a fade. Higher numbers yield smoother fades, but
may make the fades take longer than the specified fadeSeconds if
your server isn't fast enough to keep up. Default 20.
- captureStderr (class Boolean)
-
Whether xscreensaver should redirect its stdout and stderr streams to
the window itself. Since its nature is to take over the screen, you would not
normally see error messages generated by xscreensaver or the sub-programs it
runs; this resource will cause the output of all relevant programs to be
drawn on the screensaver window itself, as well as being written to the
controlling terminal of the screensaver driver process. Default true.
- ignoreUninstalledPrograms (class Boolean)
-
There may be programs in the list that are not installed on the system,
yet are marked as "enabled." If this preference is true, then such
programs will simply be ignored. If false, then a warning will be printed
if an attempt is made to run the nonexistent program. Also, the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program will suppress the non-existent programs from the list if this
is true. Default: false.
- authWarningSlack (class Integer)
-
If all failed unlock attempts (incorrect password entered) were
made within this period of time, the usual dialog that warns about such
attempts after a successful login will be suppressed. The assumption
is that incorrect passwords entered within a few seconds of a correct
one are user error, rather than hostile action. Default 20 seconds.
- GetViewPortIsFullOfLies (class Boolean)
-
Set this to true if the xscreensaver window doesn't cover the whole screen.
This works around a longstanding XFree86 bug #421. See the
xscreensaver FAQ for details.
- font (class Font)
-
The font used for the stdout/stderr text, if captureStderr is true.
Default *-medium-r-*-140-*-m-* (a 14 point fixed-width font.)
- mode (class Mode)
-
Controls the behavior of xscreensaver. Legal values are:
-
- random
-
When blanking the screen, select a random display mode from among those
that are enabled and applicable. This is the default.
- random-same
-
Like random, but if there are multiple screens, each screen
will run the same random display mode, instead of each screen
running a different one.
- one
-
When blanking the screen, only ever use one particular display mode (the
one indicated by the selected setting.)
- blank
-
When blanking the screen, just go black: don't run any graphics hacks.
- off
-
Don't ever blank the screen, and don't ever allow the monitor to power down.
- selected (class Integer)
-
When mode is set to one, this is the one, indicated by its
index in the programs list. You're crazy if you count them and
set this number by hand: let
xscreensaver-demo(1)
do it for you!
- programs (class Programs)
-
The graphics hacks which xscreensaver runs when the user is idle.
The value of this resource is a multi-line string, one sh-syntax
command per line. Each line must contain exactly one command: no
semicolons, no ampersands.
When the screensaver starts up, one of these is selected (according to
the mode setting), and run. After the cycle period
expires, it is killed, and another is selected and run.
If a line begins with a dash (-) then that particular program is
disabled: it won't be selected at random (though you can still select
it explicitly using the
xscreensaver-demo(1)
program.)
If all programs are disabled, then the screen will just be made blank,
as when mode is set to blank.
To disable a program, you must mark it as disabled with a dash instead
of removing it from the list. This is because the system-wide (app-defaults)
and per-user (.xscreensaver) settings are merged together, and if a user
just deletes an entry from their programs list, but that entry still
exists in the system-wide list, then it will come back. However, if the
user disables it, then their setting takes precedence.
If the display has multiple screens, then a different program will be run
for each screen. (All screens are blanked and unblanked simultaneously.)
Note that you must escape the newlines; here is an example of how you
might set this in your ~/.xscreensaver file:
-
programs: \
qix -root \n\
ico -r -faces -sleep 1 -obj ico \n\
xdaliclock -builtin2 -root \n\
xv -root -rmode 5 image.gif -quit \n
-
Make sure your $PATH environment variable is set up correctly
before xscreensaver is launched, or it won't be able to find the
programs listed in the programs resource.
To use a program as a screensaver, two things are required: that that
program draw on the root window (or be able to be configured to draw on
the root window); and that that program understand "virtual root"
windows, as used by virtual window managers such as
tvtwm(1).
(Generally, this is accomplished by just including the "vroot.h"
header file in the program's source.)
Visuals:
Because xscreensaver was created back when dinosaurs roamed the earth,
it still contains support for some things you've probably never seen,
such as 1-bit monochrome monitors, grayscale monitors, and monitors
capable of displaying only 8-bit colormapped images.
If there are some programs that you want to run only when using a color
display, and others that you want to run only when using a monochrome
display, you can specify that like this:
mono: mono-program -root \n\
color: color-program -root \n\
-
More generally, you can specify the kind of visual that should be used for
the window on which the program will be drawing. For example, if one
program works best if it has a colormap, but another works best if it has
a 24-bit visual, both can be accommodated:
PseudoColor: cmap-program -root \n\
TrueColor: 24bit-program -root \n\
-
In addition to the symbolic visual names described above (in the discussion
of the visualID resource) one other visual name is supported in
the programs list:
-
- default-n
-
This is like default, but also requests the use of the default colormap,
instead of a private colormap. (That is, it behaves as if
the -no-install command-line option was specified, but only for
this particular hack.) This is provided because some third-party programs
that draw on the root window (notably:
xv(1),
and
xearth(1))
make assumptions about the visual and colormap of the root window:
assumptions which xscreensaver can violate.
If you specify a particular visual for a program, and that visual does not
exist on the screen, then that program will not be chosen to run. This
means that on displays with multiple screens of different depths, you can
arrange for appropriate hacks to be run on each. For example, if one screen
is color and the other is monochrome, hacks that look good in mono can be
run on one, and hacks that only look good in color will show up on the other.
You shouldn't ever need to change the following resources:
- pointerPollTime (class Time)
-
When server extensions are not in use, this controls how
frequently xscreensaver checks to see if the mouse position or buttons
have changed. Default 5 seconds.
- pointerHysteresis (class Integer)
-
If the mouse moves less than this-many pixels in a second, ignore it
(do not consider that to be "activity.") This is so that the screen
doesn't un-blank (or fail to blank) just because you bumped the desk.
Default: 10 pixels.
- windowCreationTimeout (class Time)
-
When server extensions are not in use, this controls the delay between when
windows are created and when xscreensaver selects events on them.
Default 30 seconds.
- initialDelay (class Time)
-
When server extensions are not in use, xscreensaver will wait this many
seconds before selecting events on existing windows, under the assumption that
xscreensaver is started during your login procedure, and the window
state may be in flux. Default 0. (This used to default to 30, but that was
back in the days when slow machines and X terminals were more common...)
- procInterrupts (class Boolean)
-
This resource controls whether the /proc/interrupts file should be
consulted to decide whether the user is idle. This is the default
if xscreensaver has been compiled on a system which supports this
mechanism (i.e., Linux systems.)
The benefit to doing this is that xscreensaver can note that the user
is active even when the X console is not the active one: if the user is
typing in another virtual console, xscreensaver will notice that and will
fail to activate. For example, if you're playing Quake in VGA-mode,
xscreensaver won't wake up in the middle of your game and start competing
for CPU.
The drawback to doing this is that perhaps you really do want idleness
on the X console to cause the X display to lock, even if there is activity
on other virtual consoles. If you want that, then set this option to False.
(Or just lock the X console manually.)
The default value for this resource is True, on systems where it works.
- overlayStderr (class Boolean)
-
If captureStderr is True, and your server supports "overlay" visuals,
then the text will be written into one of the higher layers instead of into
the same layer as the running screenhack. Set this to False to disable
that (though you shouldn't need to.)
- overlayTextForeground (class Foreground)
-
The foreground color used for the stdout/stderr text, if captureStderr
is true. Default: Yellow.
- overlayTextBackground (class Background)
-
The background color used for the stdout/stderr text, if captureStderr
is true. Default: Black.
- bourneShell (class BourneShell)
-
The pathname of the shell that xscreensaver uses to start subprocesses.
This must be whatever your local variant of /bin/sh is: in particular,
it must not be csh.
ENVIRONMENT
- DISPLAY
-
to get the default host and display number, and to inform the sub-programs
of the screen on which to draw.
- XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW
-
Passed to sub-programs to indicate the ID of the window on which they
should draw. This is necessary on Xinerama/RANDR systems where
multiple physical monitors share a single X11 "Screen".
- PATH
-
to find the sub-programs to run.
- HOME
-
for the directory in which to read the .xscreensaver file.
- XENVIRONMENT
-
to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources
stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
UPGRADES
The latest version of xscreensaver, an online version of this manual,
and a FAQ can always be found at
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
SEE ALSO
X(1),
Xsecurity(1),
xauth(1),
xdm(1),
gdm(1),
xhost(1),
xscreensaver-demo(1),
xscreensaver-command(1),
xscreensaver-gl-helper(1),
xscreensaver-getimage(1),
xscreensaver-text(1).
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 1991-2014 by Jamie Zawinski.
Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software
and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee,
provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that
both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in
supporting documentation. No representations are made about the
suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is"
without express or implied warranty.
AUTHOR
Jamie Zawinski <
jwz@jwz.org>. Written in late 1991; version 1.0 posted
to comp.sources.x on 17-Aug-1992.
Please let me know if you find any bugs or make any improvements.
And a huge thank you to the hundreds of people who have contributed, in
large ways and small, to the xscreensaver collection over the past
two decades!
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- GETTING STARTED
-
- CONFIGURATION
-
- COMMAND-LINE OPTIONS
-
- HOW IT WORKS
-
- POWER MANAGEMENT
-
- USING GNOME
-
- USING KDE
-
- USING UNITY
-
- USING GDM
-
- BUGS
-
- X RESOURCES
-
- ENVIRONMENT
-
- UPGRADES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- COPYRIGHT
-
- AUTHOR
-