XScreenSaver

Starting from version 6.0, XScreenSaver comes with several pre-installed themes. You can select a theme using xscreensaver-settings or by changing the option ( in ~/.xscreensaver or using X resources: ).

You can customize themes using X resources. The example below demonstrates changing some colors and fonts. If you are using a non-default theme, replace with the name of your chosen theme in lower case, or use question mark () to affect all themes:

~/.Xresources

! Font for regular texts.
! Font names are case-insensitive.
! You can use a comma-separated list of fonts to set a fallback font.
xscreensaver-auth.default.Dialog.bodyFont: times new roman 12, dejavu serif 12

! Window background color. You can use color names.
xscreensaver-auth.default.Dialog.background: black

! Main text color. You can also use HEX color codes.
xscreensaver-auth.default.Dialog.foreground: #ffffff

You can view a list of the available X resources in .

Do not forget to reload the resource file after changes.

XScreenSaver manages screen blanking and display energy saving (DPMS) independently of X itself and overrides it. To configure the timings for blanking, standby, display poweroff and such, use xscreensaver-demo or edit the configuration file manually, e.g. ~/.xscreensaver:

DPMS and screen blanking can be disabled by starting xscreensaver-demo and, for the Mode setting, choosing Disable Screen Saver.

XScreenSaver ships with a small utility named xscreensaver-systemd, which handles the signal from systemd using D-Bus and automatically locks the screen on suspend and hibernate. It is started automatically with xscreensaver, no further action required. See for more information.

However, it does not handle other systemd signals such as . To handle it, you can use xss-lock. Use the --ignore-sleep option because the suspend/hibernate events are already handled by xscreensaver-systemd.

$ xss-lock --ignore-sleep -- xscreensaver-command -lock

You may want to set XScreenSaver's fade out time to 0.

By default, XScreenSaver's New Login button in the lock screen will call to switch users. Display managers other than GDM that support user switching require a different command.

As modifications in ~/.xscreensaver are discarded by xscreensaver-settings, is used in this section.

To use LXDM's switching mode:

xscreensaver-auth.default.*.newLoginCommand: lxdm -c USER_SWITCH

To use LightDM's switching mode:

xscreensaver-auth.default.*.newLoginCommand: dm-tool switch-to-greeter

SDDM does not support user switching. You can try to call the method using dbus-send, but it may not work properly.

Starting from version 5.45, the xscreensaver-systemd utility implements the D-Bus ScreenSaver interface. It is started automatically with xscreensaver, so most applications should properly disable the screensaver without additional configuration. However, some applications do not support D-Bus or use another interfaces.

By default mpv uses the X11 Screen Saver extension (XSS). It turns off the screensaver at startup and turns it on again on exit. The screensaver is always re-enabled when the player is paused. The option can be controlled in mpv's configuration file located in :

stop-screensaver = "yes"

This is not supported on all video outputs or platforms. If you face some issues you might use a Lua script to manually disable the screensaver. Create a file at with the following contents:

local utils = require 'mp.utils'
mp.add_periodic_timer(30, function()
    utils.subprocess({args={"xscreensaver-command", "-deactivate"}})
end)

The above script will call every 30 seconds.

Add the following to :

heartbeat-cmd="xscreensaver-command -deactivate >&- 2>&- &"

Kodi has no native support to disable XScreenSaver (it uses its own screensaver). Install the kodi-prevent-xscreensaver^AUR package as a workaround or try Kodi extension from https://sourceforge.net/projects/osscreensavermanager/.

Most browsers (Chromium and Chromium-based spin-offs, Firefox, GNOME Web, Otter Browser etc.) support the D-Bus ScreenSaver interface and should disable the screensaver during HTML5 video playback.

If you are using applications that do not disable the screensaver, you can try a script named lightsonplus, which disables the screensaver when a fullscreen video is detected. Some applications (such as , Steam and others) are supported out of the box, you just need to enable their detection in the script. If your application is unsupported but has a permanent window name, you can set it in the window_name variable.

One can run in the background, just like a wallpaper. First, kill any process that is controlling the background (the root window).

Then, locate the desired XScreenSaver executable (typically in ) and run it with the flag, for example:

$ /usr/lib/xscreensaver/glslideshow -root &