I have a slideshow of my favorite pics that comes up after a few minutes of inactivity and goes for about 10 min until the screen blanks. I've been using KDE since the Stone Age (2006?). It's customizable. I love it.

And now? Screensaver suddenly gone in my updated plasma5. I go looking for a solution. I come across a post by Martin Graesslin (sp?) saying nobody needs screensavers to protect screens and it's all about screen locking.

Um, No. Just no. I like looking at beautiful landscapes. Nothing to do with screen locking. (And I know he's pretty much right about burn in being a small problem these days.) So I try xscreensaver as per instructions. Again: no. Cumbersome, ugly, keeps showing stupid 1980s actual screensavers instead of my slideshow. (Yes, I have GL installed and selected the right option in xscreensaver.)

I have to say it makes me cross that a simple functionality that just worked has disappeared because developers -- to whom I owe a LOT for a desktop I've been using for years -- don't work the same way I do. So I'm stuck wasting hours trying to get it back.

That's why I use KDE. It's customizable instead of dictatorial. Anyway, pardon me for blowing off steam. I'm getting to my question, honest.

There's a screensaver-y type functionality that doubles as a login screen because it's now a screenlocker. I want to make the whole login graphic go away.

According to a post here adding the following to /usr/share/plasma/look-and-feel/org.kde.breeze.desktop/contents/lockscreen/LockScreenUi.qml

Code: Select all

            Rectangle {
        width: parent.width
        height: parent.height
        color: "transparent"

            Keys.onPressed: {
                if (event.key == Qt.Key_Up) { y = - parent.height }
                if (event.key == Qt.Key_Down) { y = 0 }
            }  /*final close bracket is below the other elements that one wants to hide*/       

allows use of up arrow to move the login stuff off screen.

The problem is that pressing any key returns you to the desktop and stops the screensaver. Is there some way to do this?

Thanks for any help you can give me!

KDE Store: https://store.kde.org
--> Look and Feel: https://store.kde.org/browse/cat/121/ord/latest/
-----> Breeze Custom Lock Screen: https://store.kde.org/p/1216681/

Description:

Plasma 5.12.2 or later !!

Breeze Custom Lock is a partial KDE Look and Feel theme. It only has the lock screen part.

The Breeze Custom Lock has:

Semitransparent sliding rectangle. The lock screen texts are on the rectangle and moving out the sight when not needed.

The rectangle is moving:
- up when up arrow is pressed
- down when the down arrow is pressed.
- mouse movement will also trigger the down movement.
- after configurable time the rectangle is sliding out of sight.

There are option to configure the clock place, font size and date/time format.

Preview: https://youtu.be/6LsRMrCrm-c

More Plasma wallpaper plugins: https://store.kde.org/browse/cat/419/ord/latest/
...and even more can be made with the QML: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML

Hey, thanks! It's taken me a long time to get back to this because Real Life happened. I'll try out your suggestion soonest.

...transforming the lock screen into a screensaver...

An idea (part of the) : Use the default Plasma wallpaper on the lock screen - https://phabricator.kde.org/D11308
and
https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-d ... 82745.html
--> https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/plasma-d ... 82880.html

mart added a comment.

That's a way i would like it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOsclMNpK3M
(quick and dirty so the interaction and effects are very buggy) have the lockscreen by default to be a slideshow of the default installed wallpapers and show only the clock (in this mode the text has a shadow as it might be invisible) then at the minimum interaction (mouse, keyboard, anything) the rest of the ui appears and it becomes functional (after a timeout would go back to slideshow mode) when in ui mode, either fades to a plain color (to look like the current blue default which i like a lot) or some effect like heavy blur (but still with coloring, again for readability reasons)

May or may not be part of the plasma 5.13, 5.14...

Few bug reports:
- Bug 369676 - White lockscreen text's readability depends on background: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=369676
- Bug 388622 - Breeze SDDM theme should be more readable when using wallpapers: https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=388622

I tried the Breeze custom lock screen theme. It's an improvement but ...

it's not just a screensaver.

I have to login whenever it starts. That's a hassle. Aargh.

I just want my pretty pics to start cycling. If there's a way to do the settings so that it acts like a *screensaver* not (NOT) a lock screen, I can't seem to figure it out.

kde-quixote wrote:
it's not just a screensaver.

I have to login whenever it starts. That's a hassle. Aargh.

I just want my pretty pics to start cycling. If there's a way to do the settings so that it acts like a *screensaver* not (NOT) a lock screen, I can't seem to figure it out.

So you want to hide the desktop with the image slideshow - Same kind of: viewtopic.php?f=67&t=150555

You could start an image viewer in the slideshow mode. The Gwenview:

Code: Select all

$ gwenview --help
Usage: gwenview [options] url
An Image Viewer

Options:
  -h, --help                 Displays this help.
  -v, --version              Displays version information.
  --author                   Show author information.
  --license                  Show license information.
  --desktopfile <file name>  The base file name of the desktop entry for this
                             application.
  -f, --fullscreen           Start in fullscreen mode
  -s, --slideshow            Start in slideshow mode

Arguments:
  url                        A starting file or folders


To autostart the slideshow you could add it to the KDE Power management

Thanks for the idea about gwenview! (Why didn't I think of that? ) Sounds like that would do exactly what I want.

kde-quixote wrote:... I've been using KDE since the Stone Age (2006?). It's customizable. I love it. ...

Not judging or saying anything negatie. Just makes me smile, and figure how old I am, since I have been using since 1998(?). In the past KDE's screen saver would allow using xscreensaver modules. Currently (last 5-10 years?) it has been a pain to use xscreensaver.