most screensavers not working latest KDE version...why?[SOLVED]

[mikeymoman]

I'm new to this forum but not new to linux. I've used various major distros over the years. I really like the latest KDE version of PCLinuxOS but I have this one gripe. Some of the screensavers with very simple graphics work fine. However, there are a ton of screensavers included that simply don't display anything on the screen. I've tried several different video cards thinking that may be the issue. I've also updated the video drivers for each card I tried. Still no luck. I know it's nit picking but things like this bug me. If it's there..it should work....If anyone could help, I sure would appreciate it.

[djohnston]

First of all, what desktop are you running? Next, do you have compositing enabled? I suspect the screensavers you're not seeing are the OpenGL ones. What are the specifications of your computer and the currently installed video card?

[Ron Ritzman]

I'm new to this forum but not new to linux. I've used various major distros over the years. I really like the latest KDE version of PCLinuxOS but I have this one gripe. Some of the screensavers with very simple graphics work fine. However, there are a ton of screensavers included that simply don't display anything on the screen. I've tried several different video cards thinking that may be the issue. I've also updated the video drivers for each card I tried. Still no luck. I know it's nit picking but things like this bug me. If it's there..it should work....If anyone could help, I sure would appreciate it.

Open up synaptic, do a search for "xscreensaver", check every box with that word in front of it, click "apply. They should all then work.

Edit: See this post for the possible cause of this. For a while I thought that open GL wasn't working right but it turns out that the KDE screensaver list was pointing to screensavers that simply weren't there. This wasn't a problem in earlier versions of pclos because the xscreensaver packages use to be part of the default install, now they're not.

[mikeymoman]

I'm running a Pentium D dual-core 3ghz, 4g ram, built-in video is Intel 945 and the pci-e card is a Nvidia Geforce 8400. I'm using the 9-2011 KDE 4 version of PCLinuxOS. I'll try loading the xscreensaver packages and post my results. Thanks.

[mikeymoman]

Also I think I do have compositing enabled. This is the same as enabling the desktop effects isn't it?

[djohnston]

Also I think I do have compositing enabled. This is the same as enabling the desktop effects isn't it?

Yes. Enabling the desktop effects is using KWin's compositor. You can also enable Compiz by installing the packages and enabling Compiz in the PCLinuxOS Control Center.

[mikeymoman]

installing the all the xscreensaver packages in synaptic did the job. thanks everyone for your help.