Now there seems to be no other option to change the default screen saver. On 11.04 I just did aĪnd then I could change it in the control center -> screen saver options. I want to change the default screen saver in Ubuntu 11.10/12.04. Just run these commands to uninstall XScreenSaver and reinstall gnome-screensaver: The name and comment here can be anything you like: Add a startup program with the following command. Get started by launching the Startup Applications utility from the Dash. If it doesn’t start, it can’t notice your system is idle and launch screensavers. To actually use the screensavers, you’ll want XScreenSaver to start in the background each time you log in. You can specify the screensavers it chooses from or enable “Only One Screensaver” mode to always use your favorite screensaver. The Screensaver utility will prompt you to stop the gnome-screensaver process and launch the xscreensaver background process when you start it.īy default, XScreenSaver will choose a random screensaver each time it starts. Launch the Screensaver utility and use it to configure XScreenSaver and select your screensaver settings. Install XScreenSaver and some additional screensaver packages with the following command: Configuring your screensaverĪfter installation, perform a search in the Dash for Screensaver. Open a terminal and run the following command to uninstall gnome-screensaver: The GNOME developers think a black screen that puts your monitor into lower-power mode is optimal. Ubuntu uses gnome-screensaver and inherited the change from upstream GNOME. Screensavers were actually removed back in Ubuntu 11.10. If you’d rather have screensavers, you can swap gnome-screensaver for XScreenSaver. Starting with 12.04, Ubuntu doesn’t ship with any screensavers, just a black screen that appears when your system is idle. How do I configure the screensaver in Ubuntu? I can see that gnome-screensaver is running.

Xscreensaver ubuntu