SUMMARY Request screensaver be added back to KDE menus. Understandably screensavers are not necessary with LCD monitors but I believe they are fun (e.g ascii aquarium, virtual machine, BSOD, etc) and I miss them. Solutions I see online to start xscreensaver demo seem like a kluge. KDE 3 handled this the best with the seamless integration between KDE screensavers and xscreensaver out of the box via utilities such as kxsrun, kxsconfig which were removed in KDE 4. STEPS TO REPRODUCE N/A OBSERVED RESULT Screensaver not present in KDE menus in KDE 5. Out of the box integration with Xscreensaver not present in KDE 4 (as it was in KDE 3). EXPECTED RESULT SOFTWARE VERSIONS (available in About System) KDE Plasma Version: 5 KDE Frameworks Version: Qt Version: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
You can create a screensaver effect by adding an animated background of some sort to your lock screen, which, as of Plasma 5.13, goes out of its way to support this by only showing the clock by default until you type or wiggle the mouse. This allows most of the screen to show whatever pretty animated effect you like, and there's a wide assortment of plugins available on store.kde.org. In Plasma 5.15, you can even download new ones straight from the background/plugin chooser interface.
(In reply to Nate Graham from comment #1) > You can create a screensaver effect by adding an animated background of some > sort to your lock screen, which, as of Plasma 5.13, goes out of its way to > support this by only showing the clock by default until you type or wiggle > the mouse. This allows most of the screen to show whatever pretty animated > effect you like, and there's a wide assortment of plugins available on > store.kde.org. In Plasma 5.15, you can even download new ones straight from > the background/plugin chooser interface. Hi, thanks for the response. The newest plasma version I could find to test was 5.14 (OpenSUSE rolling release aka Tumbleweed). In this version, I tried using the "Get New Wallpapers" option under the Screen Lock "Appearance" screen. I then searched for "animated" and found one viable match called "Freedom flower (animated)". After selecting this, the tool displayed 15 image files selectable as the lock screen image. After selecting one, that one image was displayed (unanimated) when locking the screen. I next tried store.kde.org and searched for "animated". This brought me to a match called "Gif wallpaper", a Plasma Wallpaper Plugin that, according to its page, required the "apng image plugin for Qt". The download file contained a metadata.desktop file and contents folder, and I was unable to point the screen lock settings page to them. I understand the plugin download will be easier in Plasma 5.15, but I'd still like to request something a little closer to KDE 3/4 where a package (i.e, kdeartwork) is installed so that users can select from a handful of screensavers without needing to access the network to install any plugins. Also integration/importing from Xscreensaver is a big plus as there are so many great screensavers that have been written though the years. That being said, great job. What you have is really pretty. Can't wait to run KDE 5 on my pc.
While I personally have nothing against screensavers and would be okay with your request, I'm afraid many other plasma developers do not share my opinion, and this is the best we can do. Distros can always ship more wallpaper plugins by default if they'd like--even in package form. Also, someone could always write a wallpaper plugin that encapsulates xscreensavers, which would be really cool.