Hey -
I'm trying to figure out how to get electric sheep up and running on my mythtv. For those of you unfamiliar with this amazing screensaver, check out http://electricsheep.org/

I did the apt-get install electric sheep, and thought my next move would be to configure the screensaver in xscreensaver. However, this attempt was foiled when I could not find a command on my box called xscreensaver. I am running R5A26, have things changed recently in regards to screensavers or am I just missing something?

Thanks in advance for your help,
Brian

KnoppMyth R5 has never included xscreensaver.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Its a pain that the frontend doesnt have something like an idle timeout command that it ran when it was left in the menus doing nothing for some configurable period of time.

This would solve one of the issues with the wake up to record functionality described on the wiki. Currently you need to run a script to kill the frontend if the box comes up to do a recording (as opposed to being powered up manually), otherwise, the machine will not shut down again. If the frontend exited after being idle for say 20 minutes, this issue would go away.

It would also allow people to specify a screensaver if that was what they wanted.

I would say go for it.

These are the issues that I am aware of. (There may be more.)

You need a way to disable the xscreensaver for menuitem selections that you don't want the screensaver running on. Watch Live TV, Watching a recorded program. Listening to music where you want the visual effects running. Watching DVDs VCDs, and possibly listening to CDs.

There are also some applications where it may make sense to have the screen saver running during some modes, but not others. Image viewer comes to mind, where I would appreciate it running when I am browsing individual images, but when the slideshow is running, I don't want the screensaver running.

You will also need to be able to tell the screen saver that it can go back to work.

If you do install xcreensaver, the command "kill `ps -ef |grep scree[n] |awk '{ print $2 }'`" will kill the screensaver. (You may want to view 'ps -ef | grep scree[n]' to see if the screensaver is the only app that matches.)

Good luck.

-Rusty

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Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)

Unless someone comes up with something real slick, I'm not including any screensaver. I think I've already registered my feelings. It is a TV, turn it off when you walk away.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Not going to tell you to change how you put together KnoppMyth Cesman. That's up to you. I might suggest that I would really appreciate it if you included something, but that's a different matter. And obviously you won't like all of the suggestions you get.

As you have pointed out elsewhere, if someone wants to do something, and they have a reasonable idea of what it will take, and think they can do it, then more power to them. Perhaps you won't include their results in your stuff, but there really isn't anything preventing them from trying, and potentially succeeding in solving their own problems. Granted it sometimes takes a pointer in the right direction, even if that direction is wrong by philosophy.

He wants to not turn off his front end display. Ok. I don't think it is a good idea for a variey of reasons, some of which may match your own. Most of mine come down to cost however. Cost of replacing equipment, cost of electricity, etc. In that case, if someone doesn't care about the cost involved, that's his business, and none of mine. There are some technical stumbling blocks involved which should be noted, so I did. I doubt I hit all of the considerations. The earlier mention of the related issue with shutting down automatically after a scheduled power up is probably a good example, though there are very likely many others.

-Rusty

_________________
Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)

I happily encourage folks to come up with a solution to this... The simply matter of fact is that this isn't an easy issue (and I'm not going to spend time on it because I see it as a non-issue). If a screensaver is included, it may kick off...say every 15 minutes. Well what happens if I'm watching a program, I have to press a key so it doesn't black out? It isn't that I'm not willing to include a screensaver. I'm leaving up to someone to come up with something. If someone does, I'm willing to listen.

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cesman

When the source is open, the possibilities are endless!

Myth svn-.19 already has code in that disables screensaver while playback is active. This is also included in xine, mplayer, or vlc for that matter.

I haven't looked at the setup for mplayer, or vlc for that matter, however xine only disables the screensaver if you configure it to do so, and then only in full screen mode.

Granted if you are using xine to playback a dvd on your TV, you are probably doing so in full screen mode, and so if configured the screensaver will be disabled, but I seem to recall that this was not always the default setting. (Though I seemed to consider that to be a rather stupid situation at the time, so it may have been distribution specific.)

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Master:
- AMD 1800XP on a MSI KT4V motherboard, via KT400 bios
- 120 G Segate Baracuda /, /cache, /myth, swap
- 200 G Segate Baracuda /myth/tv
- 3 Haupauge! WinTV PVR250s
- 19" Daewoo Monitor (1280x1024 ni)

Ok, great! However, I'm still not doing the leg work on this. Contribute people.

Question: Do most people just walk by and turn off their monitor/tv when its time to go up to bed? I want my system to stay on so that I can fold lots of proteins.

yes

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Girkers