On Saturday 23 July 2022 08:33:49 Michael wrote: Apologies for my incorrigible verbosity and insufferable prolixity, but I am just thinking out loud. If I had more time to revise, I could make it much shorter. I was avoiding this discussion, because I don't actually *use* the TDE screensaver, nor the KDE3 screensaver before it, but prefer to use xscreensaver instead, as it has some stuff that the KDE/TDE versions don't. Oddly, I cannot find any config files that ought to match the TDE or KDE3 screensaver. Look here: /home/<USER>/.trinity/share/config/ /home/<USER>/.kde/share/config/ Config files (with the -rc stem at the end of the name): You can open these with a text editor and modify the application. Myself, I save a copy of the original before altering, and after my futzing round gets the modifications I want, I make a backup of those most recent changes, so that I can overwrite that file if it gets changed again. Also maybe here: /opt/trinity/share/config.kcfg/ but I find nothing myself. One expects to find a config file here, either tdescreensaverrc or kdescreensaverrc, or something like it, but I can find nothing. Elsewhere it is named tdescreensaver, so I would expect that. But then, as I said, I mostly use xscreensaver; maybe the system has not created those files? I did start up the TDE screensaver; not much to say, except that it starts. When I was looking round, I found this item: /opt/trinity/share/applications/tde/screensaver.desktop which can be opened with a text editor. It doesn't seem to do much, but I wouldn't change anything here; yet it does tell us some information: the tdescreensaver's parent app is kcontrol. So maybe by finding out where that path leads, you might find something that can be useful. My own search for kcontrol settings turned up nothing, but maybe I don't know where to look. [Desktop Entry] Exec=tdecmshell screensaver Icon=tdescreensaver Type=Application X-DocPath=kcontrol/screensaver/index.html X-TDE-Library=screensaver X-TDE-FactoryName=screensaver X-TDE-ParentApp=kcontrol You might try changing some of the settings (legacy lock windows, secure attention, etc.), just to see if it makes a difference. Also, some powersaving settings can interfere with screensavers, as also various programs such as media players, etc., (e.g., smplayer, vlc) which can be set to disable the screensaver only while playing, but not otherwise. At long last, I did find something that might be useful: /home/<USER>/.trinity/share/config/tdepowersaverc /home/<USER>/.kde/share/config/tdepowersaverc It ought to be the first item, if anything, but if you have old KDE3 or newer KDE settings, then maybe you have some old config files? In my old KDE3 settings (which I keep as a backup), I found this little item: /home/<USER>/.kde/share/config/kscreensaverrc but nothing that corresponds to the newer TDE version. (One expects to find tdescreensaverrc or another kscreensaverrc; but I have nothing there.) You might be able to create your own config file; just create a new text file and name it tdescreensaverrc or kscreensaverrc, and see what works. My settings for this file, kscreensaverrc: [ScreenSaver] ActionBottomLeft=0 ActionBottomRight=0 ActionTopLeft=0 ActionTopRight=0 Enabled=false LegacySaverEnabled=true Lock=false LockGrace=60000 PlasmaEnabled=false Saver=KClock.desktop Timeout=60 Now, these are the settings from an older system, which I saved as a backup, for reference in times like these, when something doesn't work right. You ought to see something like this in a similar file for tdescreensaverrc, that is, in /home/<USER>/.trinity/share/config/tdescreensaverrc, if that file actually existed. It could be that this has changed in the newer TDE releases. Since I don't use the TDE screensaver (much), I don't have this file, but my screensaver seems to work, anyway. I would try creating a config file here, see what happens. Good luck! Bill

On Sunday 24 July 2022 09:44:16 Hunter Ellett via tde-users wrote: Seems to me that there must be some other application that blocks it from starting. Just a guess, but aside from what I already said, I don't have a clue. I would look first at your powersaving settings. Media players, etc., for example, ought not to block the screensaver except temporarily, that is, while you are actually using them. Bill