Screensaver

General support for the Pi-Star System
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KE5RAD
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:53 am

Screensaver

Post by KE5RAD »

I am running Pi-Star version 3.4.17 in DMR on a DVMEGA RPi 3 mounted in a 7-Inch LCD Touch Screen Case. All is working fine; however, I'd like to run screensaver on the 7" screen when it is on. I was able to do this when I ran it with DVMEGA software but can't figure out how to do it under Pi-Star.

Any suggestions or is this even possible.
KE5RAD
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:53 am

Re: Screensaver

Post by KE5RAD »

It is a monitor, not a Nextion. I have a couple of Nextions on other hotspots so am familiar with them. Yes, the screen blanker does kick in, but I'd like to have a screensaver like Xscreensaver come up, but don't seem to be able to "sudo apt-get install" it.

I can see the Pi-Star dashboard, etc from my desktop computer and thus configure, update, power off, reboot, etc it fine. I can log into the Pi from the touchscreen but cannot get a Linux desktop on it via STARTX. Does Pi-Star block all the normal Linux features?
KE5RAD
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:53 am

Re: Screensaver

Post by KE5RAD »

Thank you very much for the prompt and thorough replies. Sounds like it's not worth the effort just for some eye candy. I can live with just the blank screen since the rest of the system works fine.
73,
Chuck
KE5RAD
AF6VN
Posts: 821
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 1:15 am

Re: Screensaver

Post by AF6VN »

KE7FNS wrote: Sat Oct 12, 2019 6:46 am No problem.

So I was wondering if there were any linux ascii terminal based screen savers, and sure enough there are.

Image

Looks pretty cool! 8-)
And recognizable by anyone who has watched "The Matrix"... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrix_digital_rain

--
AF6VN
Dennis L Bieber
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w7efs
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Screensaver

Post by w7efs »

KE5RAD wrote: Fri Oct 11, 2019 10:13 pm I am running Pi-Star version 3.4.17 in DMR on a DVMEGA RPi 3 mounted in a 7-Inch LCD Touch Screen Case. All is working fine; however, I'd like to run screensaver on the 7" screen when it is on. I was able to do this when I ran it with DVMEGA software but can't figure out how to do it under Pi-Star, ...
If one has sufficient sdcard space, it's quite simple actually if one has a few minutes. On a Pi B Plus:

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root@w7efs(rw):~# time apt install xscreensaver -y
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  adwaita-icon-theme dictionaries-common emacsen-common gtk-update-icon-cache hicolor-icon-theme libauthen-sasl-perl libdata-dump-perl libencode-locale-perl libfile-listing-perl libfont-afm-perl libgail-common libgail18 libglade2-0 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-daemon-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl libhttp-negotiate-perl libio-html-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libjpeg-turbo-progs liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl libmailtools-perl libnet-http-perl libnet-smtp-ssl-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libtimedate-perl libtry-tiny-perl libturbojpeg0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl libxcomposite1 libxft2 libxmu6 libxt6 miscfiles perl-openssl-defaults xscreensaver-data
Suggested packages:
  ispell | aspell | hunspell libgssapi-perl gvfs libcrypt-ssleay-perl libauthen-ntlm-perl fortune gdm3 | kdm-gdmcompat qcam | streamer xdaliclock xfishtank xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  adwaita-icon-theme dictionaries-common emacsen-common gtk-update-icon-cache hicolor-icon-theme libauthen-sasl-perl libdata-dump-perl libencode-locale-perl libfile-listing-perl libfont-afm-perl libgail-common libgail18 libglade2-0 libgtk2.0-0 libgtk2.0-bin libgtk2.0-common libhtml-form-perl libhtml-format-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl libhttp-cookies-perl libhttp-daemon-perl libhttp-date-perl libhttp-message-perl libhttp-negotiate-perl libio-html-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libjpeg-turbo-progs liblwp-mediatypes-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl libmailtools-perl libnet-http-perl libnet-smtp-ssl-perl libnet-ssleay-perl libtimedate-perl libtry-tiny-perl libturbojpeg0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libwww-robotrules-perl libxcomposite1 libxft2 libxmu6 libxt6 miscfiles perl-openssl-defaults xscreensaver xscreensaver-data
0 upgraded, 49 newly installed, 0 to remove and 20 not upgraded.
Need to get 20.9 MB of archives.
After this operation, 68.1 MB of additional disk space will be used.
...
real    6m10.557s
user    1m28.836s
sys     1m0.537s
"man xscreensaver" is useful:

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xscreensaver(1)                                                XScreenSaver manual                                                xscreensaver(1)

NAME
       xscreensaver - extensible screen saver and screen locking framework

SYNOPSIS
       xscreensaver [-display host:display.screen] [-verbose] [-no-splash] [-no-capture-stderr] [-log filename]

DESCRIPTION
       The  xscreensaver  program waits until the keyboard and mouse have been idle for a period, and then runs a graphics demo chosen at random.
       It turns off as soon as there is any mouse or keyboard activity.

       This program can lock your terminal in order to prevent others from using it, though its default mode of operation is  merely  to  display
       pretty pictures on your screen when it is not in use.

       It also provides configuration and control of your monitor's power-saving features. ...
KE5RAD
Posts: 5
Joined: Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:53 am

Re: Screensaver

Post by KE5RAD »

Thanks Tony and Jason, I got xscreensaver installed; however when trying to run xscreensaver-demo I get an error saying "Gtk Warning; cannot open display."
Running xscreensaver itself results in the error "warning: $DISPLAY is not set: defaulting to :"0.0"
and then "Can't open display: :0.0"

I did find some of the ASCII terminal based screensavers and got them running; however, I am not able to change time on or stop the screen blanker, so Matrix will run but in about 10 minutes the screen goes blank.

Any help would be appreciated.

73,
Chuck
KE5RAD
User avatar
w7efs
Posts: 335
Joined: Sun Apr 22, 2018 4:26 pm

Re: Screensaver

Post by w7efs »

KE7FNS wrote: Sun Oct 13, 2019 5:26 am How does that work with without xserver-xorg installed?
Sorry if I missed that detail. The folk I know who have installed a 7 inch screen have done so in order to have access to the dashboard/configuration/admin pages while mobile, so that they could enable/disable YSF/DMR/NXDN/P25/DStar as needed; I made the assumption that the OP had already done so.

Your fictional "Neo" character can spend about U$100 for an apartment-sized microwave oven and learn how to bake his/her own cookies, but the Linux software to enable a lightweight browser and X display manager is always free, e.g. (among many others):

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time apt install dillo lightdm -y
On a Pi B Plus
...
real 9m19.622s
user 1m51.656s
sys 1m27.182s

Followed by:

Code: Select all

systemctl enable lightdm
systemctl start lightdm
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