Manually start screen saver

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 13 Nov 2019 06:09:02 -0500, Jerry wrote:
> Running FreeBSD 12.1, is there any way to manually start the screen
> saver? I have this is the "/etc/rc.conf" file, but the screen saver
> never starts.
> 
> ## Screen Saver
> saver="star"

That setting is correct, but it doesn't work anymore (at least
not in FreeBSD's default configuration). So what you're observing
is to be expected.

The screensaver this setting refers to works with sc, the former
console driver. Today FreeBSD use vt, which is required for X and
KMS, and it's the default even in "text mode".

You can still go back to using sc. In /boot/loader.conf:

	kern.vty=sc

But in this case, X probably won't work anymore, if you depend
on that...

Sidenote:

The setting saver= in /etc/rc.conf is used in /etc/rc.d/syscons
where the required kernel module will be loaded. Same for blanktime=,
which addresses vidcontrol.

So basically, in order to get the screensaver started, you'd do:

	# service syscons restart

But as I said, this now involves vt, not sc. The corresponding
setting in /etc/rc.conf therefore have no effect.



-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...