Ubuntu: Add a lockscreen screensaver with an image slideshow

Date: 2019-10-21 | ubuntu | screensaver | lockscreen | slideshow |

problem

I'm running Ubuntu and have a directory of images I want to display as a screensaver. How can I do this?

solution

Here I'll show you how to set up an image slideshow on Ubuntu using Xscreensaver. But before I do that, you'll need to install it. Vitux wrote a great guide on that (How to replace Gnome Screensaver with Xscreensaver on Ubuntu) so go ahead and install it and come back here.

Now that that's installed, let's get the slideshow running.

  1. Create a directory with all the photos you want the slideshow to go through
  2. Open the screensaver application that came with the Xscreensaver install. This allows you to modify its settings.
  3. In the Display Modes tab, select the Only One Screen Saver mode from the dropdown, then select the GLSlideshow option from the scroll menu. This is the screensaver mode that will slideshow through the images
  4. In the Advanced tab, find the Image Manipulation section and select Choose Random Image then click Browse and navigate to the folder you put your images in

That's it!

You can change other settings on the Advanced tab and if you go back to Display Modes, you can change the settings specifically for your slideshow by clicking Settings while GLSlideshow is selected.

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