I first saw xscreensaver on a researcher’s laptop in 2003, when I was 14, and I loved it so much I installed linux. I’ve been running linux ever since, I got a few degrees in CS, and I’m still a huge fan.

How can people see it today, in a platform independent way? In an effort to make the screensaver easily available, I thought it would be neat to create a “livestream”, and here are the steps:

On ubuntu 22, run sudo vi /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and disable Wayland by uncommenting the line WaylandEnable=false

Install OBS studio and connect it to youtube.

Create a virtual screen with Xephyr:

Xephyr :2 -screen 1920x1080

and run xscreensaver in it: DISPLAY=:2 xscreensaver DISPLAY=:2 xscreensaver-command -activate

use Window Capture (XComposite) in OBS to capture the Xephyr screen without borders, and press “Start Streaming”

link to live stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J92IlAQKdCY

NB: it’s actually pretty fiddly, so setting this up to run automatically on reboot is still a challenge.