Ubuntu

Is there a way to add picasa as a screen saver ?

Asked by phill.wall@gmail.com

IS there a way to add picasa as a screensaver

I am migrating off windows XP and I have many photos in many directories that are in my screen saver album
 I would like to implement the same (having recently lost my mother and a friend the ability to get pics from different places are actually quite important to me)

Is there a way to activate Picasa as the screen saver ? Am using Ubuntu Hardy - 64 bit - gnome but would change to KDE to get this ability.
Happy to use another application but I am after the ability to add and remove pics from the screensaver.

Thanks
Phill

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#1

you can use the program F-Spot, which is the reccomended photo management tool in ubuntu, to organise your photos, then tag the ones you want to appear in a screen saver with the tag "Favorite", you can then use the F-Spot Photo's screen saver thats included with ubuntu to view these photo's

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phill.wall@gmail.com (phill-wall) said : 		#2

Thanks - Unfortunately F-spot crashes when I try to run it. _ Has been logged by a number of people running 64 Bit.
Digicam runs OK - but seems to just do all pics in subdirectories.

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#3

Then you have two options in the screen saver route, either reinstall ubuntu but this time install the 32-bit version so that fspot will hopefully work or put the pictures you want into the Pictures folder in your home directory and use the Pictures Folder screensaver

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phill.wall@gmail.com (phill-wall) said : 		#4

Cant use 32 bit - sorry - not an option. Especially for a hopefully - but I need to extra address space.Using the pictures folder is also not doable.
Is there no way to add screen savers ?
The picassa FAQ says
" but for now, you can still get the Picasa screensaver by configuring Gnome or KDE's screensaver to run:
/opt/picasa/bin/showpicasascreensaver "

so that suggests it IS possible - just need to find instructions HOW (Which is what the question was I asked)

thanks
Phill

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Bhavani Shankar (bhavi) said : 		#5

Hello

you can open a terminal and type:

$ /usr/lib/xscreensaver/showpicasascreensaver

or hit ALT-F2 and then type in the above line (without the $)

This link may also help you out:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=212512&highlight=screensaver+slideshow

Regards

Bhavani Shankar.

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phill.wall@gmail.com (phill-wall) said : 		#6

Bhavani

 thanks for the reply
 That runs the picasa screensaver - at the time you run it...
 It doesnt configure Gnome (or KDE) to USE picasa as a screen saver.
A screen saver that has to be started manually is of limited benefit.

IS there no way to add new screen savers to Gnome ?

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Gord Allott (gordallott) said : 		#7

you need to create a .desktop file (just right click on your desktop and goto create launcher, fill in the information you need to launch this screensaver there) and then copy that .desktop file to /usr/share/applications/screensavers

it should then be added to the gnome screensavers list

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phill.wall@gmail.com (phill-wall) said : 		#8

That has added picassa to the list but when its supposed to run - its blank..

However I managed to fix F-spot so have a temporary solution (with 10000 + pics I dont want to redo all the metadata )
Willl wait for this to be dealt with

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Jan Burian (burian-honza) said : 		#9

Hello,

I have the same problem with picasa screensaver. I don't think the problem is solved. I can't see here any solution.
When I start picasa screensaver from terminal then it's working. But when I'm using xscreensaver and try preview or wait until screensaver starts than I can see only blank screen and nothing happens.

I'm running on ubuntu 10.04 lucid, now I'm using xscreensaver (because of picasa screensaver)
I tried to search any more information, but with no success.
Only information on google picasa web faq is:

Q: Why is "Configure Screensaver" greyed out?
Older versions of Gnome and KDE used the xscreensaver standard, but newer versions do not offer a standard method of controlling the screensaver. We hope to deal with this in a future release, but for now, you can still get the Picasa screensaver by configuring Gnome or KDE's screensaver to run:
/opt/picasa/bin/showpicasascreensaver

So do you someone know how to configure (better) the screensaver?
Also is it possible to configure piscasa screensaver somehow for ex. some configuration files?
Thanks for any idea