A.P. Lawrence

This article is from a FAQ concerning SCO operating systems. While some of the information may be applicable to any OS, or any Unix or Linux OS, it may be specific to SCO Xenix, Open Desktop or Openserver.

There is lots of Linux, Mac OS X and general Unix info elsewhere on this site: Search this site is the best way to find anything.

Unix, Xenix and ODT General FAQ

Are there any screen savers?

Unix (and Xenix 2.3.4) have a built-in screen saver for VGA only. You have to reconfigure the kernel for this to work. It doesn't work with all hardware, but try it first. Also, it has been reported that VP/ix may not be compatible with this screen saver. To enable the screensaver, set the kernel variable TBLNK to the number of seconds of inactivity which should trigger the screensaver, relink, and reboot.

Unixware users may use "vtblank" to dynamically set and adjust the screen saver time

Roberto Zini:

If you're operating under X-windows you can use the PD program xscreensaver; it comes with dozens of very nice screen savers you can install on your system. You can find the 'xscreensaver' program on the Skunkware CD-ROM; alternatively you can use the xlockmore program, also available on the same CD-ROM.

For Linux users, the console screen saver/blanker is usually enabled by default, but some people like to shut it off, which can be done with

setterm -blank or
setterm -blank 0

Changing the 0 to some other number turns blanking back on after that many minutes. The "setterm" command controls many other things, too.

Unix and Linux Support