Mint Device Screensaver

An animated device-themed screensaver for Linux Mint Cinnamon.

Mint Device Screensaver showing animated device icons and particle effects.

Demo

mint-screensaver.webm

Mint Device Screensaver is a standalone visual screensaver application built with GTK and Clutter. It provides animated device icons, particles, and fullscreen visual effects while allowing Cinnamon to remain responsible for screen locking and authentication.

Features

• Fullscreen animated screensaver window
• GTK and Clutter based rendering
• Floating SVG device icons
• Selectable Adwaita and GNOME Colors icon sets
• Particle background effects
• Dynamic animated colour transitions
• Graphical settings application
• Configurable animation speed
• Custom background colour selection
• Persistent user configuration
• Optional Cinnamon screensaver integration
• Debian package support
• Application menu entry and icons
• Command-line tools for testing and configuration

Screensaver

The screensaver provides animated device icons, particles, and changing background effects.

Settings Application

The graphical settings application allows users to configure:

• Animation speed
• Background colour
• Icon set selection
• Mouse movement exit behavior
• Resetting preferences to defaults

Menu Integration

Mint Device Screensaver installs as a normal Linux Mint application with menu entries for the screensaver and its settings.

Colour Transitions

The selected background colour is used as the starting point before gradually transitioning into the animated background effects.

Design

Mint Device Screensaver is designed as a visual screensaver application.

Cinnamon remains responsible for:

• Screen locking
• Password authentication
• Session security
• Unlock handling

Mint Device Screensaver provides only the visual screensaver experience.

The application does not replace the Cinnamon lock screen.

Requirements

Tested on:

• Linux Mint 22.3 Cinnamon (64-bit)

Required system packages:

• Python 3
• GTK 3
• Clutter
• GtkClutter
• Cairo
• librsvg
• PyGObject (python3-gi)

Installation

Quick install

The easiest way to install from source:

git clone https://github.com/chaslinux/mint-device-screensaver.git
cd mint-device-screensaver
./install.sh

The installer will:

• install required dependencies
• build the Debian package
• install Mint Device Screensaver
• create application menu entries

The installer does not modify Cinnamon lock screen or authentication settings.

After installation, launch the application from the menu or:

mint-device-screensaver

Open the settings application:

mint-device-screensaver-settings

Installing the Debian package

To build the package manually:

./debian/build-deb.sh

Install the generated package:

sudo dpkg -i ../mint-device-screensaver_*.deb
sudo apt install -f

Running from source

For development testing:

./run.sh

This runs the application directly from the source tree without installing the package.

Cinnamon Testing

Mint Device Screensaver can be tested manually:

cinnamon-screensaver-command --activate

To test normal Cinnamon locking:

Ctrl + Alt + L

Cinnamon should continue to display its normal lock screen and handle authentication.

Command Line Options

Show help:

mint-device-screensaver --help

Show version:

mint-device-screensaver --version

Display current configuration:

mint-device-screensaver --show-config

Reset configuration:

mint-device-screensaver --reset-config

Enable debug logging:

mint-device-screensaver --debug

Configuration

Mint Device Screensaver includes a graphical settings application:

mint-device-screensaver-settings

User configuration is stored at:

~/.config/mint-device-screensaver/config.ini

Available configuration options include:

• Animation speed
• Background colour
• Icon set
• Mouse exit behavior

The available icon sets are:

• adwaita — Adwaita device icons
• gnome-colors — GNOME Colors application icons

The icon set can be selected from the graphical settings application.

Most users should configure the application through the settings window rather than editing the configuration file manually.

Logs

Runtime logs are stored at:

~/.local/state/mint-device-screensaver/mint-device-screensaver.log

Development

Install development dependencies:

./install-dependencies.sh

Run from source:

./run.sh

Build the Debian package:

./debian/build-deb.sh

Project Structure

mint-device-screensaver/
├── data/
│   ├── applications/
│   ├── icons/
│   └── config/
├── debian/
│   ├── build-deb.sh
│   └── packaging files
├── docs/
│   └── screenshots/
├── src/
│   ├── application.py
│   ├── animation.py
│   ├── config.py
│   ├── scene.py
│   ├── stage.py
│   └── supporting modules
├── install.sh
├── install-dependencies.sh
├── mint-device-screensaver
└── run.sh

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.

See the LICENSE file for details.

Status

Current release:

Mint Device Screensaver 0.10.7

The project is focused on providing a stable, customizable standalone screensaver experience for Linux Mint Cinnamon.