#1125991 xscreensaver: systemd service file issues

Package:
xscreensaver
Source:
xscreensaver
Description:
Screensaver daemon and frontend for X11
Submitter:
Date:
2026-01-20 04:43:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1125991#5
Date:
2026-01-20 04:40:08 UTC
From:
To:
Dear Maintainer,

The systemd service file (xscreensaver.service) has two issues that affect
user experience:

1. Missing --no-splash flag

The ExecStart line uses "/usr/bin/xscreensaver" without the --no-splash flag.
This causes a splash dialog to appear every time xscreensaver starts (including
system startup and X server restarts). From this dialog users can access
settings by clicking a button, which is unnecessary for normal operation and
creates annoying popup windows on every startup.

Suggested fix:
  ExecStart=/usr/bin/xscreensaver --no-splash


2. Incorrect Restart directive

The service uses "Restart=on-failure" which prevents xscreensaver from
restarting when it terminates with SIGTERM or SIGINT. This causes xscreensaver
to not restart after certain X server restarts until the system is rebooted,
leaving the system without screen locking protection.

According to systemd.service(5), on-failure only restarts on:
- unclean exit code
- unclean signal
- timeout

Clean signals like SIGTERM/SIGINT are not covered. For a screen locker that
should always be running, this is problematic.

Suggested fix:
  Restart=always

These issues affect the usability and reliability of xscreensaver as a
screen locker in Debian.

Best regards,
Dmitry Oboukhov