How To Get Electric Sheep To Work With Xscreensaver

Electric Sheep is a really cool screensaver which communicates with other computers that use the screensaver to generate complex fractal animations.

By default, Electric Sheep doesn't show up in Xscreensaver preferences / screensavers list, so here's how to solve this issue.

Firstly, you obviously need to install Xscreensaver and Electric Sheep. For how to set up Xscreensaver in Ubuntu 11.10, see our Things To Tweak After Installing Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot post.

To install Electric Sheep in Ubuntu, use the command below:

sudo apt-get install electricsheep

Now, to get Electric Sheep to show up in Xscreensaver you need to edit the Xscreensaver configuration file (~/.xscreensaver):

gedit ~/.xscreensaver

And at the bottom of the screensavers list - not at the bottom of the file -, which should look like this (not the same lines but you should get the idea):

  GL:     photopile -root        \n\
  GL:     skytentacles -root       \n\
  GL:     rubikblocks -root       \n\

add the following line:

GL: electricsheep --root 1 \n\

Then save the file and open the Xscreensaver preferences - Electric Sheep should now be available in the screensavers list.

[via AskUbuntu]