alienbeacon(6x)

📦
version 6.17 · 4 versions
, in fedora 44

💫 alienbeacon — okay bestie, we found SOMETHING (NAME)

so like. alienbeacon is a screensaver. that's it, that's the vibe. it lives in the XScreenSaver manual section (6x) and it is gorgeous, no cap. ✨

🛸 SYNOPSIS

alienbeacon [--display host:display.screen] [--visual visual] [--window]
[--root] [--delay number] [--speed number] [--scale number] [--fps]

periodt. that's the whole spell. 💅

👽 DESCRIPTION

okay so our investigation of the signal from the planet's surface brought us to what seems to be an alien beacon. 🛸✨

and based on the rock formation around the beacon, it was probably left here millions of years ago. which is... a lot to process honestly. not me getting emotional over a rock circle. 😭

🎀 OPTIONS

  • --visual visual — tell it which visual to use, bestie. legal values are the name of a visual class, or the id number (decimal or hex) of one specific visual.
  • --window — draw on a newly-created window. this is the default, so if you do nothing, this is what you get 🫶
  • --root — draw on the root window instead. main character energy, filling your whole screen 💅
  • --delay number — per-frame delay, in microseconds. default is 20000, which is 0.02 seconds, in case you didn't wanna do the math (I did it for you, you're welcome 🍓)
  • --speed number — animation speed. 2.0 means twice as fast, 0.5 means half as fast. so like, 0.5 is the chill stroll version and 2.0 is the zoomies version 🦋
  • --scale number — frame buffer resolution. 0.5 means halve the resolution for better performance but lower quality output. default 1.0, full quality. so like, pick your struggle: speed or beauty 😭
  • --fps | --no-fps — whether to show a frames-per-second display at the bottom of the screen. turn it on if you wanna watch the numbers go brrr 🔥

🌈 ENVIRONMENT

  • DISPLAY — to get the default host and display number.
  • XENVIRONMENT — to get the name of a resource file that overrides the global resources stored in the RESOURCE_MANAGER property.
  • XSCREENSAVER_WINDOW — the window ID to use with --root.

👀 SEE ALSO

X(1), xscreensaver(1), and the absolute source material: https://www.shadertoy.com/view/ld2SzK — go look, it's iconic 🎀

Copyright © 2014 by Otavio Good.

Permission to use, copy, modify, distribute, and sell this software and its documentation for any purpose is hereby granted without fee, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies and that both that copyright notice and this permission notice appear in supporting documentation. No representations are made about the suitability of this software for any purpose. It is provided "as is" without express or implied warranty.

like, no warranty bestie, we said what we said 💀

💖 AUTHOR

Otavio Good.

and that's the whole page!! X Version 11, 6.17-1.fc44, dated 13-Oct-2026 — that's the footer, that's the provenance, that's the receipts. go stare at the beacon, you deserve it 👑🛸✨

📦 where this page comes from