[feisty] "black screen" is not black

Thank you for your bug report.

Cyrond:
Does it actually say that it's black or does it say "blank"?

Just switched to english - yes it's 'blank'. So I suppose it isn't a bug, but a translation problem, because the german translation it "Schwarzer Bildschirm" meaning "black".

Cyrond - you're right. The screen should be black. This is a gnome-screensaver bug - I've reproduced this with the nv driver.

Description of the problem:
The blank screen sometimes appears grey (same colour as the toolbar panel) rather than black.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Start
gnome-screensaver-preferences
2. Select "Blank screen" in the "Screensaver theme" at the left.
3. Click the Preview button.

Expected result:
Black screen with a screensaver toolbar at the top.

Actual result:
Grey screen with a screensaver toolbar at the top. The grey is the same shade as that used in toolbar.

How reproducible is the problem?
The problem is only reproducible once per each time gnome-screensaver-preferences is started. Attempting to reproduce the problem after step 3 by clicking "Leave Fullscreen" then clicking Preview again will result in the expected black screen. Closing gnome-screensaver-preferences entirely and starting it again allows the problem to be reproduced again.

Version information:
Ubuntu Feisty
gnome-screensaver 2.18.0-0ubuntu2

Punting from nvidia-legacy-glx -> gnome-screensaver. Confirming.

this doesnt happen with any other graphics driver, not a gss bug, please file it against the xserver or driver

Oliver:
I can confirm that this happens with both the nv (the open source nvidia driver) and the nvidia-glx-legacy driver. These are two different drivers so I am going to reopen this issue and set it to unconfirmed.

Are you sure you cannot reproduce this using the steps I have given?

Reproduced with the vesa driver.

Oliver:
Which graphics driver are you using?

ati/fglrx, via, sis, s3 and mga, pick one ....

i noticed that it takes about a second to draw the screensaver window inside the gtk window though ... are you sure its not just showng up a bit delayed ?

This problem doesn't show up in the window with the list of screensavers to the left - it only happens when you click the the preview button and it shows you a fullscreen preview of the "blank" screensaver. The area in the window from which you can see a list of screensavers is always black.

On the off chance I waited a good three minutes with the vesa driver when the fullscreen preview was exhibiting the problem but the grey did not go away.

i was referring to the fullscreen gtk window indeed ;)

looks like an xorg or videocard bug

What version of Ubuntu are you using? Does it happen with a new user? Looks like http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=344936 which has been fixed upstream and to Ubuntu with a new version

Sebastian:
I mentioned some of this in comment #3 but I have yet to try a new user since fresh installing Feisty around two or so months ago (this sounds like the most likely cause). I'd be highly surprised if it was a video card issue given that it happens with both the nvidia binary drivers and the vesa driver but I will try the live cd on some more machines...

Sebastian:
Well I've just finished downloading and burning the latest live cd and tested this bug in machines with Intel/ATI/SiS graphics cards within them. I've reproduced this problem with i810, ati, fglrx and sis drivers (so in total I've tested this with ati, fglrx, i810, nv, nvidia, sis, vesa drivers and reproduced the problem on all of them). I don't have an matrox or a virge/savage card handy so I will struggle to test with those drivers. Are you sure this is a videocard bug?

Given that I've done this testing from the livecd the profile is effectively new each time. Just on the off chance I created a new profile anyway and still reproduced this problem.

In the interest of trying everything to allow other people to reprodcuce this problem I'm going to revise the steps to reproduce:
Steps to reproduce:
1. Start
gnome-screensaver-preferences
2. Select "Blank screen" in the "Screensaver theme" at the left.
3. Click the Close button.
4. Start
gnome-screensaver-preferences
5. Select "Blank screen" in the "Screensaver theme" at the left.
6. Click the Preview button.

I forgot to mention that the gnome-screensaver version of the livecd (I downloaded the daily today around 45 minutes ago):
gnome-screensaver 2.18.1-0ubuntu1

Reproduced on a machine with a via graphics chipset...

Still here in the final release of Fesity.

The "blank screen is grey" issue persists in Gutsy.

Version information:
Ubuntu Gutsy (development branch)
gnome-screensaver 2.19.7-0ubuntu1

(forgot to mention that this was with the intel driver)

Still here in Hardy.

Version information:
Ubuntu hardy (development branch)
gnome-screensaver 2.22.2-0ubuntu1

this has been fixed upstream, thanks for reporting.

I'm currently seeing this on Intrepid.

gnome-screensaver 2.24.0

00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller (rev 03)

RgnKjnVA:
The upstream fix for this was only committed in November which was after Intrepid's release ( http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=451498#c4 ).

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-screensaver - 2.27.0-0ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-screensaver (2.27.0-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * New upstream release: (LP: #345107)
    - Add an autostart file for gnome-screensaver (#585485)
    - Updated Translations
    - Fixed audit GError usage (William Jon McCann)
    - Fixed use g_strerror (William Jon McCann)
    - Fixed logout_command setting may be overwritten with
      keyboard_command value (William Jon McCann)
    - Fixed gnome-screensaver-gl-helper calls gdk_x11_visual_get_xvisual
      with NULL visual (William Jon McCann)
    - Fixed Screenserver (William Jon McCann)
    - Remove power notice signal
    - Rely on GNOME session idle detection
    - Proxy g-s inhibitors over to the session
    - Read status message from session
    - Accept a full path for theme (Matthias Clasen)
    - Fix pixmap leak (Matthias Clasen)
    - Fix dialog border width
    - Add bevel around dialog
    - get idle time from xorg (LP: #230749)
    - screensavers-personal-slideshow should not show hidden directories (Jörg)
    - "Random" preview is always the last saver (Maxim Ermilov) (LP: #53575)
    - Calls wrong slideshow binary if there is one installed in
      $PATH (Frederic Crozat)
    - libgnome-desktop:gnome_bg_create_pixmap() leaks pixmaps and X
      clients (Scott Remnant)
    - Preview of "Blank screen" is not consistent (Neil Patel) (LP: #105836)
    - Add GTK and GNOME to screensaver desktop (William Jon McCann)
    - Screensaver suddenly stopped working (William Jon McCann)
    - gnome-screensaver-dialog NULL pointer crash (William Jon McCann)
    - gnome-screensaver should release mouse/keyboard when failed to grab both of
      them (Joey Yu Zheng)
    - Cleaning up GTK Includes in gnome-screensaver (Maxim Ermilov)
  * debian/control.in:
    - add Vcs-Bzr tag
    - re-generate debian/control
  * Adapt debian/watch to get unstable version
  * debian/patches:
    - remove 06_dont-leak-root-windows.patch and
      07_fix_blank_screen_preview.patch as applied upstream
    - removed 08_watch-all-X-screens-when-detecting-idle.patch as upstream
      handled the issue in rewriting src/gs-watcher-x11.c (multiple X handling)

 -- Didier Roche <email address hidden> Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:59:32 +0200