gnome-screensaver-command --poke no longer inhibits screensaver

Confirmed, same behavior on up-to-date Karmic i386.

confirmed as well on karmic amd64 up to 18th of september.

confirmed on karmic beta

also confirmed on karmic beta amd64

just to confirm:

please go to tools->Messages->Modules tree

Is the module "screensaver" listed there?

please also move your ~/.config/vlc/ out of the wav. This will remove all your previous settings, so please make sure you have a backup of that directory. Does this change behavior and/or the output of the modules tree?

If this does help, please attach a tarball of the broken settings.

Reinhard,

I followed these steps:

1) Renamed the folder ~/.config/vlc to ~/.config/vlc_old

2) Executed "vlc", that recreated the folder ~/.config/vlc, with the default settings.

3) Went to "Tools" -> "Messages" -> "Modules" tab: the module screensaver is there (interface "screensaver" (20857912)).

4) Sadly, nothing changed. The bug is still here: VLC didn't stop the gnome-screensaver.

Rogerio

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Extra information:

a) lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu karmic (development branch)
Release: 9.10

b) apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Instalado: 1.0.2-1ubuntu1
  Candidato: 1.0.2-1ubuntu1
  Tabela de versão:
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

c) I attached the tarball of ~/.config/vlc with this message.

Moving the vlc folder doesnt help for me either. .. but the screensaver module is listed.

I found a parcial solution. Like Reinhard Tartler said, i moved the folder and then opened VLC. Then i checked the option "Always on top" in Tools->Preferences->Video. This worked fine, the screensaver didn't appeared.

carlosgaldino solution does not work at all. my window is always on top anyway

@praveenmarkandu

I know it. I talked with mac_v on IRC and he said that doesn't work for him too. Was a try. All we have to do is wait, i'm sure that soon the developers will fix it.

Forget it. The "Always on top" option failed. After a reboot, the problem came back. So, there's no partial solution anymore. Sorry.

What would be usefull is the log produced by "bustle" when running vlc and playing a video.

Filtering the log on "/org/gnome/ScreenSaver" would be even better.

Debian Bug #541968 seems to be more relevant. Unsure if the two aren't actually dupes, but this one is found in both 2.26 and 2.28

Xtophe (from vlc upstream) suggested that debian bug #541968 and gnome bug #579430 may be relevant. I've checked the proposed patch to gnome-screensaver, and it indeed seems that vlc is using a function in gnome-screensaver that has been replaced by a stub (well, rather a FIXME).

If gnome-screensaver is detected, VLC sends the "Poke" and "SImulateUserActivity" signals in modules/misc/screensaver.c, function poke_screensaver. "Poke" does not seem implemented at all, and "SimulateUserActivity" leads to this function:

static void
gs_monitor_simulate_user_activity (GSMonitor *monitor)
{
        /* FIXME: reset the xsync timer? */

        /* request that the manager unlock -
           will pop up a dialog if necessary */
        gs_manager_request_unlock (monitor->priv->manager);
}

I agree with xtophe that the proposed patch from the gnome bug could help here. Would someone please try that patch out?

Packages with the patch applied are available at http://people.videolan.org/~xtophde/debian/

oups i meant http://people.videolan.org/~xtophe/debian/

xtophe's packages are built in debian/sid. packages for ubuntu karmic can be found shortly in the motumedia ppa:

https://edge.launchpad.net/~motumedia/+archive/ppa

Thanks for that link Reinhard. I want to help out, if you dont mind letting me know which of the packages in those ppa are the ones I would install, I will do so. gnome-screensaver or vlc? or both? (want to make sure I am doing it correctly so we can get proper results.)

Reinhard,

Bad news. I downloaded the gnome-screensaver from your PPA, installed it with a 'dpkg -i', but nothing changed: VLC stills doesn't stop the gnome-screensaver...

Rogerio <email address hidden> writes:

> Bad news. I downloaded the gnome-screensaver from your PPA, installed it
> with a 'dpkg -i', but nothing changed: VLC stills doesn't stop the
> gnome-screensaver...

are you sure that you restarted the running gnome-screensaver? You will
need to either logout and re-login or restart your computer.

The patch is reported to work in debian, though.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

Reinhard,

I did the test again, following these steps:

1) I was using this version of gnome-screensaver:

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
  Instalado: 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
  Candidato: 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
  Tabela de versão:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

2) Then I downloaded the version of the PPA:

$ ls gnome*
gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu1+motumedia1_amd64.deb

3) I installed it with the command:

$ sudo dpkg -i gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu1+motumedia1_amd64.deb

4) Confirmed the installation:

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Instalado: 2.28.0-0ubuntu1+motumedia1
  Candidato: 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
  Tabela de versão:
     2.28.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu1+motumedia1 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

5) Rebooted. (I didn't do that in the previous test)

6) And then it WORKED! For the first time I could watch a movie using VLC in Karmic.

Thanks a lot!

This package will be officially released for karmic? Or i have to install directly using the motumedia PPA?

patch confirmed to work, working on a package.

okay to upload for RC?

proposed patch

nothing to fix in vlc, I've just uploaded the gnome-screensaver patch to karmic

status update:

21:08:14 < chrisccoulson> siretart - that gnome-screensaver patch
   makes the assumption that the MIT-SCREEN-SAVER extension is
   always available, which might not always be the case

21:09:53 < siretart> chrisccoulson: oh, can you perhaps improve
   the patch to check for that extension?

21:15:07 < chrisccoulson> siretart - i'll have a look if i get
   the chance, but the patch doesn't really look right anyway.
   gnome-screensaver currently gets session idle-ness from
   gnome-session, which uses the SYNC extension and IDLETIME
   counter. applications which want to inhibit the screensaver
   should really be the gnome-session inhibit API now, although
   it would be nice to get gnome-screensaver to work correctly
   too

21:16:54 < siretart> slangasek: based on chrisccoulson comments,
   please reject my gnome-screensaver upload :(

21:18:32 < slangasek> siretart: ok, rejected

IOW: the patch needs more work :-(

It worked for me too. I followed the steps and i have no problems.

Today, after a system update, gnome-screensaver and VLC received new versions:

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Instalado: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidato: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Tabela de versão:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Instalado: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Candidato: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Tabela de versão:
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Then I perfomed a new test: this time VLC worked fine and stopped the screensaver, without the gnome-screensaver package from the PPA!

It appears the problem is fixed.

Rogerio <email address hidden> writes:

> Today, after a system update, gnome-screensaver and VLC received new
> versions:
>
> $ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
> gnome-screensaver:
> *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0

Changes:
  [ Chris Coulson ]
  * debian/patches/08_gs_dialog_request_to_exit.patch:
    - Updated to not register a handler for SIGTERM in the dialog. This
      prevents the dialog from hanging on timeouts or authentication
      failures (LP: #454959)

> $ apt-cache policy vlc
> vlc:
> *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0

Changes:
  * PulseAudio: higher priority than ALSA, LP: #402018

> Then I perfomed a new test: this time VLC worked fine and stopped the
> screensaver, without the gnome-screensaver package from the PPA!
>
> It appears the problem is fixed.

I cannot see how either change could be related to this.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

I have both those updates[up-to-date karmic] and the problem isnt solved here.

I have further studied the gnome-screensaver code, and have come to the conclusion that the SimulateUserActivity functionality (this is what vlc and 'gnome-screensaver-command --poke' actually call inside g-s-s) is left simply broken.

As shown in comment #15, SimulateUserActivity asks the unlock screen to appear, but will (no longer) prevent the screen to be locked. This makes this functionality absolutely unusable for any media player application.

Xtophe points out that g-s-s is supposed to proxy requests to gnome-session. This is right, but only when using the Inhibit API.

Patching vlc to use Inhibit instead of SimulateUserActivity would be an option. However, the API is different. While SimulateUserActivity does not require any parameters, Inhibit requires three: the application name, the reason for inhibiting and a random (but unique) cookie. Currently, vlc/modules/misc/screensaver.c does support dbus calls without parameters only. And since here the low level dbus API is used, adding this is hard for me. DBUS gurus welcome. Perhaps it would be easier if that file was ported to glib so that the glib dbus bindings could be used. YMMV.

For similar reasons gnome-screensaver is uneasy to fix. It would have to somehow identify what application has poked the screensaver, invent some reason for inhibiting the saver and decide on a duration how long the supression should last.

IMO improving g-s-s to proxy the SimulateUserActivity call to the inhibit API would make it most compatible with existing applications. At least this change should be properly communicated to upstreams who now wonder why poking the screensaver suddenly fails.

I repeated the test with the official packages from Ubuntu and, after a reboot, it doesn't work anymore.

The only solution to the problem is the gnome-screensaver package from the PPA.

My system is up-to-date and the problem persists. Today the screensaver came
up while watching a movie.

--
Carlos Galdino

2009/10/20 mac_v <email address hidden>

> I have both those updates[up-to-date karmic] and the problem isnt solved
> here.
>
> --
> Vlc does not inhibit screensaver
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/428884
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in GNOME Screensaver: Unknown
> Status in VLC media player: Incomplete
> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
> Status in “vlc” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in gnome-screensaver in Ubuntu Karmic: Triaged
> Status in vlc in Ubuntu Karmic: Invalid
> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Debian: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: vlc
>
> In karmic , while playing videos , VLC does not inhibit screensaver.
>
> This is a regression from the behavior in jaunty.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> CheckboxSubmission: 417990aadff2335cd485c57bb06c8968
> CheckboxSystem: 5484a8dd99f006173bd2ac53fa4837c2
> Date: Sun Sep 13 19:58:49 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: vlc 1.0.1-2ubuntu1
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.32-generic
> SourcePackage: vlc
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686
>

While this is annoying, it it does not break karmic enough to be a release blocker. There is no fix available either. But this is SRUable, so moving milestone.

So... it won't be any fix to this? I mean, a well-made fix like Reinhard Tartler said.

I have one question, before it was about this bug that vlc doesn't inhibit
the screensaver, but now i'm having a bug that the screensaver doesn't
appear after i watch a movie using vlc. Does anybody know anything about
that?

Thanks.

--
Carlos Galdino

2009/10/21 Carlos Galdino <email address hidden>

> My system is up-to-date and the problem persists. Today the screensaver
> came up while watching a movie.
>
> --
> Carlos Galdino
>
>
> 2009/10/20 mac_v <email address hidden>
>
> I have both those updates[up-to-date karmic] and the problem isnt solved
>> here.
>>
>> --
>> Vlc does not inhibit screensaver
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/428884
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>> Status in GNOME Screensaver: Unknown
>> Status in VLC media player: Incomplete
>> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Ubuntu: Triaged
>> Status in “vlc” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
>> Status in gnome-screensaver in Ubuntu Karmic: Triaged
>> Status in vlc in Ubuntu Karmic: Invalid
>> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Debian: Confirmed
>>
>> Bug description:
>> Binary package hint: vlc
>>
>> In karmic , while playing videos , VLC does not inhibit screensaver.
>>
>> This is a regression from the behavior in jaunty.
>>
>> ProblemType: Bug
>> Architecture: i386
>> CheckboxSubmission: 417990aadff2335cd485c57bb06c8968
>> CheckboxSystem: 5484a8dd99f006173bd2ac53fa4837c2
>> Date: Sun Sep 13 19:58:49 2009
>> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
>> Package: vlc 1.0.1-2ubuntu1
>> ProcEnviron:
>> LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
>> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
>> SHELL=/bin/bash
>> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.32-generic
>> SourcePackage: vlc
>> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686
>>
>
>

Carlos, now that you say that, I realize mine has been the same way. Did not think about it until now, but it is true.

I observe the same problem in Me TV.

Hi Matthias, which issue? The `gnome-screensaver-command --poke` fail or the screensaver problem mentioned in the 2 posts previous?

Me TV calls `gnome-screensaver-command --poke` [0] so if it is broken then Me TV will surely fail. Fortunately, the command is configurable and stored in GConf at /apps/me-tv/screensaver_poke_command. I would hope that there's a command line application out there that is able to actually inhibit the screensaver in karmic (maybe using dbus) and if so you should be able to simply update the value in GConf. A quick Googling gave me this results [1], but I haven't tested it yet.

[0] http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Elamothe/me-tv/me-tv-1.1/annotate/head%3A/src/main_window.cc#L329

[1] dbus-send --session --dest=org.gnome.ScreenSaver --type=method_call --print-reply --reply-timeout=20000 /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver.Inhibit string:"Me TV" string:"Watching Me TV"

Please don't use the org.gnome.ScreenSaver interface, as it has other issues (such as leaking inhibitors if a process exits without removing them). Use the org.gnome.SessionManager interface instead, and gnome-session will clean up inhibitors if the registering application exits without removing them (ie, if it crashes. This is currently an issue with Totem, which uses the problematic interface)

Chris Coulson <email address hidden> writes:

> Please don't use the org.gnome.ScreenSaver interface, as it has other
> issues (such as leaking inhibitors if a process exits without removing
> them).

gnome-screensaver --poke does use exactly this interface. The earlier
mentioned dbus call does therefore exactly the same as using the Inhibit
command, which is now suddenly deprecated without real communication
with downstreams.

It would be really great if an SRU could make the org.gnome.ScreenSaver
interface again. A patch was proposed for this, but you defacto vetoed
it because it supposely would make gnome-screensaver crash if the XSS
extension is not available, correct? Did you have a chance to improve
the patch so that we can include it in an SRU?

> Use the org.gnome.SessionManager interface instead, and gnome-
> session will clean up inhibitors if the registering application exits
> without removing them (ie, if it crashes. This is currently an issue
> with Totem, which uses the problematic interface)

Is there an portable interface that preferably works in both Gnome and KDE?

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

"gnome-screensaver-command --poke" uses the SimulateUserActivity() method on the org.gnome.ScreenSaver interface. I was referring specifically to the Inhibit() and Uninhibit() methods in my previous comment (sorry, I should have been more clear). If applications are going to be ported to using the inhibit interface (rather than SimulateUserActivity), then they need to be ported to the gnome-session interface, which is less problematic

I can set aside some time to take a look at this patch. Initially, I thought there might be a nicer and less hacky way of doing this, but this doesn't seem to be the case. The problem of trying to reset the IDLETIME counter to prevent the session from being set to idle is not a new problem, and gnome-session currently uses some hackery to manipulate the counter by simulating fake key presses.

I tried manipulating IDLETIME directly usin XSyncSetCounter, but X doesn't let you do that.

So, it seems that there is currently no nice way of acheiving this functionality (in the ideal world, applications would use the inhibit interface instead, rather than simulating fake user activity). If the patch above works, then it would just need to be made more robust by calling XScreenSaverQueryExtension() before doing any other XSS extension calls.

Alternatively, you can look to the send_fake_event() function in gs-idle-monitor.c in the gnome-session source.

Michael Lamothe wrote:
> Hi Matthias, which issue? The `gnome-screensaver-command --poke` fail
> or the screensaver problem mentioned in the 2 posts previous?

Sorry for the ambiguity. I meant the issue that Me TV is interrupted
by the screensaver similar to the behaviour of vlc mentioned in the
original bug description.

My 'workaround' at the moment is to do
gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type=bool false
before watching a movie and then doing
gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type=bool true
when I'm done.

Anyone has come with something better?

I'm doing same just i use "gnome-screensaver-preferences" and turn idle_activation_enabled... And wollah... GUI :)

Unfortunately this is only temporary solution untill they fix "gnome-screensaver". But how comes in older version gnome-screensaver did work properly?

I have the same problem with VLC:

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Looks like I may have filed a duplicate of this ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-screensaver/+bug/474175 ). However, it looks like all the discussion here focuses on vlc. The same problem exists with totem--probably for the same reason. Sigh.

I confirm the bug with karmic koala.

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

$ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

My fix was to disable gnome screensaver and install xscreensaver. Works fine on my machine (Core Duo E7400).

Joo - why did you close the bug?

I don't think that we need to leave the Me TV bug open because the bug is in gnome-screensaver-command and I assume will be fixed sometime when someone migrates it to use the "org.gnome.SessionManager" interface. Let me know if I've misunderstood, happy to discuss.

I've encountered the bug in Mplayer and VLC, both unable to stop screensaver.

Confirm the problem using VLC on Karmic AMD64. The gnome-screensaver package in the above PPA resolved this for me.

Will have to chance the crash in the event I don't have XSS. ;)

@Reinhard Tartler :
Hi , when i started this bug, it was regarding vlc not inhibiting the screensaver , but this bug has turned into a metabug regarding gnome-screensaver --poke command not working.

Any reason that VLC cannot use the inhibit API similar to totem[which is able to inhibit the screensaver]?
or do you want a separate bug filed for that?

@mac_v:
I've just checked the upstream commit logs, and AFAIUI Rémi Denis-Courmont has done some work on this on 2009-10-18.

I'm actually not sure if these changes are enough, I fear that his works aims at diverting the screensaver code to the inhibit plugin, which uses an interface that gnome-power-manager no longer supports. I guess that if modules/misc/inhibit.c was converted to the the inhibit API of gnome-session, then this bug should be solved so far.

My changes are merely moving VLC from calling gnome-screensaver directly to using xdg-screensaver. I have no idea if it fixes the problem - it depends what xdg-screensaver internally does in the GNOME desktop case.

xdg-screensaver does exactly the same as VLC is doing now (gnome-screensaver-command --poke), so it won't fix the problem

Hmm , So vlc wont fix it and gnome-screensaver wants apps to use a different API.
I guess users just have to wait until someone compromises ;)

Anyone know a video player which can boost audio volume?
vlc seems to be the only video player which can boost audio volume to 400%.

You are welcome to provide a patch for the VLC 1.0-bugfix branch if you are not happy.

In VLC 1.1, the problem is off-shored to xdg-screensaver. So it's up to GNOME screensaver and XDG-utils to interoperate. And so there is no fix to be made on VLC's side.

I asked DIDOpladen for explanation of his status change in private, but received no reply. As I strongly disagree with him here, I'm reverting his status changes.

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
$ apt-cache policy vlc
vlc:
  Installed: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Temporary fix
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=284804

Three years and still going; thanks DracoMoye.

You could also just add the inhibitor applet to the gnome-panel..

@Reddox:
No offense, but that's like telling to someone who's driving a car without brakes, "You could always use the hand brake".

Last time I checked, the inhibit applet only affected power management, not the screensaver.

Well, it does.

On Dec 12, 2009 3:36 PM, "nandhp" <email address hidden> wrote:

Last time I checked, the inhibit applet only affected power management,
not the screensaver.

-- gnome-screensaver-command --poke no longer inhibits screensaver
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs...

More info on this issue between vlc and gnome-screensaver. If you let screensaver activate while viewing a movie then in a few seconds screensaver inhibits as expected and no longer activates in the rest of the movie if you don't touch any key nor mouse.

I've tried VPablo's passive method and it really is working, but screensaver holds on for a 10 seconds or so.

I'd like to comment on perspective here.

Ubuntu is supposed to be "Linux for Humans". Something as stupid as "breaking the inhibit" functionality of the screensaver shouldn't take this long to fix. Since Ubuntu is very popular amongst multimedia centres, this is a pretty crucial feature for people.

Suggestion:
 1. Temporarily fix the bug NOW, (remove regression), and allow the patch to flow to Karmic users so that functionality returns. (i..e they shouldn't have to "patch" anything -- this should come upstream via apt)
 2. Spend the time to figure out the "right" solution BEFORE breaking it. Once it's been agreed on the right solution, implement it, test it, and release it.

Users don't care if gnome-screensaver wants to use a new API and media players aren't catching up. We can't expect people to actually adopt this OS if we're squabbling over stupid stuff like this. As soon as this bug was realised, the regression should have been removed, and once functionality was restored (the old way), then we can take the time to discuss the "right way" to fix it. I'm all for "doing things right", but not at the expense of having a feature (that used to work) disappear from a new release for months... completely unacceptable.

Fermulator, I think on a high level, everybody would agree. But I think the problem is that nobody is "responsible" for fixing this issue.

GNOME guys decided to clean up their API. We can't blame them for doing so. Of course, "users" of their APIs (i.e. VLC media player here) were not notified. But then again, the GNOME guys have no way to know who is using this API anyway.

On the VLC side, we did not know about the problem until it was too late. And I suspect the architectural changes that a proper fix won't be feasible before the next VLC release series. I mean VLC 1.1, and that probably will go to Ubuntu 10.10 (Ubuntu 10.04 if we are really fast and lucky).

On the Ubuntu side, VLC is only in universe (or was it even multiverse). That does mean there is no support promise. And of course, the Ubuntu GNOME guys have no incentives to take a patch that makes them drift from their upstream, only to support non-GNOME non-Ubuntu-main components.

Ultimately, you get what you pay for, and you probably paid nothing.

Complaining about the problem does not advance the resolution. What we need is someone taking action. Then (s)he can:
 - craft a proper patch for VLC 1.1,
 - then try to figure out how to backport the fix to VLC 1.0,
 - then fix it in VLC 1.0.

Fermulatur is absolutly right. Rémi, you are still trying to fix the right way, when Ubuntu should just through it's old gnome-screen-saver from Jaunty back at it's users. May the right fix come out in the next version, but if right now people are just formating with 9.04 for all the bugs found in 9.10. This is the worse Ubuntu version since I started using it (back in 7.xx).
If I only knew how install the old gnome-screen-saver back, I'd already have posted on my blog and tought hundreds of people on how to do it. VLC is much more used than any other media player, but this problem is with everything, not just VLC. Even full screen games are afected. I'm not even sure which is the "official" media player, but Totem also has the problem.

On Tue, 2009-12-15 at 11:12 +0000, Alroger Filho wrote:
> I'm not even sure which is the "official" media player, but Totem also has the problem.

Correction , TOTEM does *not* have this problem.

I'v switched to totem[even though i hate to use it] , just for this
problem and gnome-screensaver works well with TOTEM. [confirmed with a
few others too.]

If you are having problems with totem too , then its a different
problem.

Remi, the PPA that was posted above worked until it was superseded by a security update. It's disingenuous to say this would force the Gnome guys away from upstream when this is a small patch against a released version. The 9.10 branch is going to be limited to maintenance patches until it's end-of-lifed not too long from now.

It's an ugly workaround, but if Ubuntu can't tolerate the occasional ugly workaround for the sake of users, it's time to mark bug #1 as "WONTFIX".

ArbitraryConstant <email address hidden> writes:

> Remi, the PPA that was posted above worked until it was superseded by a
> security update.

As stated in an earlier comment, the patch in that package was just
wrong and nobody cared to correct that patch so far.

> It's disingenuous to say this would force the Gnome guys away from
> upstream when this is a small patch against a released version. The
> 9.10 branch is going to be limited to maintenance patches until it's
> end-of-lifed not too long from now.

please watch your tone against an very active vlc upstream contributor.

> It's an ugly workaround, but if Ubuntu can't tolerate the occasional
> ugly workaround for the sake of users, it's time to mark bug #1 as
> "WONTFIX".

cf. http://www.ubuntu.com/community/conduct

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

If it's just a matter of fixing a DBus in VLC, then Ubuntu VLC could just invoke dbus-send via system(). Obviously, that wouldn't work for other packages.

And by the way, xdg-screensaver will need to be fixed too, because VLC 1.1 will probably use that.

But again, I would not to blame GNOME too much here. Tracking which applications is inhibiting the screen saver makes sense. And if Ubuntu GNOME keeps the old API for backward compatibility, there will never be any incentive for dependent application to fix their code... So of course, the most up-to-date distributions like Ubuntu and Fedora are bound to be hit. If you want to suffer from bleeding edge stuff, you should use Ubuntu LTS or Debian stable really. But of course you will have old stuff with fewer features; it's a trade-off.

Rémi Denis-Courmont <email address hidden> writes:

> And by the way, xdg-screensaver will need to be fixed too, because VLC
> 1.1 will probably use that.

I've just filed bug #497318 for that.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

Alroger, I've been able to solve this by manually regressing to jaunty's gome-screensaver.

Please see my 23-Nov comment on bug #474175.

I'm going to work on this in the next few days, by re-adding the missing functionality in gnome-screensaver for now.

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-screensaver - 2.28.0-1ubuntu3

---------------
gnome-screensaver (2.28.0-1ubuntu3) lucid; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/09_legacy_scrsvr_inhibit.patch:
    - Re-introduce the legacy method of inhibiting the screensaver,
      which is wrapped by xdg-screensaver and still used by some
      applications (LP: #428884)
  * debian/patches/90_autotools.patch:
    - Update autotools so that the XTEST support is built in
  * debian/control:
    - Add build-depend on libxtst-dev
 -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:23:20 +0000

Will this also be released for Karmic?

On Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 20:30, Launchpad Bug Tracker <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> This bug was fixed in the package gnome-screensaver - 2.28.0-1ubuntu3
>
> ---------------
> gnome-screensaver (2.28.0-1ubuntu3) lucid; urgency=low
>
> * debian/patches/09_legacy_scrsvr_inhibit.patch:
> - Re-introduce the legacy method of inhibiting the screensaver,
> which is wrapped by xdg-screensaver and still used by some
> applications (LP: #428884)
> * debian/patches/90_autotools.patch:
> - Update autotools so that the XTEST support is built in
> * debian/control:
> - Add build-depend on libxtst-dev
> -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:23:20
> +0000
>
> ** Branch linked: lp:~ubuntu-desktop/gnome-screensaver/ubuntu
>
> ** Changed in: gnome-screensaver (Ubuntu)
> Status: In Progress => Fix Released
>
> --
> gnome-screensaver-command --poke no longer inhibits screensaver
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/428884
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in GNOME Screensaver: Unknown
> Status in Me TV, it's TV for me computer: Invalid
> Status in VLC media player: Won't Fix
> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
> Status in “vlc” package in Ubuntu: Invalid
> Status in “gnome-screensaver” source package in Karmic: In Progress
> Status in “vlc” source package in Karmic: Invalid
> Status in “gnome-screensaver” package in Debian: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: vlc
>
> In karmic , while playing videos , VLC does not inhibit screensaver.
>
> This is a regression from the behavior in jaunty.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: i386
> CheckboxSubmission: 417990aadff2335cd485c57bb06c8968
> CheckboxSystem: 5484a8dd99f006173bd2ac53fa4837c2
> Date: Sun Sep 13 19:58:49 2009
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
> Package: vlc 1.0.1-2ubuntu1
> ProcEnviron:
> LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-10.32-generic
> SourcePackage: vlc
> Uname: Linux 2.6.31-10-generic i686
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-screensaver/+bug/428884/+subscribe
>

Yes, it should be - I will prepare the karmic fix later today.

I've uploaded this for karmic now. It's just waiting in the queue for review at the moment.

On Tue, 2009-12-22 at 22:06 +0000, Chris Coulson wrote:
> I've uploaded this for karmic now. It's just waiting in the queue for
> review at the moment.
>

Chris , thanks for working on this one :)
It works perfectly on Lucid.

Accepted gnome-screensaver into karmic-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

Ok:
$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Instalados: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Candidato: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Tabla de versión:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic-proposed/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages
     2.28.0-0ubuntu2+motumedia1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net karmic/main Packages

Karmic 32 bit.

Work as expected. Thanks to Chris and Ubuntu people.

Merry Christmas to all!

apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

Karmic 64 bit.

The problem is still there with VLC.

On Wed, 2009-12-23 at 16:20 +0000, Sennaista wrote:
> Karmic 64 bit.
>
> The problem is still there with VLC.
>

Did you restart the system?
It didnt work for me until I restarted my system. My sys is a 32bit
though :)

Have you restarted your system or your X session?

Sennaista - please use the test case mentioned above (using the test script provided), after restarting your session

My bad everyone, I hadn't restarted the session. After restarting the session I ran the script and it works fine.

Thanks!

Why did this get a task opened against mplayer? The bug here is in gnome-screensaver

Sorry, I wished to point that this is the bug which apparently reopened bug #6620.

Best christmas present so far this year: Screensaver and VLC in harmony again :-)

gnome-screensaver:
  Installiert: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Kandidat: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Versions-Tabelle:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 0
        500 http://li.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-proposed/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://li.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://li.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

vlc:
  Installiert: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2
  Kandidat: 1.0.2-1ubuntu2.1
  Versions-Tabelle:
     1.0.2-1ubuntu2.1 0
        500 http://li.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-proposed/universe Packages
 *** 1.0.2-1ubuntu2 0
        500 http://li.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

on AMD64bit Karmic

Thanksalot, guys

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-screensaver - 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2

---------------
gnome-screensaver (2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2) karmic-proposed; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/10_legacy_scrsvr_inhibit.patch:
    - Reintroduce the legacy inhibit API, which is wrapped by
      xdg-screensaver and still required by some applications. This API
      was removed in the current version of gnome-screensaver, breaking
      screensaver inhibit in VLC and most games (LP: #428884)
  * debian/control:
    - Add build-depend on libxtst-dev, to make the inhibit work.
 -- Chris Coulson <email address hidden> Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:15:52 +0000

This bug is NOT fixed.

Gnome-screensaver continues to become active during video playback in Mplayer.
Stop XScreenSaver is checked in Mplayer preferences.

Bug encountered on:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala amd64

Ubuntu repository packages
mplayer_1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1_amd64.deb
gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2_amd64.deb

Bug is not fixed by 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2

It's been working for me in VLC.

This may be a stupid comment, but if you are checking "Stop XScreenSaver" in Mplayer, why would you expect it to stop gnome-screensaver? Aren't those two different packages?

Yes they are two different packages. As far as I understand though, both XScreenSaver and Gnome-screensaver were both disabled the same way using "poke" to reset the timer. So it shouldn't really matter what mplayer lists as "XScreensaver", because the end result should reset the timer for whatever screensaver was active.

Chris seems to be of the impression that whatever issue remains, is an issue with mplayer

This mplayer bug appears similar
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/mplayer/+bug/439787

The screen-saver is not disabled also when a flash video clip is watched in Firefox.

On Fr, Jan 08, 2010 at 21:55:00 (CET), Xtigyro wrote:

> The screen-saver is not disabled also when a flash video clip is watched
> in Firefox.

thats a seperate issue that has nothing to do with the defect in
gnome-screensaver-command. Please file a new bug.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

Re-opening the karmic task. I've had to back out the patch which fixes this, as it causes a regression (bug 505789)

not only with 'mplayer' but also in 'VLC' the screen-saver is not disabled...

On Wed, 2010-01-13 at 21:45 +0000, Xtigyro wrote:
> not only with 'mplayer' but also in 'VLC' the screen-saver is not
> disabled...
>
> --
My previous comment explains why this doesn't work for VLC.

Mplayer is a completely separate issue, unrelated to this bug (explained
a few comments ago)

On Mi, Jan 13, 2010 at 23:04:05 (CET), Chris Coulson wrote:

> Mplayer is a completely separate issue, unrelated to this bug (explained
> a few comments ago)

IIUC, you intend to change the XResetScreensaver() implementation in in
the xserver to reset the IDLECOUNTER. If the XScreenSaverSuspend()
implementation would call XResetScreensaver() (which seems reasonable to
me), then mplayer would be unbroken instantly!

XScreenSaverSuspend() is a pretty widly used standard API from the XSS
extensions.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

this sounds silly, but is it possible for someone to attach a deb or source of gnome-screensaver 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 ?
though there is that "alt" regression as reported in the other bug report, it does not affect me in any visible way and 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 seemed to work just fine for me

Open Synaptic, find gnome-screensaver, and select it. Then go to the Package menu and select "Force Version". You should be able to select the previous version of the package.

After you do this you may have to lock the version (also through the package menu) so that it doesn't bug you to upgrade it.

Here's gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 deb for karmic, I will attach the 32bits version later on...

I'm using Lucid alpha 2. I'm watching a movie and the screensaver kicks in. So, the bug also exists in Lucid.

$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-1ubuntu5
  Candidate: 2.28.0-1ubuntu5
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-1ubuntu5 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com lucid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Here's gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 i386 deb for karmic.

thanks freddy3980. i tried applying the diff patch and then compiling it. couldnt get it to compile. i need to up my linux-fu

No problem, but actually I didn't compile it myself, I got it from a PPA the same day that gnome-screensaver_2.28.0-0ubuntu3.3 came out and broke the "fix". Now I tried to google it and it's no where to be found... If anyone has problems installing those packages, try using the console:

cd /path/to/the/deb
sudo dpkg -i name of deb file.deb

then restarts the computer.

Mythtv needs to either use a new API for inhibiting the screensaver, or gnome-screensaver's older method for inhibition needs to work. Without one of those, mythtv's frontend is virtually unusable without whacking a mouse or keyboard every X minutes.

MythTV will not be patched. gnome-screensaver advertises --poke for suspending even in it's --help. It's what xdg-screensaver uses. The root of the problem is in gnome-screensaver itself.

This bug is still present and still VERY annoying! I'm also VERY disappointed to see its also effecting Lucid too.

I have the same problem with "VLC media player 0.9.9a Grishenko" on Kubuntu 9.04.
Neither the screensaver, nor the powermanagement are disbled by vlc.

Applying the patch attached to this bug does fix the issue and I do not see that issue with menus popping up in open office like the other bug.

Is it possible to make a dbus call from within gs-monitor.c that stimulates the inhibit correctly?
I'm no dbus programmer so I haven't had a go.

i am getting the proposed updates and am up to date and this bug isnt fixed for me.

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/attachment.cgi?id=32398 *should* unbreak most "legacy" applications (== not ported yet to the new gnome powermanagement API) .

Does the xorg-server fix also fix gnome-screensaver-command --poke? Will we get this as an update to karmic?

I'm rewriting the screensaver code in Me TV to use the org.gnome.ScreenSaver interface like I've already done for GNOME Media Player.

Does this mean it wouldn't be able to suspend the screensaver in KDE
anymore?

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 20:26, Michael Lamothe <email address hidden>wrote:

> I'm rewriting the screensaver code in Me TV to use the
> org.gnome.ScreenSaver interface like I've already done for GNOME Media
> Player.
>
> ** Changed in: me-tv
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
>
> ** Changed in: me-tv
> Status: Invalid => In Progress
>
> ** Changed in: me-tv
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Michael Lamothe (lamothe)
>
> --
> gnome-screensaver-command --poke no longer inhibits screensaver
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/428884
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

--
Jeremy Nickurak -= Email/XMPP: <email address hidden> =-

Weird , this bug seems fixed in lucid with either update:
vlc (1.0.4-2ubuntu2) to 1.0.5-1ubuntu1 or
gnome-screensaver (2.29.90-0ubuntu1) to 2.29.91-0ubuntu1

Oddly , both the updates were on the same day while neither changelogs mention fixing this bug ,
But when watching movies with vlc the screensaver is now inhibited...

Is it solved for other Lucid users too or is anyone else facing the bug in Lucid?

Hmm , I'm using the xorg-edgers ppa on Lucid , btw.
Might be the xorg fix Reinhard mentions in comment #123 [oh! we have had so many comments ]

Yeah, the fix is probably in there as it was committed upstream a few days ago. As gnome-screensaver is already fixed, this will work again once the Xorg patch lands in Ubuntu

The fix that went upstream (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=25855) is included in the xserver we carry in Lucid.

Been on Lucid since beta 1. Upgraded to the latest package versions just yesterday. For the first time since the migration to KDE4 apps I kept the Kaffeine upgrade (0.8.7 to 1.0). Since this is marked duplicate of bug 531306 I should note here that when using Kaffeine screen saver inhibition, or at least stand-by inhibition, is not working when watching tv from dvb.

btw, this problem occurred in the KDE3 version package as well, was then caused by a missing build dependency (I think) and was solved with a ppa package.

I installed the motumedia packages and this seems to have fixed the issue.