[SOLVED]WhaDaHeck:spontaneously activated xscreensaver 5.21?

[jtwdyp]

I used to run Enlightenment {E17} all the time. I liked E17 but I got tired of how often I had to recreate all my user preferences due to it's ongoing "heavy development". Especially the way I had to use a mouse intensive method to recreate all my personal keyboard shortcuts {none of which match the defaults}.

So when I learned how to configure openbox keybindings I began using it instead of E17 on almost all of my Linux installations. Which currently includes Mageia 3 on three multi-boot computers.

The Livingroom PC took a little longer to get around to. As a family PC, most of it's users use Windows 7 on it. But I've also got Mageia 3 installed which I mainly use to pipe Hulu or Utube videos to the TV via the HDMI output. Or lately smplayer with a playlist of downloaded Utube videos. {Prevents delays on the rare occasions when my DSL isn't quite fast enough to keep up with playback}

Since I mainly used Mageia on this PC to watch videos while sitting across the room from the keyboard and mouse, I had even less use for a screensaver than usual. (When I'm not watching video, I routinely use a keybinding to pull up xlock {xlockmore} and/or hit the power button on the monitor when/if I'm no longer actively using a Linux box that I'm also not shutting down yet.)

Anyway when I was using E17 I had turned off all screensaver and/or screen blanking functions to prevent the process from interrupting the show when it wasn't convenient to wiggle the mouse every few minutes.

When I first altered my ~/.xinitrc so that startx now calls /usr/bin/openbox-session I wouldn't have been surprised at needing to turn off the screensaver again. But for over a week since then, I've been using smplayer to watch playlists containing several hours of downloaded utube videos almost every night. And not once did the screensaver get in my way.

Then last night we decided to watch a collection of shows via my huluplus "queue" using Firefox. And suddenly the screensaver started blanking the screen every ten minutes until I found the (only) screensaver related menu selection at applications>tools>screensaver. Where I had to re-disable AND restart the daemon to get it to go away again. Why it should interrupt Firefox streaming video when it didn't interfere with smplayer is beyond me???

But as much as I'd like to know why that could be, I'm also somewhat concerned that the screensaver settings dialog that the screensaver menu selection pulls up belongs to xscreensaver 5.21 which matches the only version displayed by:

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 Name        : xscreensaver
 Version     : 5.21
 Release     : 1.mga3
 Group       : Graphical desktop/Other
 Size        : 2152291                      Architecture: x86_64
 Source RPM  : xscreensaver-5.21-1.mga3.src.rpm
 URL         : http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/
 Summary     : A set of X Window System screensavers
 Description :
 The xscreensaver package contains a variety of screensavers for your
 mind-numbing, ambition-eroding, time-wasting, hypnotized viewing
 pleasure.

 Install the xscreensaver package if you need screensavers for use with
 the X Window System.


Yet every time it starts I get this:



So I'm also wondering why Mageia's xscreensaver package is so out of date that it complains about itself this way?

[doktor5000]

What is actually your question? You changed your desktop session and wonder why there's a small change with the screensaver?
Maybe some background service or application called for xscreensaver?

You know, Mageia 3 was released more then one year ago, and if there are not critical bugfixes or security updates required,
the packages will stay at that version: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Updates_policy

[jtwdyp]

What is actually your question? You changed your desktop session and wonder why there's a small change with the screensaver?

Thanks for responding to my longwinded querry. There were two actual questions. Neither was so much a request for help, as they were an attempt to learn a better understanding of the processes involved...

I thought I explained that the idea of having to disable it again after changing my desktop session wasn't quite the first question... But since AFTER that change the only thing I did with the PC in question was to watch video. (OK so I also used terminal apps {mc and vim} to edit playlist files, but if either of them called an x screensaver I'm dumbfounded.)

The question was, for at least a week after the desktop session change which would have caused the screensaver to be reactivated {due to E17's settings not being used}, I was running smplayer for hours at a time, with zero keyboard or mouse activity.

1) So why didn't the already reactivated screensaver interupt that process?

Maybe some background service or application called for xscreensaver?

That is concievable, but the only thing different the day the X screensaver got in the way was that instead of opening a terminal emulator and calling smplayer at the command line, I opened firefox and logged in to hulu...

Wait a minute. Since on the occasions when the screensaver stayed out of the way, smplayer had been called at a command line from a terminal ewmulator (konsole to be precise), the assorted stdout and/or stderr messages from the running smplayer would have been scrolling up it's parent shells konsole window. Is it likely that could have been interpeted as activity by xscreensaver even though the konsole window was in the backgroud and smplayer's display was in the forground? When I later ran Firefox, there wasn't an open terminal window to display any such messages from Firefox's processes...

You know, Mageia 3 was released more then one year ago, and if there are not critical bugfixes or security updates required,
the packages will stay at that version: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Updates_policy

And that is the obviously correct answer (that I should have realised on my own) to my 2nd question...

Thanks!

I guess it's time I boned up on how to upgrade Mageia 3 to Mageia 4, I really can't remember a thing about how that's done with Mageia. I just have a vague memory of having read that there was a method that might keep me from having to recreate all my user settings and/or having to remember all the packages I'd need to install to a new installation from dvd... Must have been in the wiki somewhere...

[doktor5000]

I guess it's time I boned up on how to upgrade Mageia 3 to Mageia 4, I really can't remember a thing about how that's done with Mageia. I just have a vague memory of having read that there was a method that might keep me from having to recreate all my user settings and/or having to remember all the packages I'd need to install to a new installation from dvd... Must have been in the wiki somewhere...

Well, it's usually in the Release Notes. And also linked from the download page.
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_4_Rel ... m_Mageia_3

[jtwdyp]

Well, it's usually in the Release Notes. And also linked from the download page.
https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_4_Rel ... m_Mageia_3

Thanks! I don't know why I never seem to be able to come up with the right search terms to find anything in the wiki... Didn't think to search for release notes.

In the mean time I did a google search that found a blog of how somebody did his Mageia system(s)... His explanation of the cli method was missing how to use the mirrorlist method for x86_64 systems instead of the i586 his systems used.

Well that and the advice to run the --auto-update step twice in case some packages only downloaded in stead of being fully installed...

Since mine are all x86_64, I'm glad I waited.

Thanks again!

[jtwdyp]

OK, I've successfully upgraded to Mageia 4. But there is still a problem with a screensaver or screensaver like functionality interrupting streaming video...

I thought it was related to to xscreensaver because if I called up xscreensaver from the menu, and then after setting the screensaver to "disabled", restarted the daemon from the pop-up dialog's "file" menu I was able to resume viewing the streaming video, and go sit down across the room without the screen going blank, and Without the TV losing the HDMI signal...

What I didn't explain before was that this was a temporary fix. And that every time I booted Mageia, I'd have to repeat the process of calling the screensaver settings dialog, and restarting the daemon with the screensaver disabled. before I could watch video from hulu without needing to wiggle the mouse every 10 minutes or so.

That behavior remained the same after upgrading to Mageia 4. So since I was unable to find what setting or process was turning it back on I tried a brutal kludge.

I made a simple bash script that consisted of

Code: Select all

date >> /root/tmp/xscrewit.out
echo "$0 $*" >> /root/tmp/xscrewit.out
echo >> /root/tmp/xscrewit.out


I called that script once. Then I moved every executable matching "xscreen*" from /usr/bin to /root/tmp And replaced them with symlinks to my script.

Then I rebooted. And logged in to hulu, loaded my "queue" with 3 hrs of cartoons. And sat down to watch them with an energetic 6 yr old. Who fortunately was willing to jump up and wiggle the mouse every 10 minutes to turn the show back on... The oddest part was that he only needed to do that for about the 1st hour, after which the screen spontaneously stopped blanking...

When his shows were over I checked /root/tmp/xscrewit.out which still only had the one entry. I think that if anything had called any of the xscreensaver executables, my symlinked script should have at least logged the date... Yet if this screen blanking didn't have anything to do with xscreensaver, then I can't figure out why restarting it's daemon would have (temporarily) stopped it??

Then I rebooted and checked again, And something is still wanting to blank my screen after 10 minutes. But I can't find any setting anyplace that explains what is actually blanking my screen??

Any suggestions???

As it is, I'm going to restore the xscreensaver executables so that I can at least call and restart the xscreensaver daemon so that whatever it's stopping as a side effect of being restarted with a "disabled" setting can be temporarily stopped, so that I don't have to remain AT the PC for the family to enjoy streaming video.

[doktor5000]

Please show the output of

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xset -q

[benmc]

hI

If you go back to your screen saver preferences - where you took your screen shot , check on advanced tab and disable power management.
see if that disables the blanking

[jtwdyp]

Please show the output of

Code: Select all

xset -q

Code: Select all

 ~
UnderTree=-> xset -q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Compose:     off    04: Kana:        off    05: Sleep:       off
    06: Suspend:     off    07: Mute:        off    08: Misc:        off
    09: Mail:        off    10: Charging:    off    11: Shift Lock:  off
    12: Group 2:     off    13: Mouse Keys:  off
  auto repeat delay:  660    repeat rate:  25
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        dfffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  2/1    threshold:  4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  600    cycle:  600
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
 ~
UnderTree=->

I don't think those "screensaver" timout & cycle values reflect my xscreensaver settings, If you look at the image near the bottom of my first post, you can see that I'd previously set those to 730 minutes not 600 seconds...

The other thing I'm seeing is the DPMS settings... Isn't that what benmc's advise should have disabled?

hI

If you go back to your screen saver preferences - where you took your screen shot , check on advanced tab and disable power management.
see if that disables the blanking

Thing is I'd unchecked THAT checkbox the very first time I launched the xscreensaver settings dialog.
And I double check that it's still unchecked most every time I pull them up so that I can restart the deamon... hmmnn... lets see:

I just restarted the daemon again from the xscreensaver settings and then ran xset again:

Code: Select all

 ~
UnderTree=-> xset -q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Compose:     off    04: Kana:        off    05: Sleep:       off
    06: Suspend:     off    07: Mute:        off    08: Misc:        off
    09: Mail:        off    10: Charging:    off    11: Shift Lock:  off
    12: Group 2:     off    13: Mouse Keys:  off
  auto repeat delay:  660    repeat rate:  25
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        dfffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  2/1    threshold:  4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  0    cycle:  0
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 900    Off: 1200
  DPMS is Disabled
 ~
UnderTree=->

So I think that indicates some other "settings" is being activated either durring boot or startx processing. The big question is what settings where?

I don't currently use e17, and the last time I did, it's settings didn't do this. I've never used kde, gnome, or xfce on this PC but some of the packages I installed pulled in some dependencies... I also may have fired up an experimental icwm session once or twice, before I decided on openbox. But I'm not sure if that was on this pc, or just my other desktop.

Perhaps some default settings from one of them "dependencies" is overiding my xscreensaver settings?

[jtwdyp]

Please show the output of

Code: Select all

xset -q

Thank you for calling my attention to xset. After digging at it's man document for a while I tried adding:

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xset -dpms s 0 0

to my ~/.xinitrc...

Problem solved!

[doktor5000]

FWIW, xscreensaver has its own dpms implementation. xset and xscreensaver are two different things, that's why I've asked.

[jtwdyp]

FWIW, xscreensaver has its own dpms implementation. xset and xscreensaver are two different things, that's why I've asked.

Yeah, that figures. There must be some overlap on the underlying {backend?} code though, or restarting xscreensavers daemon wouldn't affect the output of "xset -q".

The way I figure it is that there must be a configuration file somewhere that's setting some default screensaver/dpms values every time I restart my system. But since it seems that it's finished by the time my ~/.xinitrc gets processed so my new xset command gets to override it before it can haunt me anymore. Thus I no longer really care which configuration setting it is.

And with a commented xset line in my ~/.xinitrc, even I will know what to do if I should ever want to reactivate the screensaver or dpms functions.

Thanks again!

[doktor5000]

The DPMS values come from default xorg config. If you want to change only those, best drop a config into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ as explained here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Di ... _DPMS_in_X

FWIW, ~/.xinitrc is not run for all desktop sessions AFAIR, you better double-check that the commands you put in there are really being run.

[jtwdyp]

The DPMS values come from default xorg config. If you want to change only those, best drop a config into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ as explained here:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Di ... _DPMS_in_X

Ahhh well that explains where the default values are being set from. And a fairly good tutorial on using xset. Thanks!

FWIW, ~/.xinitrc is not run for all desktop sessions AFAIR, you better double-check that the commands you put in there are really being run.

It is on all of MY Linux installations. Excepting only when I don't run the gui, and just use the virtual consoles.

Back when I was first repulsed by kde4 & I learned it was even possible to avoid using a Display Manager, I began to use a simplistic ~/.xinitrc to start an alternative gui.

Because I really detest Display Manager graphic login dialogs even more than I dislike the Kde{4) and/or Gnome{any} GUI's I avoid DMs completely. As a result, if my ~/.xinitrc isn't used, startx fails to start X.

I craft a separate xinitrc file for each DE or WM I choose to run, And copy the appropriate one over the existing ~/.xinitrc prior to calling startx. This one is from my personal desktop's Mageia installation:

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# note this file is an inactive ~/.xinitrc file that is activated when
# the ~/bin2nd/xdo script temporarily copies it to ~/.xinitrc prior
# to calling startx...
###################################
# yakuake &                       #
# use yakuake OR qterminal --drop #
# same purpose same hot key...    #
qterminal --drop &                #
###################################
lxpanel &
xrandr -s 2
xrdb -load .Xdefaults
xset -dpms s 0 0
/usr/bin/openbox-session


If it's not run, neither is openbox-session... The one on my Livingroom PC has a more complex xrandr command due to a vga/hdmi dual monitor setup. But is otherwise the same.