[DONE] KDE: sometimes the box to unlock screen doesn't show

[vecciora]

In Mageia 4 KDE, sometimes the box to unlock screen (which I put in my password) doesn't show up after suspending to RAM. I have to ctrl+alt+backspace to be able to get to the desktop again (by re-login).

The OS is up-to-date.

My system is an Asus Eee PC 1215B (Radeon HD 6310) notebook.

Anyone having the same problem? What should I do?

Thanks in advance.

[rihoem]

Do you have 'oxygen-transparent' installed on your system?

A lot of people reports that it breaks the unlock screen, probably due to a bug on kwin/QT-oxygen transparent. In this case, you need to add "kscreenlocker_greet" and "kscreenlocker" to the exceptions list on oxygen-transparent qt style configuration. Also, you need to deactivate screensaver or desktopwidgets, and use "simple locker" on KDE System Settings ("Hardware > Screen and Monitor > Locker").

If it is not your case, try enabling 'simple locker' and disable desktop effects (or change between xrender and opengl), to see if the problem goes away.

[doktor5000]

In Mageia 4 KDE, sometimes the box to unlock screen (which I put in my password) doesn't show up after suspending to RAM.

So what does show up instead? Only screen saver, or nothing at all (black screen) or ... ?

[vecciora]

Do you have 'oxygen-transparent' installed on your system?

A lot of people reports that it breaks the unlock screen, probably due to a bug on kwin/QT-oxygen transparent. In this case, you need to add "kscreenlocker_greet" and "kscreenlocker" to the exceptions list on oxygen-transparent qt style configuration. Also, you need to deactivate screensaver or desktopwidgets, and use "simple locker" on KDE System Settings ("Hardware > Screen and Monitor > Locker").

If it is not your case, try enabling 'simple locker' and disable desktop effects (or change between xrender and opengl), to see if the problem goes away.

oxygen-transparent is not installed.

Okay, I will try it.

But the thing is it is a bit hard to reproduce the problem since I've only get this problem twice. Both were after my notebook turned on after suspended to RAM automatically.

In Mageia 4 KDE, sometimes the box to unlock screen (which I put in my password) doesn't show up after suspending to RAM.

So what does show up instead? Only screen saver, or nothing at all (black screen) or ... ?

A screen with Mageia 4 default wallpaper, but without the box.

[vecciora]

Oh, yeah. I forgot to mention that both times when the box didn't show up, the slide show screen saver was active beforehand.

[jiml8]

In my experience, this happens when I am watching a flash video (usually Youtube, but not necessarily) in full screen mode and the video lasts for long enough that the screensaver is supposed to take over.

Well, the screensaver DOES take over...silently. It appears behind the full screen flash video and then, when the video ends, I wind up with a blank display - I cannot get any control over it and there is no textbox to enter my password.

I am running KDE4 with compiz. When this happens, I cuss a lot, then I ctrl-alt-Fn to switch to a console, log in at the console and do a "killall compiz". Then I switch back to my X session, and I will have control back; type in the password and the screen blanker goes away. Then I restart compiz and keep on trucking.

[doktor5000]

Sorry - can ... not ... resist
Whoever uses a screensaver on a digital display deserves to be punished ...

[rihoem]

Sorry - can ... not ... resist
Whoever uses a screensaver on a digital display deserves to be punished ...

I agree , but in this case the problem is on the locker widget, not necessarily on screensaver itself.

I use the simple locker (without any animation/image, and actually just turning screen off), but had the oxygen-transparent issue.

Don't be mean

[jiml8]

Any time you are in an environment where other people could view your display or use your computer when you are not there, a screensaver with a lock feature is appropriate. A plain lock works fine, but a screensaver is just more interesting.

[vecciora]

Looks like the problem still exists even after changed to simple locker.

What else to do to diagnose the problem?

Thanks.

[rihoem]

Are you using proprietary drivers for this radeon video card, or theopensource drivers?

Did you try disable the compositing on KDE?

When this problem happens, try to switch to another X session (Ctrl + Alt + F1 or F2), log in in to your account, and run the comand "dmesg". Look the results for erros related to radeon or the fglrx driver.

(A temporary workaround is remove kscreensaver and install and use xscreensaver).

[doktor5000]

For running the locker in a terminal to debug it a bit further you may also want to look at e.g. http://askubuntu.com/questions/61339/wh ... -under-kde

[vecciora]

Okay, I will try it. And here is more info.

If I lock the screen by myself, the unlock box appears. But, it won't appear if it is from being suspended to RAM by the power management (not by myself) for a long time.

I am using the fglrx driver. And no, I'm not disabling the compositor.

[doktor5000]

You can also trigger suspend manually from a second terminal, apart from the X server to see if you get any more information.

[mailedfist]

My wife's Samsung laptop has the same issue.

No errors are reported by dmesg but it refuses to display the "unlock" dialogue if it goes into standby by itself.

Code: Select all

systemctl suspend

from a CTRL-ALT-F2 session does not cause the problem to manifest.
After the problem has occurred, forcing it to either suspend or hibernate and then waking it back up still results in the absent unlock dialogue.

I have tried changing the power saver responses to "hibernate" instead of "sleep" to see if this is an acceptable workaround - will advise what happens!

[yankee495]

When I move my move the screen lights up, but no box sometimes.

I press down on the mouse wheel and the box appears. Hope it works for you.

[mailedfist]

Using hibernate doesn't help.

We'll try plugging a mouse in and see whether the trick of pressing the wheel down to operate the wheel switch works - thanks for the suggestion.

[waspper]

I had the same problem. My laptop is an Asus R401V (Intel video card + Nvidia 630M, Working with Optimus). This is like i fixed (KDE):

System settings > Desktop effects > Advanced

Inside this tab, I changed "Compositing type" from "XRender" to "OpenGL XX". Saved changes, and it worked.

Regards.

[vecciora]

I will try to solve this problem again after gave up for a while.

@doktor5000 Ok, I will try it (suspending from second terminal.

Just as @mailedfist said, the problem only occur after the system being suspended automatically.

According to what @mailedfist said, if the X is started in CTRL+ALT+F2 session then, the problem doesn't occur. Then I'll try to force the X to start in the CTRL+ALT+F2. But I don't know how. If anybody know, tell me please.

I had the same problem. My laptop is an Asus R401V (Intel video card + Nvidia 630M, Working with Optimus). This is like i fixed (KDE):

System settings > Desktop effects > Advanced

Inside this tab, I changed "Compositing type" from "XRender" to "OpenGL XX". Saved changes, and it worked.

Regards.

It doesn't help (in my case).

Seems like this is a common problem (not only me).

[vecciora]

I've tried it. I don't get any information by suspending from second terminal.

Update

Hey, it's not a big deal as a problem.

I've found a workaround for it. Just disable "Lock screen on resume" option. http://twitpic.com/e2do7m

[doktor5000]

Please mark the thread accordingly by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [DONE], thanks

[pascaldrabik]

Hi,
It might be that I missed something, but I do have this issue with my laptop. The only way I found without a complete reboot (this sounds really bad;-) is to open a terminale using CTRL-ALT-F2 for instance and to kill the process kscreenlocker_greet.
This unfortunately does not look very professional while at work with colleagues using MacBooks or windows.
This looks to me like a bug somwewhere that needs to be addressed.
Thanks,
Pascal.

[doktor5000]

Did you try the suggested workaround?

I've found a workaround for it. Just disable "Lock screen on resume" option. http://twitpic.com/e2do7m

[rihoem]

Did you try the suggested workaround?

I've found a workaround for it. Just disable "Lock screen on resume" option. http://twitpic.com/e2do7m

I believe that disabling 'lock screen on resume' is not the best option for security reasons. The workaround sugested (kill kscreenlocker_greet) is not the best option for pratical reasons, but at least let user lock the computer (or notebook). And, as you need to login to the user in order to kill the process anyway, the security remains intact.

[pascaldrabik]

Thanks for your comment rihoem.
Indeed, in a professional environment, I can not afford not to use the locking system.
Going to a terminal via the CTRL-ALT-F2 in order to kill the process is a possible workround. The drawback when used at my work is that it really gives a very bad image of Linux based laptops, encouraging people to stay with Mac or Windows.
For information, I did not notice anything strange via dmesg. I moved recently from Mageia 3 (where I had much more serious problems also related to the wake up of the system) to Mageia 4. I kept my previous home directory, including any "." structures like .kde4.
I hope this issue can be fixed. Mageia is really a nice system that I would like to promote to anyone around me.
Thanks anyway for all your efforts.