screensavers/powermanagement in Gnome not working

[PabloTwo]

Originally Posted by schwim

I've got my settings to where it shuts down the monitor after 30 minutes(screenies at 20), and last night it worked as intended, but when I woke up this monring, the screens were blank, but powered.

Well, first, I'm relieved. I was really afraid there would be 60 grit sandpaper involved. But now I'm also a tad confused as to exactly what you're attempting to do with the monitors. "Put display to sleep"... will blank the monitor, putting the monitor into a lower power state, saving electricity, and money, and extend the life of your monitor in general. When in that state, pressing any key on the keyboard or moving the mouse wakes it up, bringing back the display. What am I missing here?

And I can just see the headlines now... "all of Munich's workforce show up late for work... due to a sudden unexplained time zone shift"

Paul

[schwim]

Hi there Paul.

I seem to have a shift in the actual problem, so please excuse the ramble.

First, by sleep state, I mean that the computer triggers the monitor to go into stand-by. No back light and no signal. Sorry for the confusion.

1) My problem started out that Gnome would not either show a screensaver or go into sleep state.

2) I then managed to get Gnome to use the two functions, but then it liked them too much, going into screensaver view while I was working on desktop 0:1. Often it would not allow me to get out of this state without doing something drastic, which I must not speak of, for fear that I'll be yelled at. I will hint that it involves the power button and 5 seconds.

3) xscreensaver comes along and saves the day!!! kind of. Not really though. I set it to start the screensaver at 20 minutes and put the monitors to bed at 30. It worked when I tested it last night, however when I woke up this morning, the monitors were blank, but not asleep, as you could see the backlight was powered and the monitor light was blue(active), not orange.

4) I thought that it might be that it got bounced during the night and went to the password box, which might not allow the monitors to go back down, so I went into xscreensaver-demo and unchecked the "lock the desktop" option.

5) I came home just now to find my desktop just as I left it. That being visible. No screensaver, no black screen, no sleepy-time, no nothing.

So there's my problem

KDE handled the dualhead setup just fine both in regards to backgrounds and in regards to power management. I'm beginning to wonder if remote desktop is worth this(the whole reason I went to Gnome, since I couldn't get RD working in KDE). I may just use one of my Windows machines for the applications that I need to reach via RD (sorry Dies ).

thanks,
json

[PabloTwo]

Thanks json-

I'm more enlightened to your situation now. So, have you tried disableing all screen savers, both gnomes default one and xscreensaver and just using the power management function in Gnome as I described earlier? I don't see anything in that setup that address's dual-head specifically, but it still may work for both monitors regardless.

Using that system works for me, but I have noticed that on occassion, such as when I'm doing some lengthy late night download and the monitor has slipped into "sleep" mode (blank) after the 15 minute wait period I've set, something will trigger the display to pop back to life, without me having even been in the room. But then, 15 minutes later, it's back into sleep mode again. I don't know what triggers that wake up call, but I think it's possible it's you coming out of my closet and messing with my system.

Paul

[Dies]

Originally Posted by schwim

KDE handled the dualhead setup just fine both in regards to backgrounds and in regards to power management. I'm beginning to wonder if remote desktop is worth this(the whole reason I went to Gnome, since I couldn't get RD working in KDE). I may just use one of my Windows machines for the applications that I need to reach via RD (sorry Dies ).

thanks,
json

Just wondering , but did you turn off the Gnome powersaving options and configure the xscreensaver ones ?

Also as far as screensavers go 'rss-glx' rocks and it's in the repos, very easy to install, though you do need to add them to the config file manually.


Well here's another idea for you, though I must admit if configuring your screensaver was that much of a hassle not sure you'll fare any better with this.

You could always create another user just for remote desktop then use xnest to login to a Gnome session from your KDE desktop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xnest

[JN4OldSchool]

Originally Posted by Dies

You could always create another user just for remote desktop then use xnest to login to a Gnome session from your KDE desktop.

Or just do what I do and log in both (or more) users at once and flip back and forth with ctrl+alt+Fwhatever.

[schwim]

Originally Posted by Dies

Just wondering , but did you turn off the Gnome powersaving options and configure the xscreensaver ones ?

I turned off gnome screensaver and I disabled the gnome power management. I am now trying to do it all through xscreensaver.

Originally Posted by Dies

Also as far as screensavers go 'rss-glx' rocks and it's in the repos, very easy to install, though you do need to add them to the config file manually.

Which config file?

Originally Posted by Dies

Well here's another idea for you, though I must admit if configuring your screensaver was that much of a hassle not sure you'll fare any better with this.

HAHA! Hey, yeah! I got it! Let's get the dumb bastard who can't configure his screensaver to install third party applications to handle additional remote desktop connections! We may never have to talk to him again!

Originally Posted by Dies

You could always create another user just for remote desktop then use xnest to login to a Gnome session from your KDE desktop.

I could, but I was trying to set it up so I could access my mail and editor apps from the laptop when I was downstairs. Another user would defeat the purpose. In fact I did manage to do that, accidentally

thanks,
json

[Dies]

Originally Posted by schwim

Which config file?

thanks,
json

The .xscreensaver file in your home folder.

You need to install rss-glx first though.

Here I attached my updated one so you can see the difference or you can just rename it to .xscreensaver and drop it in your home then adjust power management and whatever else to your liking.

Euphoria set to plasma is one of my favorites.

[schwim]

Hi there Dies,

Thanks very much for that. When installing rss-glx, I saw that they also had a package for the mods needed for gnome, kde and xscreensaver. Is it ok to use that, do you think?

thanks,
json