Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

photor · 2019-08-20 18:51:32

Hello Forum,

I run XFCE on Archlinux and I am quite happy with (I'm a Gnome refugee).

As this is a rolling release the new XFCE 4.14 came in the last days. Since then I observe some issue with screensaver and screen locking:
If I unlock the screen after suspend or hibernate (usually tested by hand a.t.m.) I observe, that the screen goes black again 5 minutes after unlocking the screen - even though I am working (so, it cannot be that the screen blanks due to inactivity). This behavior is new since 4.14; never observed before.

My question, has any one else observed such behavior, or is it something special here?

I have the feeling(!) that the powersave-settings and screensaver settings are interfering (maybe also with systemd settings) - but i don't know where to start searching/testing. So, I ask for some help here. If you need more information about installed packages or settings, I can provide of course.

Thanks,
Photor

ToZ · 2019-08-20 21:58:13

Hello and welcome.

Which screensaver are you using?
What does the following return?

ps -ef | grep -E 'screen|lock'

Also, can you post back your current power manager settings?

xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv

photor · 2019-08-21 15:05:48

Hello ToZ,

here the output of the commands:

[photor@Picard ~]$ ps -ef | grep -E 'screen|lock'
root         6     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/0:0H-kblockd]
root        23     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/1:0H-kblockd]
root        30     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/2:0H-kblockd]
root        37     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/3:0H-kblockd]
root       139     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kblockd]
root       266     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/3:1H-kblockd]
root       276     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/1:1H-kblockd]
root       278     2  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 [kworker/2:1H-kblockd]
photor    1473  1272  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-screensaver
photor    1487  1272  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 light-locker
photor    3065  3057  0 16:54 pts/0    00:00:00 grep -E screen|lock

[photor@Picard ~]$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-ac                        4
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-battery                   2
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-ac             60
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-battery        20
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-ac                   120
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-battery              20
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch                  0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch-restore-on-exit  0
/xfce4-power-manager/critical-power-action              1
/xfce4-power-manager/critical-power-level               15
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-enabled                       true
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-off                     14
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-sleep                   8
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-battery-off                7
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-battery-sleep              4
/xfce4-power-manager/general-notification               true
/xfce4-power-manager/handle-brightness-keys             true
/xfce4-power-manager/hibernate-button-action            2
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-on-ac                   60
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-on-battery              15
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-sleep-mode-on-battery   1
/xfce4-power-manager/lid-action-on-ac                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/lid-action-on-battery              2
/xfce4-power-manager/lock-screen-suspend-hibernate      true
/xfce4-power-manager/logind-handle-lid-switch           true
/xfce4-power-manager/power-button-action                3
/xfce4-power-manager/presentation-mode                  false
/xfce4-power-manager/show-panel-label                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/show-tray-icon                     false
/xfce4-power-manager/sleep-button-action                1
[photor@Picard ~]$

All parameters are set in normal GUI-interface for power saving and screen lock of XFCE-settings dialog.

I just realized following (on AC-power):

Laptop blanks screen after about 5 minutes (streaming music is going on in the background];
streaming stops after 25 minutes (power button blinking); I thought this is suspend mode, but laptop wakes up with moving the mouse
and wants screen-unlock password (streaming for 2 seconds )- and directly after that - wants unlock screen password again.

all in all a strange behavior and I would like to find out, what is going wrong.

Thank you for your help,

Ciao,
Photor

ToZ · 2019-08-21 15:11:09

photor 1473 1272 0 16:15 ? 00:00:00 xfce4-screensaver
photor 1487 1272 0 16:15 ? 00:00:00 light-locker

You have two screen lockers installed and running together. They are probably interfering with each other. Try disabling one to see if the problem goes away.

photor · 2019-08-21 15:16:31

Hello ToZ,

Thank you for the fast answer. That was my impression, so, I just killed xfce4-screensaver:

 photor@Picard ~]$ ps -ef | grep -E 'screen|lock'
[...]
photor    1487  1272  0 16:15 ?        00:00:00 light-locker
photor    3420  3057  0 17:12 pts/0    00:00:00 grep -E screen|lock

(I killed the process and I disabled in Settings-GUI). So, let's see, what happens - I may come back in about an hour wink

Ciao,
Photor

photor · 2019-08-22 14:24:58

Hm. Does not seem to work. Screen does not behave as expected/specified in the power-manager: no screen blanking after 2 minutes on battery. Same with the other settings. That remains after reboot.

Any additional information to provide? Or something else to test?

I would like the screen to blank after a certain time (with locking) and the laptop to go to suspend after a longer time.

Ciao,
Photor

PS: how do I set XFCE-GUI to English? Then I can post a screenshot if necessary (now it is in German).

Last edited by photor (2019-08-22 14:31:27)

ToZ · 2019-08-22 14:51:21

Maybe lets get updated information to move forward.

- Which screen locker are you using now?
- Can you post back one more time the output of:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv

Can you also provide some debug information. First:

xfce4-power-manager --dump

...then:

xfce4-power-manager -q
xfce4-power-manager --no-daemon --debug

...and let the system time out. Post back what gets displayed in the terminal window.

PS: how do I set XFCE-GUI to English? Then I can post a screenshot if necessary (now it is in German).

Try running the settings manager manually from the terminal window using "LC_ALL=C". For example:

LC_ALL=C xfce4-settings-manager

photor · 2019-08-24 12:22:13

Hello,

Sorry for being back so late. Didn't find time in between.
Remark: there was an update of [2019-08-22 16:27] [ALPM] upgraded xfce4-settings (4.14.0-2 -> 4.14.1-1) in between on arch daily update. So, maybe the situation is a little bit different now.

In fact the screen is now blanking after 5 minutes and it is locked (which is good for my personal paranoia wink ) So, it looks like it is working better now, but testing goes on.

Anyway, here is the output:

photor@Picard ~]$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-ac                        4
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-battery                   2
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-ac             60
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-battery        20
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-ac                   120
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-battery              20
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch                  0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch-restore-on-exit  0
/xfce4-power-manager/critical-power-action              1
/xfce4-power-manager/critical-power-level               15
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-enabled                       true
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-off                     14
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-sleep                   8
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-battery-off                7
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-battery-sleep              6
/xfce4-power-manager/general-notification               true
/xfce4-power-manager/handle-brightness-keys             true
/xfce4-power-manager/hibernate-button-action            2
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-on-ac                   30
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-on-battery              15
/xfce4-power-manager/inactivity-sleep-mode-on-battery   1
/xfce4-power-manager/lid-action-on-ac                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/lid-action-on-battery              2
/xfce4-power-manager/lock-screen-suspend-hibernate      true
/xfce4-power-manager/logind-handle-lid-switch           true
/xfce4-power-manager/power-button-action                3
/xfce4-power-manager/presentation-mode                  false
/xfce4-power-manager/show-panel-label                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/show-tray-icon                     false
/xfce4-power-manager/sleep-button-action                1
[photor@Picard ~]$

[photor@Picard ~]$ LC_ALL=C xfce4-power-manager --dump
---------------------------------------------------
       Xfce power manager version 1.6.5
With policykit support
Without network manager support
---------------------------------------------------
Can suspend: True
Can hibernate: True
Authorized to suspend: True
Authorized to hibernate: True
Authorized to shutdown: True
Has battery: True
Has brightness panel: True
Has power button: True
Has hibernate button: True
Has sleep button: True
Has battery button: True
Has LID: True
[photor@Picard ~]$

The debug output will come later if needed (or wanted for further debugging) of course.

BTW: when starting the settings manager (to create screenshots of my settings) I saw the following; maybe it is relevant:

[photor@Picard ~]$ LC_ALL=C xfce4-settings-manager
(xfce4-settings-manager:3930): IBUS-WARNING **: 13:33:58.172: Unable to connect to ibus: Could not connect: Connection refused
(xfce4-power-manager-settings:3938): IBUS-WARNING **: 13:34:22.567: Unable to connect to ibus: Could not connect: Connection refused

If the screenshots will help I can post them, of course.

Thanks for helping.

Ciao,
Photor

ToZ · 2019-08-24 12:28:51

photor wrote:

In fact the screen is now blanking after 5 minutes and it is locked (which is good for my personal paranoia ) So, it looks like it is working better now, but testing goes on.

This is good. Which screen locker are have you settled on?

photor · 2019-08-24 18:41:35

Hello,

believe me or not: both were running - like at the beginning when I started to ask.

photor    1494  1341  0 20:31 ?        00:00:00 xfce4-screensaver
photor    1513  1341  0 20:31 ?        00:00:00 light-locker
photor    2158  2149  0 20:32 pts/0    00:00:00 grep -E screen|lock

I am now experimenting - but why? A.t.m. it does what I want - more or less. (BUT: I want to know the reason - maybe I come back with more questions)

PS: it now runs as expected. So, it looks like it was just a short time issue in Archlinux. Solved - except ...

PS2: is there a tool/possibility to disable screensaver e.g. during streaming or video (I think Gnome had an extension for this).

Thank you.

Ciao,
Photor

Last edited by photor (2019-08-25 10:19:33)

pwolk · 2019-10-20 10:37:14

I have the same problem in OpenBSD 6.6. Uninstalling xscreensaver resolved the problem for now.

dodecahedron · 2020-09-03 04:41:16

Having this issue on Debian testing.
I don't have a solution, but I tried plugging in an external monitor through HDMI. It lit up. In the "Display" application I was able to see that my laptop's display was disabled for some reason. I was able to re-enable it and unplug the external monitor.

How does one enable the main display prom CLI?

ToZ · 2020-09-03 11:26:04

dodecahedron wrote:

How does one enable the main display prom CLI?

You can use xrandr. Something like:

xrandr --output DISPLAY --auto

...where DISPLAY is the name of your display as recognized by just running "xrandr".

dodecahedron · 2020-09-04 01:57:11

ToZ wrote:

You can use xrandr. Something like:
xrandr --output DISPLAY --auto
...where DISPLAY is the name of your display as recognized by just running "xrandr".

Thanks.I will give that a try next time it happens.

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Sub domains

#1 2019-08-20 18:51:32

Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#2 2019-08-20 21:58:13

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#3 2019-08-21 15:05:48

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#4 2019-08-21 15:11:09

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#5 2019-08-21 15:16:31

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#6 2019-08-22 14:24:58

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#7 2019-08-22 14:51:21

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#8 2019-08-24 12:22:13

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#9 2019-08-24 12:28:51

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#10 2019-08-24 18:41:35

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#11 2019-10-20 10:37:14

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#12 2020-09-03 04:41:16

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#13 2020-09-03 11:26:04

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

#14 2020-09-04 01:57:11

Re: Screensaver issue with XFCE 4.14

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