Xfce Forum

klepu

Member

Registered: 2014-08-26

Posts: 5

how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

hi all,

first post *waving arund* ^^

pretty new to the linux world, after some trial&error i now use xubuntu14.04 (running xfce4.10) and i'm pretty happy with everything except for one thing:

since this is a desktop computer only used by me, i disabled screenLock and configured the xfPowerMan to send the monitor to sleep after some minutes. no screen lock means the music will keep playing which is exactly what i want - but i also would like to skip a track or change volume or pause/play via my keyboard's media keys WITHOUT waking the screen!

does anyone have some smart idea on how to solve this? is it possible to "whitelist" some events? or maybe some sort of "screensaver" that sets the monitor to sleep and yet lets some keys pass through? i tried google and the forum's search function but found nothing related...

hope you understand what i mean, english is not my native language

have a nice day,
klepu

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

Your monitor have a power button, lol?

Regards,
MDM

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Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

klepu

Member

Registered: 2014-08-26

Posts: 5

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

yes it does, but it's one of those "touch to toggle" things on the bottom of the screen and i do have a large desk... d'oh!

this is of cource not a serious issue that would keep me from loving and using xfce! but i think it might be quite an easy feature to implement? as i said, a "whitelist" of event-IDs not alarming the powerManager would do the job just fine. (until maybe in later iterations even a GUI might be desireable?)

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

You write (and apparently read) English better than some of my neighbors - and i live in the United States.

You can try discussing this with the developer of xscreensaver; his email address is jwz@jwz.org. It might be more appropriate (and technically correct) to make your email a feature request one instead of a bug report.

Make sure that you are using the latest version, in case this feature has been added. That would be 5.29, released 08-Jun-2014. I was thinking that there is a toggle to allow passing of the volume-control keys, but I may well be mistaken. The official website is at:

http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver

Or you could just stretch to the power button. It probably is a good idea to stretch and change position from time to time if you sit at your desk for long periods of time, anyway.

Regards,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

klepu

Member

Registered: 2014-08-26

Posts: 5

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

interestingly, xubuntu seems to ship quite an old version of xscreensaver

$ xscreensaver --help
xscreensaver 5.15 [...]

..which is from 2011... yet, the changeLog doesn't mention any new features concerning my problem.

i would rather not make+install from source (as that would most probably put me in dependency hell once the ubuntu-repos get updated)... so before i try that i'd like to make sure my problem is _really_ with xscreensaver and not the x server itself... i read in the xscreensaver FAQ that mouse movement (and thus screen wakeUp) are caught by x and not screensaver?
even with this insight, google does not help (or rather, i'm lacking the proper search terms... '"x server" ubuntu ignore media keys' is not quite what i'm lookin for

Last edited by klepu (2014-08-29 21:52:32)

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

There's a PPA for a newer version, but it's for the Ubuntus that will be released in October.

Did you have any luck contacting the developer?

Regards,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

klepu

Member

Registered: 2014-08-26

Posts: 5

Re: how to make media keys not wake up screen with xfce4-power-manager?

sorry, i've been AFK for some days...

i just mailed my feature request to jamie, will post here once i get a reply ^^

edit:
got a reply already, it just slipped to my spam folder >.<
long story short: the power-saving stuff is really part of the x-server (as i feared some posts ago), so xscreensaver is not "responsible".

i'm going to look into x-server and it's features&possibilities; i imagine a piece of software as old (and rock solid!) as x may have all kind of stuff built-in. i'll leave this thread open for now and report back when i found a solution - or failed, we'll see ^^

Last edited by klepu (2014-09-14 19:30:27)