Resolution changes when using KVM Switch

[Mark]

I have a 4 port KVM switch that I use at work. I frequently switch from this machine to the others plugged into the switch. Before switching to another machine my resolution is at 1920x1080. I will switch to another machine on the switch and come back to it at a smaller resolution. To get it back to normal I will have to open the Display settings or run xrandr in terminal and I will have to do this every time I switch between machines. So for now I have removed the gnome-screensaver package and I have not expirenced the issue since.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gnome-screensaver (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-29.46-generic-pae 3.2.24
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae i686
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu12
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Aug 16 18:33:53 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release i386 (20120423)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-screensaver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[PhilDubach (phildubach)]

As a crude workaround, running this in a terminal window will detect unlocks and run xrandr to detect the screen again:

dbus-monitor --session "type='signal',interface='org.gnome.ScreenSaver'" | ( while true; do read X; if echo $X | grep "boolean false" &> /dev/null; then xrandr; fi done )

[Kevin Christopher (kevinc)]

Affects me as well, every time I KVM to a different machine and the screensaver kicks in on my 12.04 desktop.

A major annoyance is that my desktop has four workspace windows; the resultion change re-arranges all the windows, and the re-arrangement does not snap back after fixing the resolution. (Re-arrangement is eratic: some programs e.g. Firefox move all windows to the current workspace, other programs e.g. gnome-terminal move windows to ~1/2 the y-coordinate with no x-coordinate change.) Some windows move far enough vertically that their title bar is underneath the top-of-screen desktop bar, making it difficult to move them back to their original workspaces.

Running "Displays" from the dash launcher immediately fixes the resolution. (Haven't tried running xrandr.) Which is great because due to the re-arrangement, I can't get to a terminal window easily.

Disabling the screensaver seems to avoid the issue entirely.
   gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled false

[Erick Brunzell (lbsolost)]

This may be a duplicate of bug #988290.