gnome-screensaver-command --lock starts the daemon

[Jarno Suni]

1) gnome-screensaver not running, light-locker not running
2) run ` gnome-screensaver-command --lock`

What happens: screen locks and the daemon starts and remains running after unlocking.
Expected result: exit with non-zero like `xscreensaver-command -lock` will in similar case.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: gnome-screensaver (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-23.28-generic 4.2.6
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-23-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
Date: Wed Jan 20 16:41:28 2016
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2015-11-21 (59 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 15.10 "Wily Werewolf" - Release amd64 (20151021)
SourcePackage: gnome-screensaver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

They tell this has been fixed in 2010, but apparently not for Ubuntu: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=629740

[adbot (balidubiba)]

I can confirm that for me the daemon is not automatically launched when it is not already running.
--gnome-screensaver 3.6.1

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Well, here (in Xubuntu Linux) it launches automatically:

$ killall light-locker
light-locker: no process found
$ gnome-screensaver --version
gnome-screensaver 3.6.1
$ ps aux | grep [g]nome-screensaver
$ gnome-screensaver-command --lock
$ ps aux | grep [g]nome-screensaver
myusername 9731 0.0 0.7 470112 30284 ? Sl 18:26 0:00 /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver --no-daemon
$ killall gnome-screensaver
$ killall gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver: no process found

It is odd, since the command line tells --no-daemon is used as a command line argument.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

It could be that this is by design, so that gnome-screensaver locks whenever it is possible. It just makes script xflock4 from xfce4-session more difficult to implement.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Oddly in Xenial, where gnome-screensaver is 3.6.1-7ubuntu4 the bug occurs, but in 18.04, where the version is 3.6.1-8ubuntu3, it does not launch the daemon, but exits with 0 without locking.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

And in 18.04 it is unable to start the lock even if the daemon is running, and still exits with 0, so it is badly broken.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Bug #1777848

[Theo Linkspfeifer (lastonestanding)]

Tested in 18.04, and the command did spawn gnome-screensaver --no-daemon.

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Oh, I see. It does not work anyway in 18.04