Mouse wheel doesn't prevent screen saver

[J. Pablo Fernández]

I am running Kubuntu, that is, KDE. If I move the mouse the screensave doesn't activate but if all of the mouse that I move is the wheel, then it is like if I didn't move the mouse at all: the screensaver activates.
Same may happen with the buttons of the mouse.

[Carthik Sharma (carthik)]

Hi,

It is not clear what you expect from the mouse - moving the mouse should not activate the screensaver. That would be the expected behavior. Could you please re-state the problem, clearly saying what you expect to happen, and what happens instead?

Also, does this problem still occur with an up-to-date Dapper, or better still, an Edgy beta cd?

Thank you.

[J. Pablo Fernández (pupeno)]

I can't do any further testing because I am not running Kubuntu anymore, but I can explain what happened as a series of steps:

1. Set the screensaver to start in a minute.
2. Do not touch keyboard or mouse for a minute
3. Screensaver activates.

That's good. But

1. Set the screensaver to start in a minute.
2. Move the mouse wheel but nothing else than the mouse wheel (the keyboard is not touched at all and the mouse is never moved, the only activity is the mouse wheel). For example, when reading a book or a long web site.
3. Screensaver activates.

That's not good. I don't think the screensaver should activate while there's user activity, even if it is only the mouse wheel.

Is that more clear ?

Thank you.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. I tried reproducing this bug using Feisty Fawn and moving the mouse wheel prevented the screensaver from activating. Is this still an issue for you? Thanks in advance.

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

We are closing this bug report as it lacks the information, described in the previous comments, we need to investigate the problem further. However, please reopen it if you can give us the missing information and feel free to submit bug reports in the future.

[Kristoffer (kristofferf80)]

Bug still present in 10.10, no input save mouse wheel results in screensaver activation.

[Kristoffer (kristofferf80)]

Not Kubuntu-specific, same problem occurs in Xubuntu.

[Vernon Mauery (vernon-mauery)]

I am still seeing this issue running Ubuntu 12.04. I am using the xfce login (xscreensaver, not gnome-screensaver).

The strange thing is that moving the mouse wheel will deactivate the screensaver after it has activated, but it does not seem to prevent the screensaver from activating in the first place.

Maybe the easiest way to test this is to hold your mouse upside down so you can be sure that the ball (or LED) is not moving accidentally during the wheel-events-only period.

[Vernon Mauery (vernon-mauery)]

It looks like this will never get fixed...

Here is what the author of xscreensaver has to say about it:
http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#mouse-idle

[Yetisaurus Akjas (eduard-budai)]

I can confirm that this affects xscreensaver 5.15-2ubuntu1 in Xubuntu 12.04.5 with xfdesktop 4.8.3-2ubuntu7.

Personally I think it is a big shame that such things are disregarded, as it can be understand form the link posted by Vernon Mauery:

[Quote]
The screensaver activates when I'm not idle! It's not noticing my mouse clicks or mouse wheel.

On most X11 systems, this is unfortunately the case, and there's no way around it. XScreenSaver notices all keyboard activity; and every few seconds, it checks the position of the mouse. If there have been no keystrokes or mouse motion, it assumes you are idle. It cannot detect mouse clicks, nor the scroll wheel.

This is because, for no good reason, the X Window System does not allow programs to "snoop" on mouse clicks (though snooping of keystrokes and mouse positions is permitted!)
[End Of Quote]