Display goes black after 10 minutes idle despite "never" settings

[Vladimir-csp]

Binary package hint: acpi-support

Despite screensaver is disabled and gnome-power-preferences is set to never switch display off.

Display does not get powered down as with "xset dpms force off", it just goes black, exactly after 10m idle.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Oct 25 14:39:26 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: acpi-support 0.129
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: acpi-support
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and help to improve Ubuntu.

acpi-support is not involved in X screensaver policies; reassigning to gnome-power-manager.

[Sir Ruf (clause2005-ya)]

This bug affects me too

[s.a.h. (kap2007)]

This bug affects me too

[elidboom (elidboom)]

i have nearly same bug, every 3 - 4 hours display go sleep.

[AJenbo (ajenbo)]

This bug affects me too :(

[AJenbo (ajenbo)]

It's a laptop with AC power on.

[AJenbo (ajenbo)]

Never mind, it turns out that i haden't disabled the screen saver.
But I would still like to say that it is very unclear that the inactive time mentioned in the power managmentstarts after a time of inactivity controlled from the screen saver pannel.
I would recoment that the slider from the screen saver pannel should also be added to the power managment pannel, under the General tab.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

It happens regardless of whether X is running or not.

[Yura Tolstik (yltsrc)]

i have similar behaviour on all my ubuntu computers :(

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

DPMS has different functions (blanking, standby, power down). Are you folks sure you're not seeing the effects of DPMS?
xset -q

[Daniel Letzeisen (dtl131)]

Also, check settings using gconf-editor (apt-get install gconf-editor if not installed)
IIRC, there are some settings in /apps/gnome-power-manager that aren't accessible through GUI.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

It also happens without X running, at exactly the same 10 min.

DPMS is off

[Victor Vargas (kamus)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please open a terminal and execute: apport-collect 460375 ? It will attach the necessary information to this report. Also you can submit more information for it by looking to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingGNOMEPowerManager , Thanks in advance.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

Architecture: i386
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: gnome-power-manager 2.28.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=ru_RU.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-18.55-generic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-18-generic i686
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2080): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:2124): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2143): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:2123): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window

[robbanl (robert-lindberg1978)]

I have the same problem with a Samsung NC10 on Ubuntu 9.10. Xset -s off solved the problem for me, before screensaver timeout was set to 600 and now its 0.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

It seems the problem is not affecting Lucid, at least running from live-usb.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

Nope. On installed lucid with current upgrades display still goes black after exactly 10 minutes.
(eeepc 900)

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

It seems, there is no connection with gnome-power-preferences. If I set display timeout there, then display switches off completely.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

During fsck routine check, long before X starts, same thing happen: 10 minutes idle > black screen.
Which power config affects both console and X?

[subever (subever)]

It's weird... I have intel mobile 945GM graphic card and this bug affected my laptop on ubuntu 9.10 while on 10.04 till now it looks like it doesn't...

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

I found that X screen saver timeout was set to 600 (10 min). Changing it to 0 with xset fixed display in X.
But questions remain:
Why gnome-screensaver-preferences tool does not change X screensaver timeout value?
How do I change the default value, so screen never goes blank, without using xset every time?
What do I need to change to disable screen blanking in bare console, i.e. during fsck checks? So screen NEVER EVER goes blank?
How screen blanking in console and X are interconnected?

[subever (subever)]

well r u sure screensaver is not acitvated? and what is your graphic card?
btw what i did on 9.10 i made a script with xset command put it in a hidden folder in home folder and added it to startup, that would help u till this bug be fixed for all systems...

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

The comments here suggest this isn't a gnome-screensaver or gnome-power-manager issue (it's happening without X too). This would also happen if people disable gnome-screensaver in Startup Applications, as the X screensaver will take effect when gnome-screensaver isn't running

[Fabio Marconi (fabiomarconi)]

This bug report is being closed due to yours lasts comments. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status. Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please submit any future bugs you may find.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Psy: How's the situation in Maverick? Any different?

You probably don't have xscreensaver running, so whatever you changed for the X screensaver settings, it must have affected something else. Can you ensure you don't have it running with "ps -ef | grep screensaver"? Also, please post the exact commands you used to configure the X screensaver as well as "xset q" output before and after.

Thanks in advance.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

situation in Maverick:
In X:
default screen blanking timeout is 600s if no screensaver app is used.
gnome-screensaver, configured to be off, successfully sets timeout to 0.
gnome-power-manager works as it should.

so, with the exception of strange hard-coded 600s timeout, everything is fine.

In console:
virtual terminals have their own blanking timeout, also set to 600s, (that can be changed with setterm). This is really annoying, imagine situation:
user has 2TB hdd, a routine check on startup is in progress, progress bar is displayed. It takes more than 10 minutes. Screen switches off leaving user with no indication of the process. Pressing some key to restore screen will result in canceling check.

Wouldn't it be more logical to implement a principle "if there is no explicit screensaver/blanking/screenoff is in place, then do not blank/turn off screen by default". This goes to default X settings and VT settings.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

correction: after I removed and reinstalled gnome-screensaver to test things, X blanking timeout now remains 600s, despite gnome-screensaver is started with session, and configured to be off.

also: I can not find gnome-screensaver startup setting in gnome-session-properties. Does it start somehow else now?

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

another correction:
If gnome-screensaver is running, it changes value of X screensaver timeout not on startup, but in the moment when gnome-screensaver timeout or X timeout passes, whichever comes first. It's strange, but in the end it works.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Thanks for the update. Can you give step-by-step instructions to reproduce the problem in X? Something like:

1. Uncheck "Activate screensaver when computer is ide" in System -> Preferences -> Screensaver
2. Wait 10 minutes

Is that right?

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

Yes. You can then set gnome-screensaver timeout more than 10 minutes and less than 10 minutes. And then:
"watch xset -q | grep cycle"
In both cases value there will change in the last second before time is out.
But I guess, this is insignificant, because in the end, gnome-screensaver works (in the part where it disables X timeout).

The significant part is that X and VTs blanking is on by default.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Well, I can't reproduce it. I unchecked the gnome-screensaver box and my screen was still showing my desktop an hour later. Are you sure you gave me the correct instructions? Please post step-by-step instructions demonstrating something working improperly.

> The significant part is that X and VTs blanking is on by default.

Blanking on by default makes sense, I don't see how this would be a bug.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

> Blanking on by default makes sense, I don't see how this would be a bug.

Imagine: user does not want any screensaver and does not want anything related to take space on disk or resources on startup. He removes gnome-screensaver from system. And surprise! X default blanking kicks in. Where did that came from? why he has to keep a screensaver application installed and running in order for screensaver to be disabled? it is illogical and not user-friendly.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

Oh, I agree that removing gnome-screensaver should disable the screensaver. I just misunderstood you, I guess. Still waiting for step-by-step instructions at your convenience.

[Vladimir-csp (vladimir-csp)]

Sorry, step-by-step for what? See #36, gnome-screensaver works.
If you disable activation in gnome-screensaver-preferences, there will be no screensaver or blanking. I've just pointed out that X timeout is changed to 0 not right away when you uncheck that box, but just before blanking is about to start.

If there is a need for separate bug about blanking defaults, then this bug can be closed.

[David Tombs (dgtombs)]

OK, I'm going to close this bug then. I recommend filing a new bug with 'ubuntu-bug xorg' stating that X blanks after removing gnome-screensaver.

I don't really consider the pre-X console blanking a bug. Your story about a long disk check at startup isn't too serious because the user would have to press 'C' to cancel, not just any key. If you still feel strongly about it, file a new bug with 'ubuntu-bug linux' for that one.

Thanks for the report.

[Cepera (ceperapetrov)]

This bug affects me too

[Nativov (nativov)]

This bug affects me too