Indicator-session would benefit from an "Inhibit Screensaver" option

[Emmet Hikory]

Binary package hint: indicator-session

I often find that I'm doing things where I don't want my screensaver/suspend/other-automated-idle-handler to activate, when this cannot be easily detected. Examples include watching an IRC meeting in which I'm not active enough to trip the idle detector (but total traffic may be sufficient), watching an auto-refreshing page in a browser with regular updates (e.g. some event tracker). I'm certain other cases can be imagined, but they share the commonality that the application that the user is passively consuming is *not* one that should usually inhibit the screensaver (unlike, say, a video player).

When the user *knows* they wish to disable the screensaver/auto-suspend/etc. temporarily, this is easily done from the command line, or from the power management and/or screensaver control panels. This, however, requires a fair bit of navigation, and in the GUI solution, fails to preserve the existing user preferences. As indicator-session already has a means to interact with gnome-screensaver ("Lock Screen"), it seems appropriate that if a simple menu selection to inhibit the behaviour is implemented, it also reside there. This should probably toggle the menu description (similar to mute/unmute for audio), and call org.gnome.ScreenSaver.Inhibit / org.gnome.ScreenSaver.UnInhibit via DBus.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: indicator-session 0.2.8-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Tue May 4 22:10:20 2010
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: indicator-session

[MarcRandolph (mrand)]

I've run into this from time to time as well... two computers side-by-side, using one much more than the other. The one I use less is the one running pidgin.

[Vin Shankar (v-shankar)]

In Natty, this is more than an enhancement, it's a regression-fix, since it is no longer possible in Unity to use the inhibit applet for the panel.