screensaver does not display but screen is locked

[Brian Murray]

Binary package hint: gnome-screensaver

When running unity if I lock my screen via ctrl+alt+l the screen is locked but the screensaver image does not seem to start. So I can still see my desktop and move the cursor around and but can't click anything. This was quite confusing. I can unlock the screensaver as usual or kill the gnome-screensaver process to get back in. This does not happen when I am not running unity. It also happens if I let the desktop session become inactive for some time. I'll test with another screensaver too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: gnome-screensaver 2.30.2-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.37-12.26-generic 2.6.37
Uname: Linux 2.6.37-12-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Jan 6 14:16:19 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
GconfGnomeSession:
 idle_delay = 5
  /desktop/gnome/session/required_components:
   windowmanager = metacity
GnomeSessionIdleInhibited: No
GnomeSessionInhibitors: None
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release amd64 (20101007)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 LC_MESSAGES=en_AG.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-screensaver
WindowManager: metacity

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I've tested a couple of other screensavers and the result is the same.

[C de-Avillez (hggdh2)]

Confirming, setting to Medium.

[Didier Roche-Tolomelli (didrocks)]

This one should be fixed with compiz, isn't it?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

I've not been able to recreate this at all today using unity version 3.4.2-0ubuntu2

[Mauro (ephestione)]

Confirm on a natty installation on a Toshiba Satellite, sometimes I wake up the computer, and the main screen shows, I can normally move the pointer; in a few cases, the screensaver will pop up with a delay, letting me see the actual screen (possible security loophole), so after the balnk screensaver shows I can enter the password, but most of the times when it happens, it just stays like that, with the screen showing, the mouse pointer moving regularly, but being unbale to interact with anything; the ctrl-alt-fx combos work to switch between consoles, but the screensaver won't come up.
Now that I found a suggestion in here though, I will try opening the first textual console with ctrl-alt-f1 and try killing the screensaver process with htop, will report in here.

[Mauro (ephestione)]

Update: just happened, tried to kill all *screensaver* processed under tty1 but all I got was that ctrl-alt-f7 brought me to the unactive graphic fullscreen terminal, I managed in the end to ctrl-alt-bksp since the mouse pointer appeared after a while.

[ichudov (igor-chudov)]

I have the same exact problem.

Feeling really bad about it, since I cannot essentially use my computer! I need to have the screen locked for security reasons!

Any workarounds?