Disabling energy saving of monitor; changes the normal screensaver to a e.g. blank screen or a screen with an X

[jeroenl]

Binary package hint: kscreensaver

Using KDE 3.5.5 on Kubuntu Edgy:

How to reproduce:

1. Make sure in your kcontrol > 'display settings'; the energy saving is enabled.
2. Go to kcontrol > screensavers; enable e.g. the clock and set it to automatically and 1 minute.
3. Wait 1 min and the clock should come up.
4. Go to kcontrol > 'display settings'; disable energy savings, the time for e.g. your monitor should grey out.
5. Wait 1 minute and the you will see the bug. The screen turns blank or shows a white X on a black background. I have two PC's; one gave the blank screen, the second one the X.
6. After this has happened you can enable the energy saving option again and you will notice that the screensaver works again.

See also this forum-thread: http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=10331

[jeroenl (jeroenl)]

Also reported to KDE bugs:

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=137070

[jeroenl (jeroenl)]

As requested, I did a 'xset q' during disabled and enabled 'energy saving':

-------------------
Energy saving disabled:
-------------------

Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000002
  auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25
  auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fa9fffffffdffdff
                        ffffffffffffffff
                        ffffffffffffffff
  bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration: 20/10 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking: no allow exposures: yes
  timeout: 1810 cycle: 600
Colors:
  default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 65535
Font Path:
  /usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi,/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/,/home/jeroen/.fonts
Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 10800 Suspend: 10800 Off: 10800
  DPMS is Disabled
File paths:
  Config file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  Modules path: /usr/lib/xorg/modules
  Log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log

-------------------
Energy saving enabled:
-------------------

Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000002
  auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25
  auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fa9fffffffdffdff
                        ffffffffffffffff
                        ffffffffffffffff
  bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration: 20/10 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking: no allow exposures: yes
  timeout: 1810 cycle: 600
Colors:
  default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 65535
Font Path:
  /usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled,/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1,/usr/share/X11/fonts/100dpi,/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType,/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/,/home/jeroen/.fonts
Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 10800 Suspend: 10800 Off: 10800
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
File paths:
  Config file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf
  Modules path: /usr/lib/xorg/modules
  Log file: /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[computx (afleak)]

I have this same problem. if power management is disabled I either get a white X on a blank screen pr just a blank screen.
With poer management enabled The screensaver works normally.

[Juan Carlos Torres (jucato)]

I can confirm this on Kubuntu 6.10 (Edgy), although I just get a blank screen.

[Machiel (mvveen)]

I can also confirm this issue, after some time either a blank screen or a large screen filling or small x appears. I have worked around the issue by enabling power management and setting it to the maximum setting of five hours in the control panel.

I'm running Kubuntu 6.10, it is a fresh installation.

[jcfp (jcfp)]

Kde-bugs #137070 was marked duplicate by upstream; now using kde-bugs #75254.

[jeroenl (jeroenl)]

I somehow close this bug. Please re-open if you still have a issue with this in Gutsy.

[Bart Hengeveld (hng)]

Same problem in Gutsy: disabling the monitor power management also disables the screensaver function (Applies to Kubuntu)

[jcfp (jcfp)]

reported to still exist in gutsy, reopening.

[Bart Hengeveld (hng)]

Rather the problem that I found is that disabling the monitor energy saving function also disables the screensaver function.

[Harald Sitter (apachelogger)]

According to upstream this should be fixed as of 2007-10-31.

As for the last comment: Bug #40571