kscreensaver immediately reengages when attempting to connect to the system with VNC

[Michael Marley]

Binary package hint: kdeartwork

I am using Kubuntu Gutsy with all of the latest stable packages applied. When I attempt to connect to my PC over VNC, it works correctly at first. However, as soon as I unlock my PC, the screensaver immediately reengages. However, this only occurs if the screensaver activates automatically. If I locked it manually, the issue does not occur. I am using x11vnc, but the same problem occurs with krfb. By the way, I am using an xscreensaver screensaver with the kscreensaver-xsavers package. I believe the problem occurs because kscreensaver listens for hardware input from the keyboard/mouse, but not input from VNC. If it would be helpful for me to upload any logfiles, please tell me.

[Szo (szo)]

Version: (using KDE KDE 3.5.4)
Installed from: Debian testing/unstable Packages

I have configured kscreensaver to start automatically after a 5 minute delay. It works all right until I take over the desktop remotely, using the x11vnc. When viewed through vnc, when I release the mouse, the screensaver starts immediately. (It used to work all right a couple of releases back, I'm not sure when, I didn't use vnc for many months now)

[vatbier (vatbier)]

Yes,
I also have to disable the screensaver when I take over my home computer running x11vnc 0.8.3 remotely from work with tightvnc_viewer.
I have Mandriva Linux with KDE 3.5.4.

Karl Runge thinks it may be a bug in kdesktop_lock:
http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/#faq:
Q-42: Help! x11vnc and my KDE screensaver keep switching each other on and off every few seconds.
 This is a new (Jul/2006) problem seen, say, on the version of KDE that is shipped with SuSE 10.1. It is not yet clear what is causing this... If you move the mouse through x11vnc the screensaver shuts off like it should but then a second or two after you stop moving the mouse the screensaver snaps back on.
 This may be a bug in kdesktop_lock. For now the only workaround is to disable the screensaver. You can try using another one such as straight xscreensaver.

vatbier

[Kdebug (kdebug)]

I have traced this down to a DPMSInfo() call in the kdesktop_lock

Even though there has been mouse or keyboard input to wake kdesktop_lock
up and cause it to turn off the screen saver, kdesktop_lock (or a
respawned process of it) checks DPMSInfo() and if it sees the Monitor
is in a low power state ("standby", "suspend", or "off") it turns on
the screensaver again.

I'm not sure if this is the desired behavior of kdesktop_lock or not to
discard the recent mouse/keyboard input information...

I have put in a workaround to x11vnc for this, the -nodpms option where
it will keep the Monitor in the DPMS "on" state whenever VNC clients
are connected.

        http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/#faq-kde-screensaver

Karl

[David Faure (faure)]

*** Bug 138402 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Rdieter-math (rdieter-math)]

*** Bug 136222 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Elan Ruusamäe (glen666)]

i can confirm it too, and i use kde's own vnc tools (krdc and krfb).

so for now the only real fix is to revert patch like mentioned in bug 142308?

[Richard Hansen (rhansen)]

This is a known problem in kdesktop_lock (in the kdesktop package). A workaround is to pass the '-nodpms' parameter to x11vnc. See http://www.karlrunge.com/x11vnc/#faq-kde-screensaver for more details.

Do you still experience this problem in Hardy?

[Richard Hansen (rhansen)]

I found a couple of upstream bug reports:
  http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=134765
  http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=142308

[Michael Marley (mamarley)]

Shortly after I discovered this bug, I found that I could work around it by updating to the version of x11vnc in the backport repository. Because this version of x11vnc is now in Hardy, I would assume that the problem does not occur there. Sadly, I cannot test this, as my old Linux PC broke down, and the laptop I got to replace it, though all of its hardware was (intentionally) customized for Linux support, does not work very well with Ubuntu. Therefore, I have had to switch back to Windows :-(

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

Probably fixed. If anyone still experiences this please reopen.

[gxbacher (george-chrisbacher)]

Sorry to say that I am experiencing this issue with Hardy and krfb.

Kubuntu version (cat /etc/issue): Ubuntu 8.04.1

krfb --version reports:
Qt: 3.3.8b
KDE: 3.5.9
Desktop Sharing: 1.0

Is there any way this can be re-opened?

Thanks

[Richard Hansen (rhansen)]

This bug is not fixed.

(BTW, anyone can change the status of a bug -- you don't have to be a developer.)

[FiNeX (finex)]

Is this still an issue on KDE 4?

[Szo (szo)]

As far as I can tell, it's gone. I checked it in ubuntu hardy. (It looks OK for KDE 3 also in hardy)

[David Faure (faure)]

Actually -- what a coincidence, it's amazing -- I just had this bug with my wife's kubuntu hardy's KDE3. Not that I'll reopen this bug though, before seeing it with kde4 first.

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

This should be fixed in KDE4. Please don't reopen it unless it still is an issue in KDE4.

[The-mouse (the-mouse)]

I can confirm this bug with KDE 4.5.1 and X11VNC

[David Faure (faure)]

*** Bug 142308 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[David Faure (faure)]

Bug not reproducible anymore with KDE-4.5.1 and x11vnc 0.9.9.

[David Faure (faure)]

Oops. And on the second try the bug happened again. If I move the mouse out of vncviewer, the screensaver kicks in immediately again.

However I think this is an Xorg bug more than a KDE bug. It's X which decides when to let the screensaver kick in, AFAIK.

[ietc (ietc)]

*** This bug has been confirmed by popular vote. ***

[The-mouse (the-mouse)]

On my system the screensaver starts as soon as I stop moving the cursor on the remote screen, moving the mouse away from it.

[Cyberbat83 (cyberbat83)]

I confirm this with kde-4.7.4 and tigervnc-1.1.0.

[Marc321 (marc321)]

Confirmed with KDE 4.9.0 and x11vnc 0.9.13. The -nodpms option of x11vnc does not solve the problem. The only workaround I've found is to disable the screensaver.

[Sergiu Bivol (sergiu-bivol)]

The -nodpms switch to x11vnc works great for me. Without it, the screen saver kicks in every other second, even when typing text.

Client: KRDC 4.8.5
Server x11vnc version: 0.9.13
Server KDE version: 4.9.2

[George Goldberg (grundleborg)]

*** Bug 313905 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[George Goldberg (grundleborg)]

*** Bug 147091 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

[Oliver-henshaw (oliver-henshaw)]

The kde 4.10 screen locker doesn't behave the same, so this shouldn't be happening any more IIRC. If anyone is encountering it on 4.10 and can reproduce it, I'd like to hear details.

[Mgraesslin (mgraesslin)]

given comment #20 I assume this issue to be fixed. If it still happens, please reopen.