gnome-screensaver freezes system on lid close or inactivity, xscreensaver resolves problems

[Lee H]

In Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS, I was experiencing a screen freeze (mouse still moveable but clicks not registered, keyboard non responsive) every time I close my laptop lid or after a period of inactivity. My Power Settings were "Don't suspend when inactive" and "Do Nothing" when lid closed (both battery and AC). The Brightness and Lock settings where to "Dim screen to save power" and "Turn off screen when inactive after 30 minutes", "Lock screen after screen turns off".

The expected behaviour after closing the lid is that nothing happened, and after 30minutes inactivity that I be met with a login screen to unlock my desktop. The actual behaviour was a freeze as described above.

I found that if I uninstalled `gnome-screensaver` all together `sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver`, and replaced it with `xscreensaver` I experience no such freezes any more.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: gnome-screensaver (not installed)
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-34.49~precise1-generic 3.8.13.12
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-34-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: fglrx
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.6
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Dec 26 13:41:28 2013
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20130820.1)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: gnome-screensaver
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)