mplayer does not reliably inhibit gnome-screensaver or xscreensaver during playback

[yarly]

Binary package hint: mplayer

Ubuntu ships a patch for inhibiting the screensaver that was rejected upstream. It seems to work only in these conditions:

 - in mplayer windowed mode iff the pointer is inside the window
 - in mplayer gui mode

It does *not* seem to work in the following conditions:

 - in mplayer windowed mode if the pointer is outside the window
 - in gmplayer in fullscreen
 - in gmplayer in windowed mode

Original Report follows:
mplayer does not disable gnome-screensaver during playback

Cliffnotes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gnome-screensaver activates after several minutes during video playback in Mplayer.
Stop XScreenSaver is checked in Mplayer preferences.

Details:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
***@***:~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 9.10 (AMD64)
Release: 9.10

***@***:~$ apt-cache policy mplayer
mplayer:
  Installed: 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1
  Candidate: 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1
  Version table:
 *** 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/multiverse Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/multiverse Packages

***@***:~$ apt-cache policy gnome-screensaver
gnome-screensaver:
  Installed: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Candidate: 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2
  Version table:
 *** 2.28.0-0ubuntu3.2 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com karmic-security/main Packages
     2.28.0-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main Packages

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sat Jan 9 05:05:12 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: mplayer 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-17.54-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 libavcodec52 4:0.5+svn20090706-2ubuntu2
 libavcodec-extra-52 N/A
SourcePackage: mplayer
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-17-generic x86_64
system: distro = Ubuntu, architecture = x86_64, kernel = 2.6.31-17-generic

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

is this in fullscreen or in windowed mode.

if in windowed mode, is your mouse cursor inside or outside of the window?

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

Hello Reinhard,

The screensaver activates both in fullscreen and windowed mode.

Testing Methodology:
----------------------------------------------------------------
Gnome-Screensaver settings:
System -> Preferences -> Screensaver

Screensaver theme ..................... Blank Screen
Regard the computer as idle ....... 1 minute
Activate screensaver when idle ... checked
----------------------
Mplayer settings:
Stop XScreenSaver ..................... checked

RESULTS: (Every test initiated with double click video launch from desktop)

window -> cursor left to idle outside window -> screensaver activates after 1 minute idle
window -> cursor left to idle inside.. window -> screensaver activates after 1 minute idle

full screen -> screensaver activates after 1 minute idle

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

On Sa, Jan 09, 2010 at 16:52:51 (CET), yarly wrote:

> Mplayer settings:
> Stop XScreenSaver ..................... checked

what mplayer settings? mplayer is a commandline application.

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

http://packages.ubuntu.com/karmic-updates/mplayer

Package installed
-----------------------
mplayer_1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10.1_amd64.deb

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

After installing that package, Mplayer associates itself with certain media filetypes.
Double-clicking on one of the associated filetypes launches mplayer with a GUI
If you right click on the controller or a video window you can select the option
"preferences". Inside the preferences menu, you can click on the "misc" tab
and you will see the option "Stop XScreenSaver" with a check toggle option.

This preferences GUI edits settings located at ~/.mplayer/gui.conf

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

okay, I've now done some tests and can perhaps explain your
observations. The binary installed in the mplayer package is actually
'gmplayer', sometimes called 'mplayer-gui'. It is actually widely
unmaintained and known to be buggy.

As for our screensaver patch. It seems to work only in these conditions:

 - in mplayer windowed mode iff the pointer is inside the window
 - in mplayer gui mode

It does *not* seem to work in the following conditions:

 - in mplayer winowed mode if the pointer is outside the window
 - in gmplayer in fullscreen
 - in gmplayer in windowed mode

--
Gruesse/greetings,
Reinhard Tartler, KeyID 945348A4

[yarly (ih8junkmai1)]

Reinhard, I'm assuming this wasn't fixed in time for Lucid?

[Søren Holm (sgh)]

It actually is solved. Don't know which exact update though. The mouse
appearence in mplayer fullscreen is a little bit sluggish now. So there need
to be some reassonable amount of mouse movement for the cursor to reappear.

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

I'm not aware of any real fix, neither in lucid nor in upstream for
this problem.

[Søren Holm (sgh)]

hmm ...... you're right.

I'm using mplayer from medibuntu, so that's the reason.

[Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge)]

It doesn't disable xscreensaver either.

[Chris Bainbridge (chris-bainbridge)]

https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/12930

"This is an upstream issue. MPlayer now insists that screensavers use XSuspendScreensaver or XResetScreensaver, which xscreensaver apparently doesn't. Specialized support for screensavers not using these methods has been dropped from recent MPlayer versions.

See -heartbeat-cmd in mplayer(1) for a workaround."