[mythtv-users] Mythtv screensaver behaviour

Fri Jan 1 19:03:31 UTC 2016

On 12/31/2015 12:27 PM, Another Sillyname wrote:
> On 31 December 2015 at 14:13, faginbagin <mythtv at hbuus.com> wrote:
>> On 12/31/2015 3:37 AM, Another Sillyname wrote:
>>> On 31 December 2015 at 06:38, faginbagin <mythtv at hbuus.com> wrote:
>>>> On 12/30/2015 7:02 AM, Another Sillyname wrote:
>>>>> On 30 December 2015 at 04:20, HP-mini <blm-ubunet at slingshot.co.nz> wrote:
>>>>>> On Sun, 2015-12-27 at 09:47 +0000, Lawrence Rust wrote:
>>>>>>> On Sun, 2015-12-27 at 13:30 +1300, HP-mini wrote:
>>>>>>>> On Sat, 2015-12-26 at 17:49 +0100, Jonatan Lindblad wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> <snip>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> That still might not be enough.. I have qtdbus enabled in master build
>>>>>>>> but logs show "ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to dbus: " etc and so
>>>>>>>> mate desktop screensaver does not inhibit during playback. Could this be
>>>>>>>> dbus namespace problem?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> The xscreensaver works correctly.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I also note that on my Ubuntu 12.04 LTS based BE/FE the recent patches
>>>>>>> to fixes/0.27 to use the DBus based screensaver inhibit have no effect
>>>>>>> although the system suspend inhibit does work.  E.g.:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> 2015-12-27 09:24:56.479151 W  ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to dbus: The name org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver was not provided by any .service files
>>>>>>> 2015-12-27 09:24:56.479690 W  ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to dbus: The name org.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Inhibit was not provided by any .service files
>>>>>>> 2015-12-27 09:24:56.480211 W  ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to dbus: The name org.mate.SessionManager was not provided by any .service files
>>>>>>> 2015-12-27 09:24:56.482108 I  ScreenSaverDBus: Created for DBus service: org.gnome.SessionManager
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I ran foul of similar problems a couple of years ago after this patch
>>>>>>> was added to 0.27: "5e13d41 Remove support for GNOME screensaver".
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I have a combined BE/FE that runs 0.27 on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and has
>>>>>>> xscreensaver installed to display a slideshow while idle.  Prior to that
>>>>>>> patch I was using a wrapper around the gnome-screensaver-command that
>>>>>>> trapped the obsolete --poke option.  I had this
>>>>>>> in /usr/local/bin/gnome-screensaver-command:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> #!/bin/sh
>>>>>>> set -e
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Poke() {
>>>>>>>        dbus-send --session --dest=gnome.ScreenSaver --type=method_call\
>>>>>>>            /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver.SimulateUserActivity
>>>>>>> }
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> case "${1:-}" in
>>>>>>>        --poke) Poke ;;
>>>>>>>        *) /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command "$@" ;;
>>>>>>> esac
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Following the removal of support for Gnome screensaver I wrote my own
>>>>>>> patch that replaced the "gnome-screensaver-command --poke" call with a
>>>>>>> call to "dbus-send...".  This restored the behaviour that you are
>>>>>>> seeking.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you are interested, the patch is named
>>>>>>> "0171-Screensaver-Add-DB-settings-for-the-detection-and-de.patch"
>>>>>>> and is available in my MythTV patch archive:
>>>>>>> http://www.softsystem.co.uk/download/mythtv/mythbuild-CURRENT.zip
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If necessary, you can configure the system command issued to disable the
>>>>>>> Gnome screensaver from 'TV settings/Playback/General Playback/
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> HTH
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> -- Lawrence Rust
>>>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi Lawrence,
>>>>>> Here mythtv fails to work with mate-screensaver (fine with
>>>>>> xscreensaver).
>>>>>> I should try to figure out the root cause. Your script gives some
>>>>>> insight..
>>>>>> I recall switching to xscreensaver when gnome-screensaver stopped
>>>>>> working as well.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I've been using your playback seek recovery patch (PTS AV jiggle) for
>>>>>> some years, the default behaviour is very annoying especially with near
>>>>>> instant seeking.. Thanks.
>>>>>> Brett.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Guys
>>>>>
>>>>> Sorry to be a bit anal but a number have people have posted along the
>>>>> lines of "....xscreensaver just works.....".
>>>>>
>>>>> This is an imprecise statement as I'd already stated that while
>>>>> xscreensaver screen blanking does appear to work as required the power
>>>>> management element of it is NOT working correctly, so people posting
>>>>> that xscreensaver "just works" may not be using power management or
>>>>> it's settings may be either not turned on or set for such a long time
>>>>> window that they don't 'see' the problem.
>>>>>
>>>>> Could users possibly try the following.....
>>>>>
>>>>> In xscreensaver settings
>>>>>
>>>>> advanced settings
>>>>>
>>>>> Display Power Management
>>>>>
>>>>> Turn on >> Power Management Enabled
>>>>>
>>>>> Set "Standby After" for say two minutes
>>>>>
>>>>> In the 'Display Modes" setting set "Blank After" for say 5 minutes
>>>>> (any value larger then the period set in "Standby After" above works
>>>>> here)
>>>>>
>>>>> exit the settings
>>>>>
>>>>> start mythfrontend and start playing a video and leave it running with
>>>>> no further key presses or remote inputs
>>>>>
>>>>> see if the screen goes into power save mode after the period set in
>>>>> "Standby After" even though a video is running.
>>>>>
>>>>> I'd be interested to hear if people are surprised to find that Power
>>>>> Save kicks in even though a video is running.....this is not the
>>>>> desired behaviour but is what I'm seeing.
>>>>>
>>>>> Tony
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Hi Tony,
>>>>
>>>> What I have observed with DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling) is there's a timing issue with when xscreensaver enables DPMS and when mythfrontend starts. That's assuming you're using mythbuntu and have used mythbuntu control center to automatically start mythfrontend. If DPMS is disabled when mythfrontend checks the setting, you will see this in mythfrontend.log:
>>>> ... ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS is disabled.
>>>> Even if DPMS is enabled a second later, mythfrontend won't know it and won't disable DPMS when it starts playback or enable it when playback stops. I work around this problem by:
>>>> 1) disabling screen saver in the "Display Modes" tab and enabling power management in the Advanced tab.
>>>> 2) telling mythbuntu control center NOT to automatically start mythfrontend.
>>>> 3) creating the file $HOME/.xprofile with one line:
>>>> (sleep 4; mymyth)&
>>>> Note the ampersand is important.
>>>> 4) creating $HOME/bin/mymyth with two lines:
>>>> xset +dpms
>>>> nohup /usr/bin/mythfrontend.real --syslog local7 -q &
>>>> 5) Making sure $HOME/bin is added to the PATH in .profile
>>>>
>>>> When started this way, you should find a line like the following in mythfrontend.log during its start up phase:
>>>> ... ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS is active.
>>>>
>>>> When you start playback, you should see this:
>>>> ... ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS Deactivated 1
>>>>
>>>> When you stop playback, you should see this:
>>>> ...  ScreenSaverX11Private: DPMS Reactivated 1
>>>>
>>>> HTH,
>>>> Helen
>>>
>>>
>>> Hi Helen
>>>
>>> I don't know if you saw my OP on this thread?
>>>
>>> My whole point/question is.....
>>>
>>> If vlc works, as it should, without requiring any tinkering and it
>>> also works with gnome and mate screensaver as well as xscreensaver why
>>> doesn't mythfrontend?
>>>
>>> Surely getting the app to work the same way as another GPL app does
>>> shouldn't be too hard?
>>>
>>> Regards and happy New Year.
>>>
>>> Tony
>>>
>>
>> The difference is that vlc is not started automatically when the system boots, whereas mythfrontend is. If you had to start mythfrontend manually, you would be hard pressed to uncover the timing problem, and I bet if vlc were started automatically at boot, it would suffer from the same timing problem.
>>
>> Helen
> 
> 
> Hi Helen
> 
> Thanks for that, but excuse my ignorance why would mythfrontend start
> on boot?  There's no mythfrontend service only the app which is
> started manually.
> 
> Mythbackend on the other hand does of course start automatically.
> 
> Confused
> 
> T

Are you using a *buntu distro? If so, there's a good chance that, unless you changed it, mythfrontend starts automatically when the system boots up. Or more specifically when the X server starts. It is under those conditions that I have observed the timing issue I spoke of.

If you really are starting mythfrontend manually, I suggest you check whether DPMS is actually enabled from a terminal window using the command:
xset q
If it is not enabled, then perhaps you've found a xscreensaver bug, one you could work around using my "mymyth" script to start mythfrontend, instead of whatever mechanism you are using.

Helen