[mythtv] DPMS inhibit issues in 0.28

[Michael T. Dean]

On 04/26/2015 10:01 PM, dennis wrote:
>
>
>> FWIW, if anyone is interested in working on a patch, the new code 
>> will have to be changed to do a runtime check, something like:
>>
>> https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/commit/dd96b80f#diff-e68a289d9e5d8b92bd9d39461cf38ea2 
>>
>>
>> but the challenge is properly detecting whether DBus control will 
>> actually work.  Unfortunately, the only "required" DBus methods in 
>> the Freedesktop specification are Inhibit and Uninhibit (  
>> http://people.freedesktop.org/~hadess/idle-inhibition-spec/re01.html) 
>> and there are none to say whether a DBus-enabled screensaver is 
>> actually running (and, if nothing else GNOME3/gnome-shell screen 
>> saver implements only the required methods, so we can't assume others 
>> will be there).
>>
>> Therefore, my recommendation would be to move the DPMS-support out of 
>> screensaver-x11.cpp and into a ScreenSaverDPMS helper class (which 
>> has the code to detect whether DPMS is enabled, as well as 
>> DisableDPMS and RestoreDPMS), then move the code that checks whether 
>> xscreensaver is active:
>>
>> https://github.com/MythTV/mythtv/blob/master/mythtv/libs/libmythui/screensaver-x11.cpp#L40 
>>
>>
>> into a static function in ScreenSaverX11.  Then, change 
>> ScreenSaverX11 /and/ ScreenSaverDBus to make calls to ScreenSaverDPMS 
>> in addition to their xscreensaver/DBus activities and the detection 
>> code would be something like:
>>
>> #if defined(USING_X11)
>> #if defined(USING_DBUS)
>>     if (ScreenSaverX11::IsXScreenSaverRunning())
>> #endif    // USING_DBUS
>>         ScreenSaverSingleton = new ScreenSaverX11();
>> #if defined(USING_DBUS)
>>     else
>>         ScreenSaverSingleton = new ScreenSaverDBus();
>> #endif    // USING_DBUS
>> #elif CONFIG_DARWIN
>>
>> where the above assumes that DBus screensaver control is only valid 
>> on X11-based systems, which I think is correct(?).
>>
>> This way, if xscreensaver is running (which is the only way the 
>> xscreensaver control will work), we use its control mechanism (since 
>> it does not and will not support DBus).  Otherwise, we use DBus 
>> control.  Since we can't know if DBus control will work, DBus control 
>> has to be the fallback.  And, we still make DPMS calls (if DPMS is 
>> enabled on the server) whether we use xscreensaver or DBus to control 
>> the actual screensaver.  However, if MythTV is compiled without DBus 
>> support, we will just use the xscreensaver control (which will still 
>> make DPMS calls).
>>
>> Mike
>
> From what I can tell,  currently upon starting of the frontend,  it is 
> checking 4 different methods to see if it can connect via dbus.   
> Whichever it finds,  it trys to use when actually trys to inhibit the 
> screeensaver.   Is this correct?
>
> 2015-04-26 20:23:51.284136 I  ScreenSaverDBus: Created for DBus 
> service: org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver
> 2015-04-26 20:23:51.285120 E  ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to 
> dbus: The name org.freedesktop.PowerManagement.Inhibit was not 
> provided by any .service files
> 2015-04-26 20:23:51.285928 E  ScreenSaverDBus: Could not connect to 
> dbus: The name org.mate.SessionManager was not provided by any 
> .service files
> 2015-04-26 20:23:51.287686 I  ScreenSaverDBus: Created for DBus 
> service: org.gnome.SessionManager
>
> In my case,  it looks like it is finding 2 methods that appear 
> valid.   However,  when it actually goes to inhibit the screensaver it 
> looks like that one is actually working.
>
> 2015-04-26 20:29:28.756780 I  ScreenSaverDBus: Successfully inhibited 
> screensaver via org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver. cookie 764684952. nom nom
> 2015-04-26 20:29:28.757035 E  ScreenSaverDBus: Failed to disable 
> screensaver: Method "Inhibit" with signature "ss" on interface 
> "org.gnome.SessionManager" doesn't exist

Right.  This is the whole, "There's no good way to figure out if DBus 
screensaver control will work," thing.  We can tell when the system has 
things installed that can use DBus screensaver/idle control, but not 
whether they actually work.

> This is on ubuntu 14.04 where I am not using any screen saver,  but 
> just issuing "xset dpms 0 0 600" on startup.   So with what your 
> proposing,  you would still inhibit DPMS even if it thinks it 
> succeeded by other methods such as dbus ( if complied with both 
> USING_X11 & USING_DBUS)?   Kind of a shotgun approach?   Looks like it 
> would work for me..

Right.  In short, MythTV would use xscreensaver + DPMS control if it 
found xscreensaver was running at mythfrontend startup.  Otherwise, it 
would use DBus + DPMS control.  The DBus calls wouldn't cause any 
problems even if there's no DBus-controllable screensaver running, but 
would work nicely for those using a DBus-controllable screensaver.

The alternative would be the real shotgun approach--all 3 of DBus and 
xscreensaver and DPMS control on all systems.

FWIW, I do not run any screensaver programs at all on my main 
mythfrontend system and disable DPMS, which means that mythfrontend 
would issue DBus screensaver inhibit/uninhibit method calls that do 
nothing, and I'd be fine with that.

Mike