Since upgrading to XFCE 4.10, I have run into the problem of the screen blanking after 10 mins (no matter what the power settings are set at).
Correction to previous statement, Power manager is not overriding DPMS when ticked. My screen is still blanking after 10 mins even though I have it set in power manager to turn off after 30 minutes.
This bug affects Lubuntu 13.10 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xfce4-power-manager/+bug/1193716 Despite lubuntu 13.10 has xscreensaver not installed by default, my monitor blacks out after 10 minutes no matter the settings in xfce4-power-manager. Even when a (music) video is desplayed, the monitor switches off and music freezes to a consistent beep sound. this makes playing an mp3 playlist or internet radio a nuisance than a pleasure. Stavros
For those who are suffering for this 10min problem: Please run this on command line: xset q | grep -A 2 "Screen Saver:" Does it say that timeout is 600 (or non-zero anyway)? If that is the case, does it help, if you run the following command? xset s off If that helped, does the timeout 600 come back after reboot?
I tested it myself, and yes, timeout 600 comes back when you log in again (on Xubuntu 13.10). A workaround is to add command "xset s off" as an autostarted application in session settings (provided that resetting to 600 does not happen automatically within session.) I think PM should override xset setting at least, if you choose Mode > Presentation.
And by overriding I mean that Xfce4 Power Manager should do "xset s off" when it enters Presentation mode, and restore to previous screensaver setting, when changing back to Normal mode. I think it is not desirable to disable X screensaver by Xfce4 Power Manager in Normal mode, since user may want to have some screensaver activated, instead of just blanking the screen, according to that timeout setting. Monitor power management will work regardless according to DPMS settings (that Xfce4 Power Manager sets), if control stays in the same virtual terminal. Here is some information about X11 Screen Saver Extension: http://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/scrnsaverproto/saver.html
As for the Presentation made, when it is used, and user locks screen, xflock4 may change DPMS on, so after unlocking, the mode may not work, unless re-enabled. It would be nice, if xfce4-power-manager could re-enable Presentation Mode (like "xset -dpms ; xset s off" in shell) automatically after screen locking stops, but this may be impossible at least with current xflock4, because normally screen is still locked after xflock4 exits.
Good news, Simon added support for controlling screen blanking in: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-power-manager/commit/?id=7dd51ceaa91ecba72154dd15ecca6ddd7f33b120 and I added the presentation mode turning off screen blanking in: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-power-manager/commit/?id=e07fd9b7571c53bc4dbf3ed77915047cb4a0f3e2 Testing/feedback is always welcome if you're able to build from git.
Yup, this bug is actually fixed now.
I cannot confirm that the bug is fixed. I have installed dpkg -l xfce4-power-manager Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold | Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend |/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad) ||/ Name Version Architecture Description +++-==============-============-============-================================= ii xfce4-power-ma 1.3.1+git-0~ i386 power manager for Xfce desktop and the problem is here. Lubuntu 14.04, Linux ...-MS-7238 3.11.0-18-generic
The default value is 10 mins, so you might have to change that in the settings dialog of xfce4-power-manager to get a different value. You can always control whether the values in the power manager are applied correctly by running "xset q | grep timeout" in the terminal. (Note that the values by xset are seconds while the power manager converts that to minutes, for convenience).
Thanks, I did what you said, but.. xset q | grep timeout timeout: 0 cycle: 0 Please tell me if there is anything I could try.
> xset q | grep timeout > timeout: 0 cycle: 0 Right, this means that the X server is not responsible for your screen going blank, hence xfpm can do nothing about it. Are you maybe using XScreenSaver? If so, that app uses separate settings that cannot be modified by xfpm.
@ Simon Steinbeiss, no xscreensaver in not installed.
Right, maybe the screen is not just blanking but going into suspend then. Try "xset q" again and look for the DPMS related values at the bottom (Standby, Suspend, Off). Those are indeed controlled by xfce4-power-manager.
@ Simon Steinbeiss As I wrote in 2013, not only the screen blacks out, but the disk freezes as well, because the media player (vlc) stops playing, ( it gets stuck in the "note" of the music like a hiss sound.)
Right, that's a totally different bug then and I'm not sure whether it is at all related to xfce4-power-manager. Or have you set the disks to spin down after a certain period of inactivity? (This feature has meanwhile been dropped from xfpm) How do you wake up your computer after it "freezes" like this?
@ Simon Steinbeiss no, I did not tamper with the disk. The way the pc wakes up is by pressing the keyboard. Two of my computers experienced the problem but in a different way. I installed lubuntu 13.10 in 2013 at two machines at the same period of time. The desktop experienced both screen blacking out and disk inactivity, while the laptop only screen blacking out. Today the laptop's problem is solved (kubuntu 14.04 installed), but the desktop's problem remains even after 14.04 upgrade. Haven't installed kubuntu to it as it is a weak machine. Also I forgot to mention that the pc does not power-off, it shuts down and I have to press the botton on the box to power it off.