Debian Sarge

IBall · 08-25-2005, 07:08 AM

Hi all,
I have this wierd problem - my screensaver freezes after some time.

I use Debian Sarge, with an ATI Radeon 9200 Video card, and XScreenSaver is set to "Random".
The screensaver comes on after the specified time (2 mins), and runs normally. Then, after a period of some minutes, the screensaver stops moving. If I move the mouse, it turns off, and I get my desktop back. This happens wether the screensaver it randomly selects is an OpenGL one, or a normal one.

Can anyone help to fix this?

Thanks in advance
--Ian

vharishankar · 08-25-2005, 09:27 AM

What video driver are you using? Is it the ATi proprietary driver or the open-source radeon driver?

IBall · 08-25-2005, 07:37 PM

It is the open source driver, because it has always worked well enough.

I have done some experimenting, and set it to "Only One Screensaver", and disabled Power Management. This seems to have fixed to problem - so it must have been freezing either when switching from one screensaver to another, or when switching off the monitor.

Anyway, thanks for your help Harishkanar,
--Ian

vharishankar · 08-25-2005, 08:03 PM

Yes, power management has some peculiar effects. I always turn it off...

Also the ATi proprietary driver has some side effects in some situations.

Anyway I don't know how I was a help here...

Malacandra · 08-25-2005, 08:27 PM

My screensaver freezes too, here's when:

Running MEPIS 3.3.1 and using XFCE. It does NOT freeze when I'm in KDE. (I have an Nvidia GeForce running 3d nv driver).

I came back after a bit and saw that it was frozen, then it started moving again. Hadn't seen that before. Usually it just stops.

Weird.

vharishankar · 08-26-2005, 03:59 AM

Quote:

My screensaver freezes too, here's when:

Running MEPIS 3.3.1 and using XFCE. It does NOT freeze when I'm in KDE. (I have an Nvidia GeForce running 3d nv driver).

I'm guessing here, but proprietary drivers always seem to have some kind of side effects as far as power management goes. Screensavers also cause problems in some cases.

Also the OpenGL library used by the screensaver might not match the OpenGL driver installed by the 3d drivers (which often replace the Mesa indirect libraries).

In such situations, OpenGL apps that are not designed to utilize your video card's 3d acceleration but instead rely on the Mesa Indirect rendering tend to have problems.

I'm no programmer, but I think this could be a cause.