No screensaver in Suse-10.1
 

I'am having problem with starting the screensaver in Suse-10.1, I can go into Configure Desktop and screensaver to start in 5 minutes, run test on random screensavers , but in 5 minutes screen goes dark and no screensaver.
I have gone into the KDE Control Center and cannot find the location the below sentence specifies, what is path ?

There's a checkbox on the control panel screensaver settings page called "Make aware of power management".


Jim

If I type in kdesktop_lock from the terminal prompt, the screensaver starts, but it won't start on it's own after 5 minutes, screen just goes blank/dark what ever.

Jim

Do you have nvidia drivers installed?

No, it's running a ATI 9250 agp with "radeon" driver.

Jim

have you got the screensaver set to 5 minutes and the "turn monitor off" also set to 5 minutes in the power management settings?

easy way to check....
set the screensaver to 3 mins,

if it comes on for 2 mins then goes to a blank screen then this will be the problem!

I have the same kind of problem. My screensaver was working fine when I first installed SUSE 10.1 then there was an upgrade to KDEBASE and the screen has not work sence then. I have it set to 1 min with power manager set to off. I have a big round clock set and like to look at the screen to see what time it is but not for the last several weeks.

check:
xset (DPMS and blanking)
sax2 -> monitor -DPMS
kpowersave monitor options
desktop properties -> monitor power options

I did submited bug about the above problem, I am planning to submit usability bug (four apps for one setting each works independently?)

finally, you may use xscreensaver instead of kscreensaver (works usually)

Obviously, there is a question about ATI. I have nVidia.
Currently kscreensaver and xscreensaver work for me, but my settings may not work for you.

What syntaxs would you use for the xset command.
And the other commands , I'm not sure howto run them.

Thanks
Jim

#xset -q

and look for
prefer blanking: no
DPMS is Enabled

if you will have
prefer blanking: no yes
DPMS is Enabled

then first change blanking only
#xset s noblank

test your screensaver
if it works than that is all. If not then next run
#xset -dpms

test your screensaver with both options off

In my case settings:
prefer blanking: no
DPMS is Enabled
work

Last hurdle: it is possible that after each logout/login/restart xset options will revert, in that case make small script (e.g)
screvsaver.sh
and add this line
xset s noblank
or
xset -dpms
or both if needed

save it and make executable
copy to
~/.kde/Autostart

This should do. Unfortunately any combination of the above xset settings may be required.
Also remember about Kpowersave options, Desktop properties options and sax2 options.

I hope that this will help

I have an ATI 9600xt video card I tried setting
prefer blanking: no
DPMS is Enabled
and
DPMS is off
and still no screensaver. I have used this same clock in SUSE 7, 8, 9, 10 and it worked at first in 10.1 then it just stopped. I have considered reloading 10.1 from scratch to see what update brakes it but that would be a give up. I gave up on mysql in 10 and 10.1 already I will fix this stupid clock somehow if it takes forever.

As I mentioned: there are other DPMS options to check, and I can't guarantee that this will work more so with ATI as I never used ATI cards and I can't troubleshoot screensaver blanking.



As I mentioned above, you can try xscreensaver instead of kscreensaver.

Thanks Broch
I tryed your settings and they worked, but I,m not sure which one did.
I ran the xset and kpower and I'm back in business.

Thanks Very Much
Jim

The key was:
kpowersave
And that started the screensaver.
How do you enter this line in /.kde/Autostart.
Do you create text file and enter line ?
Or do you make a bash execute file?

Thanks
Jim

use whatever editor you wish. I am used to vi, but you can use kate, ed, joe. does not really matter.

If you need to set blanking off, then add this line:
xset s noblank
save (for example as saver.sh) , make executable and copy to
~/.kde/Autostart

broch
I too have suffered the same problem very recently (within the last two or three days), so was very glad to see the solution here. In my case I needed to enable DPMS and then my screensaver worked again. However I am experiencing the "last hurdle" you mention, ie after I log out, DPMS reverts back to disabled.

I have never written a script in my life, but have done the following in gedit:

#!/bin/bash
xset +dpms

and saved this as a file called screensaver.sh into my home directory

then

chmod +x screensaver.sh

and copied it to ~/.kde/Autostart (There was only one existing file in the Autostart directory, called .directory.)

However, when I log out and log back in again, the xset option still reverts back to DPMS being disabled. If I manually run the script by changing to the ~/.kde/Autostart directory and using the command ./screensaver.sh and then check xset (by # xset -q), DPMS changes to enabled. Therefore I assume my script is OK, but it is not auto running when I log in. Can you help me at all here, please?

Many thanks

what would be the output of:
ls -l ~/.kde/Autostart

you should get something like
-rwxr-xr-x 1 marrea users screensaver.sh

It's:

marrea@linux-32qf:~> ls -l ~/.kde/Autostart
total 4
-rwxr-xr-x 1 marrea users 23 2006-07-06 22:20 screensaver.sh

o.k.
I am not sure what is wrong: can you doublecheck:
sax2, kpowersave and Desktop -> Configure Desktop -> Display -> Power Control

for DPMS options?

Another thing that I observed: opening any power options will revert (for the session) xset value.
So once you set verything, log off, log onn and wait for screensaver to run.
If this will work, don't worry about session settings but leave script in Autostart

let me know if this "magic" works for you.

I to have the same problem, I cd .kde/Autoeexec and did a ls -al and found that script file didn't
have execute priv. , so I SU , did a chmod 755 and gave it the proper exec. priv.
And now I have Screensavers.

Jim

broch

Just to say thanks for this. I'll check it out when I get home tonight and report back.

Later edit
It appears that this business of the screen going dark and not running the screensaver is some sort of bug, see
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=181122

also check this:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=187081
and this:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=190637

broch

I've been trying various things this evening and I think I have got it sorted now. This is how my settings were:

SaX2
SaX2 Configuration>Card and Monitor Properties>Monitor. Clicking on the Change button showed Activate DPMS checked.

Kpowersave
Scheme Settings tab
Screen Saver and DPMS, with “Performance” highlighted in the left hand pane, Enable specific screen saver settings and Enable specific power management were not checked. Disable display power management was checked but the words themselves were greyed out.
Screen Saver and DPMS, with “Powersave” highlighted in the left hand pane, Enable specific screen saver settings was checked. Underneath that Disable screen saver was not checked, Only blank the screen was checked. Enable specific display power management was checked (Standby after 2 min; Suspend after 3 min; Power off after 5 min). Disable display power management was not checked.
General Settings tab
Kpowersave starts automatically on login was checked

Desktop>Configure Desktop>Display>Power Control tab
Enable display power management was not checked. The three sliders were at the extreme left, Disabled was showing for all three on the right and the complete sliders section was greyed out.

After opening up all these and looking at them, logging out and logging back in, screen saver still didn't work – until of course I manually ran screensaver.sh on the command line.

I then tried various permutations and eventually discovered that if I changed my screensaver.sh to read:
xset s noblank
xset +dpms

and changed the following in Kpowersave
Scheme Settings tab
Screen Saver and DPMS, with “Powersave” highlighted in the left hand pane – unchecked Only blank the screen
General Settings tab
unchecked Kpowersave starts automatically on login

that the xset settings are retained after logout and login, with the result that after the appointed time (I have it set to 4 minutes) the screen no longer goes dark and I get my chosen screen saver.

So I'm wondering whether the problem might have been Kpowersave running automatically at login and somehow overriding my kde Autostart script, which now seems to be working properly. Does that sound feasible?

No, the problem is that there are four different config files. So (as you see) each of us has different settings. I did try kpowersave on/off did not help. I submitted usability bug, but I was told that the fix may not get even to 10.2 (resolution may appear after 10.2)

What I wanted to point out here is a list of all files that should be checked, but your settings can be different that mine (because of four different config files that override each other in terms of final effect).

It's all pretty complicated, isn't it? !!

Let's hope they get this fixed eventually.

Thanks for your help. My screensaver is still working fine.