Mplayer -stop-xscreensaver doesn't work with gnome-screensaver

This patch adds ad-hoc support for gnome-screensaver in libvo/x11_common.c, similar to the already existing support for kscreensaver.

This is still completely untested.

I'm currently on xscreensaver, where mplayer works charmingly. gnome-screensaver makes some problem for me, I'll see when I will switch. then I can test this patch.

This one works both when gnome-screensaver is running and when it isn't. It simply stops it by killing the process and then restarts it if it was running.

mmh, with brute force you mean using sytem("shellcommand").

This is a quite naive approach, but might work. I want to think about it a little if there are some negative consequences before uploading this.

Not really, because system() is the already used approach.

By brute force, I mean that I kill gnome-screensaver instead of using the "inhibit activation" request (which I couldn't get to work). And yes, it is rather naive indeed.

> By brute force, I mean that I kill gnome-screensaver instead of using
> the "inhibit activation" request (which I couldn't get to work). And
> yes, it is rather naive indeed.

I see. I will have a look how other applications are solving this.

mplayer (2:0.99+1.0pre7try2+cvs20060117-0ubuntu4) dapper; urgency=low

  * added 05_gnome-screensaver-handling.dpatch to add support for
    gnome-screensaver to the -stop-xscreensaver option

 -- Oliver Grawert <email address hidden> Sat, 25 Feb 2006 20:52:36 +0100

unfortunately it has reoccurred for me in karmic again :(

Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: mplayer 2:1.0~rc3+svn20090426-1ubuntu10
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 libavcodec52 4:0.5+svn20090706-2ubuntu2
 libavcodec-extra-52 N/A
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
UserConf: # Write your default config options here!
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
system: distro = Ubuntu, architecture = x86_64, kernel = 2.6.31-14-generic

this problem comes again in UB 9.10.......................

Same here. Mplayer playing media stream (radio) stops when screensaver kicks in. It starts as soon as I touch the mouse to activate screen again.
Fully updated 9.10 (upgraded from 9.04) on AMD64...

Also works to trigger the behavior when doing a preview of the screensaver :-)

I've the same issue, but I add: not only Mplayer fails to stop XScreensaver, VLC too is unable to stop it.
Isn't it a Gnome related bug?

Same problem for me-tv.

There is an option in what is called heartbeat-cmd in MPlayer, which calls the command every half minute. I wrote a script that appears to be pressing the shift key, using the command xdotool. I called it "shiftpress". Script:

nice -n 1 xdotool key shift

Then I set the option heartbeat-cmd in file ~ /.mplayer /config:

heartbeat-cmd="shiftpress"

During movie playback MPlayer will run the script "shiftpress". Command xdotool emulates shift press and the screensaver is deferred.

The problem is that gnome-screensaver's DBus API has changed. The current DBus API is here:

http://git.gnome.org/cgit/gnome-screensaver/tree/doc/dbus-interface.xml

MPlayer should be updated to use the new API.

For Karmic, this is being addressed in bug #428884.