vlc keeps inhibiting the screensaver

Note: similar, but not identical, to bug #589722 ("when paused it should not inhibit the screensaver").

How is this not duplicate to bug #589722? Both bugs required VLC to stop inhibiting the screensaver when the video is not playing (paused or finished).
The description of bug #589722 could be extended to explicitly mention it should work for finished videos as well.

Maarten,

the difference between the bugs is that there is no discussion here wether it is a bug or a feature.

So when one would decide not to fix bug #589722 we would risk that this bug here also would not get fixed because it could be simply overlooked.

To minimize that risk I figured a new bug report would be better than an addtion to the other one.

That's a completely different problem, actually.

So, I did the right thing without even realizing it...;-)

This class of bugs is most often caused by xdg-screensaver. Unfortunately, without logs or traces of any kind, there is nothing more I can say.

Hi Rémi,

thanks, what do you need?

If you can tell me which logs and traces you need, I am happy to provide those. Give me some CLI commands.

I can find my way on the CLI to some extent...;-)

We need to know if this is due to the D-Bus/GNOME inhibit plugin, the xdg-screensaver plugin or something else...

Rémi,

I'm sorry but that is not very helpful to me. Could you give me the specific log files you want to have a look at?

What I already found out is the following

Running the following command in the terminal

dbus-send --session --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager --type=method_call --print-reply --reply-timeout=20000 /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.IsInhibited uint32:8

* without vlc running gives:

method return sender=:1.0 -> dest=:1.22997 reply_serial=2
   boolean false

* with vlc playing a video gives:

method return sender=:1.0 -> dest=:1.23038 reply_serial=2
   boolean true

* with the video paused in vlc gives (bug #589722) gives:

method return sender=:1.0 -> dest=:1.23052 reply_serial=2
   boolean false

* with the video finished playing gives:

method return sender=:1.0 -> dest=:1.23069 reply_serial=2
   boolean true

* with vlc stopped running gives:

method return sender=:1.0 -> dest=:1.23052 reply_serial=2
   boolean false

So it seems

a) that the screensaver is still just inhibited by vlc via dbus. So, I presume vlc just does not uninhibit the screensaver when the video is finished playing

b) there seems to be a substantial difference to bug #589722 as the screensaver is uninhibited when the video is paused. It still this will not start the screensaver but it seems to me that this has another cause.

Please, let me know if you need more information and be as specific as you possibly can be. I'm happy to provide debug information but at least I will have to know what to do...;-)

I don't want logs. I want to know which component is causing this.

In other words, try to run with the inhibit plugin removed and with xdg-utils removed respectively.

Another thing you could do is run `xdg-screensaver status`. Run it before, during, and after a video is played.

Thanks Bryce,

I did not really know how to answer Bryce's question. I could not find an option to deactivate the "inhibit" plugin or to run VLC without "xdg-utils".

I have tested what you suggest: The status given by the command `xdg-screensaver status` is "enabled" all the time, before, during and after the video.

At this moment I use Totem instead of VLC as Totem does not have this problem. But nevertheless I think it would be nice if we could find the solution to this problem.

`xdg-screensaver status` always prints "enabled".

Which means either VLC fails to stop xdg-screensaver, or xdg-screensaver is plain broken.

`xdg-screensaver status` can only print "enabled" or "disabled". It does not tell us, if the screen saver is inhibited or not. To check, whether gnome-screensaver is inhibited or not, we can run:

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.IsInhibited uint32:-1

To get the inhibitors, run

dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager /org/gnome/SessionManager org.gnome.SessionManager.GetInhibitors

Running the commands above will show that the screensaver is inhibited as long as the VLC process is running.

Indeed Benjamin,

that lead me to work around the problem by using "Quit at the end of playlist" in the "Media" menu of VLC.

But it is not very elegant...;-)

xdg-screensaver returning enabled means the screensaver is not disabled at all...

And still this does not tell me whether this is a problem with the xdg or the inhibit plugin.

This bug was fixed in the package vlc - 2.1.1-1

---------------
vlc (2.1.1-1) unstable; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
  * Drop altivec patch (fixed upstream).
  * Remove obsolete conffiles (Closes: #703750).

 -- Benjamin Drung <email address hidden> Mon, 18 Nov 2013 21:46:53 +0100