VLC 1.1.5 not inhibiting power management events on KDE

[birdflesh]

I'm using the latest vlc version on Arch Linux (x86_64). My problem is that during playback, monitor is set on standby mode after the inactivity timeout set on KDE's (4.5.3) power management settings. This was not the case with previous versions, in fact downgrading to 1.1.4.1 restores the correct behaviour. Enabling the option "disable screensaver"(although I don't use a screensaver) and installing "xorg-xset" package is the workaround I'm currently using, but obviously it's just a workaround since last version used to work correctly without it. Are there any thoughts about it?

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

We have a choice:

• cope with broken power management that kick in inspite of xdg-screensaver (like yours).
• do not get Xorg to burn the CPU and slow VLC down when VLC resets the X11 screensaver.

Evidently, people were not happy with Xorg burning their CPU so we removed the X11 screensaver in VLC 1.1.5. It's not coming back. Make sure xdg-screensaver works correctly on your system, this is not VLC's problem anymore.

[birdflesh]

Power management is not exclusively about screensavers and turning off the monitor. For example if I set my system to suspend to ram after an hour of inactivity and start watching a dvd on vlc I wouldn't like the system to suspend during the film. The previous versions would not do that, this version does and sorry but I can't see how this is an improvement for vlc.

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

The only difference between 1.1.4 and 1.1.5 is (not) disabling the X screensaver directly. Nothing else.

And your power management implementation is buggy if it shuts down the system while a DVD is playing. That's not VLC's bug.

[drf]

Sorry, how could a power manager detect if a random application is playing something fullscreen and inhibit suspension? It is the application's job to notify the powermanager about the fact that the suspension should be inhibited in certain situations. There is a spec (despite being obsolete) on fd.o about suspension inhibition which is fully implemented with some more additions in KDE, which requires something like 4 lines of code for inhibiting screen power management and suspension. I would be even willing to provide a patch to support that, it's a mere DBus call.