[kde-linux] Why is it so difficult to disable a screensaver?

[Robin Pedersen]

On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:53:49 +0100, Anne Wilson  
<cannewilson at googlemail.com> wrote:

> On Wednesday 04 February 2009 19:56:13 Robin Pedersen wrote:
>> On Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:47:20 +0100, Anne Wilson
>>
>> <cannewilson at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> > On Wednesday 04 February 2009 19:34:04 Robin Pedersen wrote:
>> >> When I have my laptop powered on, and the screen is open, I'm  
>> >> looking at it. I don't want it to turn black after a short while.
>> >
>> > This is power management, usually controlled by your BIOS, not your
>> > software.
>> >
>> > Anne
>>
>> It's controlled by software, because it usually works. When I disable  
>> all
>> the settings I mentioned, the screen usually stays on, except that I  
>> have
>> seen recently that my display blanks out some times.
>>
> You can control screensavers in config files.  The display blanking is a  
> BIOS
> thing.
>
>> Controlled by BIOS or not, those settings I mentioned are all available  
>> in
>> config files, and they are all set to enabled by default.
>
> Where exactly are you seeing the screen blanking?  If you mean in the
> screensaver configuration, that is is place of a graphical screensaver.
> Stopping the screensaver launching will stop that, but it will not stop  
> the
> BIOS power management.  Have you actually tried looking at the power
> management screen in your BIOS settings?
>
> Anne

Yes, I'm familiar with the BIOS settings.

If you believe I haven't looked good enough, there are some simple facts  
that should prove that the BIOS isn't causing this:
* If a BIOS utility caused the screen to blank out, it would _always_  
happen if the computer was left alone for a while.
* With the settings I mentioned, it _normally works_. I can leave my  
computer alone for hours, and the screen is always visible.
* Recently it has happened occasionally that the screen goes blank after a  
short period of idleness.

I haven't figured out what can cause the behavoir to change. It might be  
after I log in and out, restart X, switch to a text terminal and back or  
something like that.


-- 
Robin Pedersen