HOWTO: Disable screen saver while Flash is running

[Super R]

Hi Stray Wolf, No is the answer to your question. The screensaver will turn off when a fullscreen window is in focus and turn back on when there is not a fullscreen window in focus.

[trash]

I think this might be a problem for the developers to figure out because using kde in lucid i have disabled the screensaver and disabled dimming in the power management performance scheme and still my screen blanks.. is anybody out there able to completely stop the screen from blanking? and if so how?

[The Sorrow]

Very useful! This will keep my screen from turning off when Im watching videos. Thanks!

[Bu84Lhswr]

Here is the solution.

This tiny script checks every ... seconds if the screen has changed enough to be a movie or something similar...
Have fun it works great.
Please excuse my bad speaking english, but i'm very tired (6:31 am in germany ...)

#!/bin/bash
# 
#
#Installation on Ubuntu (testet with 11.04)
#    sudo apt-get install imagemagick
#    chmod 755 <name and location of this script>
#    sh <name and location of this script> #or insert this line to "System -> Einstellungen -> Startprogramme" (autostart)



#time between checks in seconds
SLEEPTIME=10
#percentage of screen that have to be changed to poke the screensaver
#note that the clock and instant messengers notes could change often, so at least 5% should be used
PERCENTAGETOPOKE=25



#take first screenshot
import -window root stopscreensaver1.jpg
# infinite loop
while [ 1 -eq 1 ]
do
    #count of pixels
    WIDTH=$(identify -format "%w" stopscreensaver1.jpg)
    HEIGHT=$(identify -format "%h" stopscreensaver1.jpg)
    let PIXEL=$WIDTH*$HEIGHT

    #check every ... seconds
    sleep $SLEEPTIME

    #take compare-image
    import -window root stopscreensaver2.jpg

    #count of different pixels and the percentage
    DIFFERENCE=$(compare -dissimilarity-threshold 1 -metric AE stopscreensaver1.jpg stopscreensaver2.jpg stopscreensaverdifference.jpg 2>&1)
    let PERCENTAGE=$DIFFERENCE*100/$PIXEL

    #check if enough screen-area has changed
    if [ $PERCENTAGE -ge $PERCENTAGETOPOKE ]; then
            gnome-screensaver-command --poke
            echo "Scrennsaver poked at $PERCENTAGE of $PERCENTAGETOPOKE"
        else
            echo "Screensaver not poked at $PERCENTAGE of $PERCENTAGETOPOKE"
    fi

    #new compare image 
    rm -f stopscreensaver1.jpg
    mv -f stopscreensaver2.jpg stopscreensaver1.jpg
done

[fightling]

I inserted a parameter to your nice little script so that one can change the application it is looking for. That's useful for me, because I'm using prism instead of firefox for watching TV.

#!/bin/bash

# Cleanup any bad state we left behind if the user exited while flash was
# running
gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type bool true

we_turned_it_off=0

while true; do
    sleep 60
    flash_on=0

    # CHANGED THIS LINE:
    for pid in `pgrep $1` ; do
        if grep libflashplayer /proc/$pid/maps > /dev/null ; then
            flash_on=1
        fi
        
        ss_on=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled`

        if [ "$flash_on" = "1" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "true" ]; then
            gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled \
                --type bool false
            we_turned_it_off=1
        elif [ "$flash_on" = "0" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "false" ] \
                && [ "$we_turned_it_off" = "1" ]; then
            gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled \
                --type bool true
            we_turned_it_off=0
        fi

    done
done

[amikrop]

This wasn't even an issue in Ubuntu 10.10 and previous. Now it needs caffeine (which is not optimal as it is not an automated solution) or scripts like this. Maybe there should be a bug filed about this?