HOWTO: Disable screen saver while Flash is running

[Boppy3125]

Well, it is weird. I do have the gnome-screensaver. I have the original script in place. It doesn't seem like it worked right in testing, it definitely seemed as though any interaction using putty was making it less predictable. Even taking that out of the equation, after shutting down firefox, the script properly changes idle_activation_enabled setting back to true, but then the screensaver doesn't seem to come back on.

Then I gave up with it in that state, next day I noticed the screensaver seems to be working. So I guess it is working.

[rfourie]

Hi, after much searching of the net/forums/mailinglists/etc, I managed to find a way to determine if the current window is full screen. I haven't tested it extensively, so your results may vary, but I think it's relatively robust. I've also changed some of the variables to make it a bit more generic (and added a test for xine, my default dvd/movie player), and also turned off sleep/hibernate.

#!/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

turn_it_off=0
sleepcomputer0=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac`
sleepdisplay0=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac`

while true; do
	sleep 60
	SS_off=0
	
	# check to see if flashplayer is being used by firefox
	for pid in `pgrep firefox` ; do
		if grep libflashplayer /proc/$pid/maps > /dev/null ; then
			SS_off=1
		fi
	done
	
	# check to see if xine is being used
	if pgrep xine > /dev/null; then
		SS_off=1
	fi

	# check to see if current application is fullscreen	
	current_window_id=`xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)" | cut -d" " -f5`
	if xprop -id $current_window_id | grep "_NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN" > /dev/null; then
		SS_off=1
	fi

	# read current state of screensaver
	ss_on=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled`
	
	# change state of screensaver as necessary
	if [ "$SS_off" = "1" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "true" ]; then
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type bool false
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac --type int 0
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac --type int 0
		turn_it_off=1
	elif [ "$SS_off" = "0" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "false" ] && [ "$turn_it_off" = "1" ]; then
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type bool true
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac --type int $sleepcomputer0
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac --type int $sleepdisplay0
		turn_it_off=0
	fi

done

[Thelasko]

Thanks, I'll have to give that a try.

[Thelasko]

I gave the new script a try. Unfortunately, it still works whenever flash is running, and not just while in full screen. I'll try to take a look at it and figure out what's wrong.

[rfourie]

I gave the new script a try. Unfortunately, it still works whenever flash is running, and not just while in full screen. I'll try to take a look at it and figure out what's wrong.

Thelasko, do you mean that it doesn't disable the screensaver when flash is running, or that it doesn't disable the screensaver when the current application is full screen, or both?

[Thelasko]

Thelasko, do you mean that it doesn't disable the screensaver when flash is running, or that it doesn't disable the screensaver when the current application is full screen, or both?

No, it works. It's just that I was thinking it would disable the screensaver while flash was running and full screen. However, the script is written so the screensaver is disabled while flash is running or an application is full screen.

I've made my own modification to the script. It seems to work pretty well, but I'm aware of one bug. It will disable the screensaver if flash is running and any application is full screen.

#!/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

turn_it_off=0
sleepcomputer0=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac`
sleepdisplay0=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac`

while true; do
	sleep 60
	SS_off=0
	
	# check to see if flashplayer is being used by firefox
	for pid in `pgrep firefox` ; do
		if grep libflashplayer /proc/$pid/maps > /dev/null ; then
	# check to see if current application is fullscreen	
	current_window_id=`xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)" | cut -d" " -f5`
	if xprop -id $current_window_id | grep "_NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN" > /dev/null; then
		SS_off=1
	fi
		fi
	done
	
	# check to see if xine is being used
#	if pgrep xine > /dev/null; then
#		SS_off=1
#	fi
#
#	# check to see if current application is fullscreen	
#	current_window_id=`xprop -root | grep "_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW(WINDOW)" | cut -d" " -f5`
#	if xprop -id $current_window_id | grep "_NET_WM_STATE_FULLSCREEN" > /dev/null; then
#		SS_off=1
#	fi

	# read current state of screensaver
	ss_on=`gconftool-2 -g /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled`
	
	# change state of screensaver as necessary
	if [ "$SS_off" = "1" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "true" ]; then
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type bool false
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac --type int 0
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac --type int 0
		turn_it_off=1
	elif [ "$SS_off" = "0" ] && [ "$ss_on" = "false" ] && [ "$turn_it_off" = "1" ]; then
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-screensaver/idle_activation_enabled --type bool true
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_computer_ac --type int $sleepcomputer0
		gconftool-2 -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/timeout/sleep_display_ac --type int $sleepdisplay0
		turn_it_off=0
	fi

done

Also note that I commented out the part about Xine. I don't use Xine so I disabled it. I might change that to work with Miro instead.

[rfourie]

Oh, cool. This is my first real fix and I'm a bit proud of it...
I did make it pretty generic for full-screen applications so that no matter what is playing full screen, it disables the screensaver. I might post to other threads about that part of the solution.

[Lockheed]

I was trying to adopt it to mplayer so my screen doesn't dim while playing movies but it didn't work. I modified two lines:

    for pid in `pgrep mplayer` ; do
        if grep smplayer /proc/$pid/maps > /dev/null ; then
            flash_on=1

but the screen still dims :/

[Boppy3125]

Two thoughts without looking up anything. Isn't MPlayer case sensitive? Maybe that grep isn't. Can't MPlayer do that with some command line switch?

Hope that at least gets you googling in the right direction.

[Lockheed]

Well, smplayer has such optionin the menus and I was already using it but with no effect. However, yesterday, this option starded to work spontaneously (after a month!) so I don't need the script anymore.