Bug#602993: gnome-power-manager: Power manager settings ignored until input is received

[Aaron Barany]

Package: gnome-power-manager
Version: 2.32.0-2
Severity: normal

The power manager settings are ignored until the first input is received,
either from the mouse or the keyboard. Other sources of input, such as IR
remote input or game controller input don't count. In my case, I have a
computer hooked up to my TV and the screen blanks after 20 minutes if I forget
to press a key or move the mouse. (which is often) The screen saver is disabled
and I set the power manager to never put the display to sleep, which does work
once input is received.

I have observed this on my desktop as well (which is what I'm reporting this
from), though it isn't as debilitating since the keyboard and mouse are the
main forms of input. My HTPC is set to automatically log in, while my desktop
shows the login screen. I tried setting the gconf keys in /etc/gdm3/greeter
..gconf-defaults so gdm3 will have the same power settings, in case it was
inheriting the settings from gdm3 after logging on, but that didn't to change
anything. I was finally able to work around the issue by doing the following:

1. Run update-rc.d gdm3 remove to prevent gdm3 from starting.
2. Add "su - <user> -c startx" to /etc/rc.local to log in and start the X
server on startup
3. Remove gnome-screensaver and gnome-power-manager from the startup
applications
4. Add ~/.xinitrc to disable dpms and screen blanking and start the X session

I don't by any means think that is a good workaround, and would only recommend
it single-user situations like an HTPC. (which are also generally the kinds of
configurations that would most suffer from this issue) However, this means that
as long as I guarantee that gnome-power-manager never starts, my settings will
stick regardless of if input is received or not.

One thing to note is mplayer does prevent the display from going to sleep,
though VLC doesn't.



-- Package-specific info:
Distro version:       squeeze/sid
Kernel version:       2.6.32-5-amd64
g-p-m version:        2.32.0
HAL version:          0.5.14
System manufacturer:  missing
System version:       missing
System product:       missing
AC adapter present:   no
Battery present:      no
Laptop panel present: no
CPU scaling present:  no
Battery Information:
UPower data:
Daemon:
  daemon-version:  0.9.5
  can-suspend:     yes
  can-hibernate    yes
  on-battery:      no
  on-low-battery:  no
  lid-is-closed:   no
  lid-is-present:   no
GNOME Power Manager Process Information:
HAL Process Information:
108       1672  0.0  0.0  44992  5440 ?        Ssl  Nov07   0:01 /usr/sbin/hald
root      1673  0.0  0.0  22172  1372 ?        S    Nov07   0:00  \_ hald-runner
root      1702  0.0  0.0  24288  1308 ?        S    Nov07   0:01      \_ hald-ad
108       1720  0.0  0.0  26100  1280 ?        S    Nov07   0:00      \_ hald-ad
root      1769  0.0  0.0  24284  1308 ?        S    Nov07   0:58      \_ hald-ad

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-power-manager depends on:
ii  consolekit                    0.4.1-4    framework for defining and trackin
ii  dbus-x11                      1.2.24-3   simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  gconf2                        2.28.1-5   GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libbonobo2-0                  2.24.3-1   Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libc6                         2.11.2-7   Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcairo2                     1.8.10-6   The Cairo 2D vector graphics libra
ii  libcanberra-gtk0              0.24-1     Gtk+ helper for playing widget eve
ii  libcanberra0                  0.24-1     a simple abstract interface for pl
ii  libdbus-1-3                   1.2.24-3   simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2              0.88-2     simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgconf2-4                   2.28.1-5   GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglib2.0-0                  2.24.2-1   The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome-keyring0             2.30.1-1   GNOME keyring services library
ii  libgtk2.0-0                   2.20.1-2   The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libnotify1 [libnotify1-gtk2.1 0.5.0-2    sends desktop notifications to a n
ii  libpanel-applet2-0            2.30.2-2   library for GNOME Panel applets
ii  libpango1.0-0                 1.28.3-1   Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libunique-1.0-0               1.1.6-1.1  Library for writing single instanc
ii  libupower-glib1               0.9.5-5    abstraction for power management -
ii  libx11-6                      2:1.3.3-3  X11 client-side library
ii  libxext6                      2:1.1.2-1  X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxrandr2                    2:1.3.0-3  X11 RandR extension library
ii  notification-daemon           0.5.0-2    daemon to displays passive pop-up 
ii  upower                        0.9.5-5    abstraction for power management

Versions of packages gnome-power-manager recommends:
ii  udisks               1.0.1+git20100614-3 abstraction for enumerating block 

Versions of packages gnome-power-manager suggests:
ii  policykit-1                   0.96-3     framework for managing administrat

-- Configuration Files:
/etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-power-manager.desktop [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u'/etc/xdg/autostart/gnome-power-manager.desktop'

-- no debconf information