Bug#733059: gnome-screensaver cannot be launched by alternative gnome-session

[Simon McVittie]

On Sun, 18 May 2014 at 20:36:42 +0100, Mike Crowe wrote:
> gnome-settings-daemon, nm-applet and (my) i3-gnome are launched correctly
> yet gnome-screensaver is not. This appears to be due to the following line
> in /usr/share/gnome/autostart/gnome-screensaver.desktop:
> 
>  AutostartCondition=GNOME3 if-session gnome-flashback
> 
> (I assume that modern gnome-shell launches gnome-screensaver itself now.)

Modern gnome-shell doesn't use gnome-screensaver at all: it has a built-in
"screen shield" which integrates with gdm.

> Perhaps there is a way to invert this condition so that gnome-screensaver
> is enabled except on GNOME3?

The upstream solution to this appears to have been to remove
gnome-screensaver from the autostart directory entirely, so that
it will be started by exactly those GNOME sessions that list it as
a required component (notably gnome-flashback, which is part of
src:gnome-panel, and your custom i3-gnome session).

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=683060
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-screensaver/commit/?id=1940dc6bc8ad5ee2c029714efb1276c05ca80bd4

Could you try that, please?

gnome-screensaver is essentially dead upstream - it's part of
gnome-session-flashback (the former gnome-session-fallback).
Both MATE and Cinnamon appear to have either forked or replaced
gnome-screensaver in their environments, which seems a shame...

    S