xflock4 screensaver support

[Martin Sourada]

Hi all,

I believe many people may call this nitpicking, but it has been a
long-standing issue that xfce isn't able to work with any other
screensaver than the most simple ones or xscreensaver without changing
xflock4 shell script. I don't mind that xscreensaver is simple and ugly
-- it's just an ui for locking the screen for me, but it has severe
usability problems. I noticed two:
  * I cannot tell which keyboard layout I'm using. Is it US, is it CZ?
    Is it qwerty, qwertz, dvorak, whatever?
  * I cannot switch users that way (imagine a second person coming to
    a locked computer).

I solved these issues easily by switching to mate-screensaver, but as
it's not officially supported by xflock4, I have to edit the script
every time I update xfce4-session package which is suboptimal,
especially given, the patch is fairly simple.

Can we consider adding support for all fedora/epel included
screensavers into xflock4 with such simple patch, until xflock4 is
rewritten upstream?

Reference bugs:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10217
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1166227

Regards,
Martin

[Kevin Fenzi]

On Sun, 8 Mar 2015 13:15:15 +0100
Martin Sourada  wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I believe many people may call this nitpicking, but it has been a
> long-standing issue that xfce isn't able to work with any other
> screensaver than the most simple ones or xscreensaver without changing
> xflock4 shell script. I don't mind that xscreensaver is simple and
> ugly -- it's just an ui for locking the screen for me, but it has
> severe usability problems. I noticed two:
> I cannot tell which keyboard layout I'm using. Is it US, is it CZ?
> Is it qwerty, qwertz, dvorak, whatever?
> I cannot switch users that way (imagine a second person coming to
> a locked computer).
>
> I solved these issues easily by switching to mate-screensaver, but as
> it's not officially supported by xflock4, I have to edit the script
> every time I update xfce4-session package which is suboptimal,
> especially given, the patch is fairly simple.
>
> Can we consider adding support for all fedora/epel included
> screensavers into xflock4 with such simple patch, until xflock4 is
> rewritten upstream?
>
> Reference bugs:
> https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10217
> https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1166227

I have been trying to wait for upstream to pick some route forward here
before we commit to having to carry a patch for a long time. ;(

All the patches I have seen have been broken for various cases... 
:(

kevin

[Martin Sourada]

V Sun, 8 Mar 2015 15:20:15 -0600
Kevin Fenzi  napsáno:
> I have been trying to wait for upstream to pick some route forward
> here before we commit to having to carry a patch for a long time. ;(
>
> All the patches I have seen have been broken for various cases... 
> :(
>
> kevin

Well, xflock4 is broken by design, so I think the following patch (from
upstream bz) is still better than the current state... The only
brokenness I noticed is that switch user (from the panel plugin for
actions like lock, switch, sleep, logout, etc.) does not enable
screensaver when I'm using mate-screensaver (maybe I forgot to set
something), so I'm switching by locking first and switching from
screensaver. No other problems noticed after a couple of months of
usage.

--- old/xflock4	2013-07-05 17:30:55.123541658 +0400
+++ new/xflock4	2013-07-05 17:30:55.123541658 +0400
@@ -24,16 +24,18 @@
 PATH=/bin:/usr/bin
 export PATH

-# Lock by xscreensaver or gnome-screensaver, if a respective daemon is
running +# Lock by xscreensaver or mate-screensaver, if a respective
daemon is running for lock_cmd in \
     "xscreensaver-command -lock" \
-    "gnome-screensaver-command --lock"
+    "mate-screensaver-command --lock" \
+    "cinnamon-screensaver-command --lock"
 do
     $lock_cmd >/dev/null 2>&1 && exit
 done

# else run another access locking utility, if installed
 for lock_cmd in \
+  "i3lock" \
   "xlock -mode blank" \
   "slock"
   do

[Kevin Fenzi]

ok, I have commited and pushed to rawhide and f22 what upstream
commited.

Basically a xfconf key that (when set) will override all the hard coded
junk in the xflock4 script.

You can create/set it with:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /general/LockCommand -t string -n -s
"xscreensaver-command -lock"

etc.

Please test.

https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/xfce4-session-4.12.1-2.fc22

kevin

[Martin Sourada]

V Sun, 29 Mar 2015 07:37:19 -0600
Kevin Fenzi  napsáno:
> ok, I have commited and pushed to rawhide and f22 what upstream
> commited.
>
> Basically a xfconf key that (when set) will override all the hard
> coded junk in the xflock4 script.
>
> You can create/set it with:
>
> xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /general/LockCommand -t string -n -s
> "xscreensaver-command -lock"
>
> etc.
>
> Please test.
>
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/xfce4-session-4.12.1-2.fc22

Thanks, I'll give it a spin on CentOS-7 (when I get to rebuilding it).

Martin

[Martin Sourada]

V Sun, 29 Mar 2015 07:37:19 -0600
Kevin Fenzi  napsáno:
> ok, I have commited and pushed to rawhide and f22 what upstream
> commited.
>
> Basically a xfconf key that (when set) will override all the hard
> coded junk in the xflock4 script.
>
> You can create/set it with:
>
> xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /general/LockCommand -t string -n -s
> "xscreensaver-command -lock"
>
> etc.
>
> Please test.
>
> https://admin.fedoraproject.org/updates/xfce4-session-4.12.1-2.fc22
>
> kevin

Hi Kevin,

you forgot to apply the patch. After that it works (on CentOS 7).
Thanks for the inclusion!

Martin

[Kevin Fenzi]

On Sun, 29 Mar 2015 21:02:21 +0200
Martin Sourada  wrote:
> Hi Kevin,
>
> you forgot to apply the patch. After that it works (on CentOS 7).
> Thanks for the inclusion!

:facepalm: :(

Thanks for testing... fixing the build now.

kevin