Removing disable idle system screenlock as default behaviour for Plasma 5

[Marko Vojinovic]

On Sun, 26 Apr 2015 12:43:08 +0200
Reindl Harald <h.reindl at thelounge.net> wrote:
> Am 26.04.2015 um 12:28 schrieb Patrick O'Callaghan:
> > Slightly OT: video players can prevent locking, but can they
> > prevent the screen going dark? This happens to me all the time when
> > watching a long video.

I know that mplayer disables dpms settings automatically (and by
default) when playing a video (or even only audio!). I also know that
when watching videos on YouTube (in firefox, using whatever the default
backend player) the dpms settings do *not* get disabled, and the screen
may go into standby in the middle of an interesting scene. :-) I
wouldn't know about other video players (I use only mplayer), but I
guess that they should implement this feature also (if they're worth
their wit anyway).

Finally, one can control this behavior manually, using
"xset -dpms" and "xset +dpms" (man xset, and look for dpms-related
options).

The dpms is also being turned off automatically (AFAIK) when working in
"presentation" mode in okular (i.e. when your document is displayed in
fullscreen) --- you don't want the screen with your important slides to
go into standby in the middle of a lecture you're giving. ;-) Again, I
don't know about other document viewers out there.

> well, i disable all that "power savings" for the screen which don't
> save anything measureable these days, when i want my screen locked or
> powered off i do that on my own

It certainly is measurable, and turning off the screen can save
considerable amount of battery power, in an idling laptop situation
(people can be forgetful and undisciplined to turn it off while taking
an unexpected phone-call, or when children yell for attention, or
some such --- not having to babysit your laptop can be very convenient).

In a desktop situation it usually doesn't make much sense. Maybe in a
rare situation of power-grid failure, when the UPS batteries take over
the load of the servers and terminals in your datacenter --- shutting
off idle monitors can make all the difference between staying online
through the crisis versus having to reboot the whole infrastructure.
But of course that's not a very common situation (it happened to me
only once).

> when not it's on for good reasons like sit in front of the TV and due
> go to the kitchen for a fresh beer take a quick look if something 
> interesting happended in my mailclient or messenger

Just put "xset -dpms" somewhere in your login (or bootup) scripts, and
live happily everafter. :-)

Best, :-)
Marko