Re: F8 hangs after 10 minutes inactivity on Dell optiplex 755

["Ryan B. Lynch" <ryan.b.lynch@xxxxxxxxx>]

Ryan B. Lynch wrote:
> Now that I think about it, I did have one of those pretty OpenGL screen 
> savers selected.  I can try the obvious thing, which is to switch to a 
> blank screen saver, and a non-OpenGL screen saver, and see if there's a 
> difference in the behavior.
>
> If I can establish that the problem is, in fact, the OpenGL screen 
> saver, that might also explain your (Keith Hunt) problem being 
> intermittent.  A lot of Fedora desktops I've seen have been set to 
> random select a different screen saver each time it turns on--so 
> sometimes you'd get an OpenGL one that screws the pooch, and other times 
> it would be a non-OpenGL one that works just fine.
>
> Too much speculation--when I get in front of that my Fedora machine, 
> again, I'll keep digging and I'll see what I can find.
>
> -Ryan

I triggered the locking behavior, ALT-F1'd to a text virtual console, 
and ran 'ps aux'.  The program 'kdesktop_lock' was running, and when I 
gave it a 'kill -9' and ALT-F7'd back to the X session, everything was 
back to normal.

Initially, I tried opening the KDE control center to change the screen 
saver choice, but the screensaver plugin froze right after I selected 
it.  I had to 'kill -9' the control center program.  This is 
interesting, because that plugin automatically starts a minature demo of 
the currently-selected screensaver (which was, as I mentioned before, an 
OpenGL screensaver).  I could not even change the screen saver selection.

I decided to try turning off the 'fglrx' stuff, and the easiest way was 
to back up my dual-head Xorg.conf file, remove the kernel module and X 
packages, and reboot.  The machine came back up and everything worked 
(session locking, control center screensaver plugin, etc.) just fine.  I 
switched to the 'slideshow' screensaver (non-OpenGL) to test the 
locking.  Then, I re-installed the 'fglrx' packages, copied my dual-head 
 Xorg.conf file back in place, and rebooted again.

The machine came back up with dual head working, and so I tested session 
locking.  The screen successfully locked, but sometimes seemed to have a 
delay between the command to lock and the redrawing of the screen.  The 
control center plugin crashed, though.

For now, I'm happy with this.  I can lock the session and leave the idle 
-timeout lock turned on, and I can get control of the desktop back 
without the hassle of switching to a text console, logging in, and 
killing the lock process manually.  That's enough to get my work done.

I suppose it could be something wrong with my dual-head Xorg.conf 
file--I never tried the screensaver with 'fglrx' running but no 
dual-head.  I might try some more combinations, if I have the time, but 
right now it's just not a priority.

Keith, thanks a million for pointing me in the direction of the 
screensaver.  That was the key, and I probably wouldn't have figured it 
out on my own.

-Ryan