Today's update introduced a video regression

[GreyGeek]

GreyGeek,

Do you have the proposed repository enabled? It looks like that is where the xsettings-kde-0.12.3-0ubuntu2.1 is coming from. There have been some reports against it. You might try going back to xsettings-ked-0.12.3-0ubuntu2 and see if that fixes the problem.

I'm not aware of what the "proposed repository" is. Do you mean the ubuntu ppa? If so, then yes, that is where I installed the 4.8.3 version of KDE.

[Snowhog]

"proposed repository" is the Pre-released updates in Software Sources > Updates > Kubuntu updates

Official Ubuntu Repositories

"Important Security Updates" and "Recommended Updates" should always remain enabled.


"Unsupported Updates" enables the unsupported Backports repository. This is for unsupported versions of future packages which are still in development. Packages may contain new features, may introduce new interfaces, and have not been sufficiently tested to be included in the 'proposed' repository.


"Pre-released Updates" enables the Proposed repository, which is the testing area for updates. This repository is recommended only to those interested in helping to test updates and provide feedback.

[GreyGeek]

Last night I replaced xsettings-kde from the launchpad PPA of KDE 4.8.3 with the version that was installed on Precise last Feb 14th, along with KDE 4.8.2.

I booted up this morning and checked dpms. It was disabled.

DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 600 Suspend: 600 Off: 600
DPMS is Disabled


Since I had removed my kernel mod powersaver setting, and the mods to ~/.bash_profile, I do not know where the setting is that turned it off. But, so far, after two hours, I have not had a blanking episode.

[GreyGeek]

"proposed repository" is the Pre-released updates in Software Sources > Updates > Kubuntu updates

I wasn't aware that "Pre-released" was also called "proposed". Thanks for the heads up.

In Muon I selected the xsettings-kde that was installed last Friday at 8:51AM and checked the source repository. It was from Ubuntu, apparently the "proposed", not the Kubuntu 4.8.3 PPA updates.

[GreyGeek]

I checked the Konsole I kept open wherein I turned the dpms off using xset. Dpms was enabled again!

I didn't get any screen blanking but obviously the older version of xsettings-kde didn't cure the problem. The standby, suspend and off were set to 600. Screensaver prefer blanking is set to yes.

...
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: no allow exposures: no
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 0 Suspend: 0 Off: 0
DPMS is Disabled

The screensaver settings that xset allows are:

s The s option lets you set the screen saver parameters. This option accepts up to two numerical parameters, a
'blank/noblank' flag, an 'expose/noexpose' flag, an 'on/off' flag, an 'activate/reset' flag, or the 'default' flag. If no
parameters or the 'default' flag is used, the system will be set to its default screen saver characteristics.

The 'on/off' flags simply turn the screen saver functions on or off.
The 'activate' flag forces activation of screen saver even if the screen saver had been turned off.
The 'reset' flag forces deactivation of screen saver if it is active.
The 'blank' flag sets the preference to blank the video (if the hardware can do so) rather than display a background pattern, while 'noblank' sets the preference to display a pattern rather than blank the video.
The 'expose' flag sets the preference to allow window exposures (the server can freely discard window contents), while 'noexpose' sets the preference to disable screen saver unless the server can regenerate the screens without causing exposure events.
The length and period parameters for the screen saver function determines how long the server must be inactive for screen saving to activate, and the period to change the background pattern to avoid burn in.
The arguments are specified in seconds. If only one numerical parameter is given, it will be used for the length.

xset s off set the screensaver timeout to 0, which presumably turns off the screensaver. I haven't found a setting which changes the cycles.

[SteveRiley]

So what does xsettings-kde actually do? This doesn't have much detail:

steve@x1:~$ [B]apt-cache show xsettings-kde[/B]
Package: xsettings-kde
Priority: optional
Section: kde
Installed-Size: 60
Maintainer: Kubuntu Developers <kubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com>
Original-Maintainer: Guido Günther <agx@sigxcpu.org>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 0.12.3-0ubuntu2.1
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.14), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.8), libx11-6
Filename: pool/main/x/xsettings-kde/xsettings-kde_0.12.3-0ubuntu2.1_amd64.deb
Size: 12736
MD5sum: 92be6a0c508aa5b84cf694b1a8782da6
SHA1: 8e5e77721a48169e8c92a2951667c48987c7db55
SHA256: 90a4fec3e323f92ef3f72a6945cbe0658c3fa5855a80a89d8c8519331e10952c
Description-en: XSettings daemon for KDE
 This package provides a XSettings daemon for K Desktop Environment. It allows
 XSettings aware applications (all GTK+ 2 and GNOME 2 applications) to be
 informed instantly of changes in KDE configuration, such as theme name, default
 font and so on.
Description-md5: 9be2874fdb897773b8af15cb50ab8f47
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Origin: Ubuntu
Supported: 5y
Task: kubuntu-desktop, kubuntu-full, kubuntu-active-desktop, kubuntu-active-full, kubuntu-active, edubuntu-desktop-kde

It isn't present on my hand-installed X1 (KDE/Kubuntu packages installed over Ubuntu-minimal), but is present on my T520 (regular desktop Kubuntu). I haven't noticed any differences in appearance or behavior of applications -- granted, I don't run Gtk+ or GNOME applications, though.

The package has a single executable and its .desktop file, plus the usual Debian packaging stuff:

steve@x1:~$ [B]apt-file list xsettings-kde[/B]
xsettings-kde: /usr/bin/xsettings-kde
xsettings-kde: /usr/share/autostart/xsettings-kde.desktop
xsettings-kde: /usr/share/doc/xsettings-kde/README
xsettings-kde: /usr/share/doc/xsettings-kde/changelog.Debian.gz
xsettings-kde: /usr/share/doc/xsettings-kde/copyright

[vw72]

So what does xsettings-kde actually do? T

I believe it is supposed to sit there quietly checking for when you make changes to things that would effect x.org, like themes, window geometry, color depth, etc. and if it finds them tells gtk apps to adjust themself. Without it, those changes probably wouldn't take place until you logged out and back in. If you aren't regularly making changes, you probably wouldn't miss it.

[SteveRiley]

Without it, those changes probably wouldn't take place until you logged out and back in.

Makes sense, now that you mention this.