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XScreenSaver(6) 		  Games Manual			 XScreenSaver(6)

NAME
     xscreensaver-systemd  -  lock  the screen upon suspend, and inhibit screen-
     blanking during video playback.

SYNOPSIS
     xscreensaver-systemd [--verbose] [--version]

DESCRIPTION
     The xscreensaver-systemd program is a helper daemon  launched  by	xscreen-
     saver(1) for systemd(1) or elogind(8) integration.  It does two things:

     *
       When  the  system  is about to go to sleep (e.g., the laptop lid has just
       been closed) it locks the screen just before the system sleeps,	by  run-
       ning  xscreensaver-command --suspend.  When the system wakes up again, it
       runs xscreensaver-command --deactivate to make the unlock  dialog  appear
       immediately.   It  does	this through the org.freedesktop.login1(5) D-Bus
       interface.

     *
       When another process asks for the screen saver to be inhibited (e.g.  be-
       cause  a  video	is  playing)  this  program  periodically  runs xscreen-
       saver-command --deactivate to keep the display un-blanked.  It does  this
       until  that  other  program  asks for it to stop, or exits.  It does this
       through the  org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver(5),  org.gnome.SessionManager(5)
       and org.kde.Solid.PowerManagement.PolicyAgent(5) D-Bus interfaces.

BUGS
     Blanking-related  problems take two forms: failing to connect to D-Bus; and
     other programs requesting stupid things.

   D-BUS
     Only one program at a time can register with systemd(1) or  elogind(8)  for
     screen-saver-related  events,  so	if  another screen saver is running as a
     part of the desktop environment, xscreensaver-systemd  will  be  unable  to
     launch.  This program has workarounds for Gnome and KDE, but if you are us-
     ing something else, that might be a problem.

   CHROME & CHROMIUM (101.0)
     *
       Playing	only  audio  in  Chrome  will prevent your screen from blanking.
       Chrome sends the exact same "inhibit" reason for audio as for  video,  so
       we can't tell them apart.

     *
       Chrome  prevents  your  screen  from blanking when playing short, looping
       videos.	This means that your screen won't blank when Chrome is showing a
       Twitter page (because those animated GIFs aren't really	GIFs,  they  are
       MP4s).  This affects Tweetdeck as well.

       The  proper way to fix this would be for Chrome to stop inhibiting once a
       video loops.  That way your multi-hour movie inhibits properly, but  your
       looping GIF only inhibits for the first few seconds.

     Firefox does not have either of these problems.

   MPLAYER (2:1.4)
     Makes no attempt to inhibit the screen saver.  Use VLC instead.

   MPV (0.33)
     Makes no attempt to inhibit the screen saver.  Use VLC instead.

   VARIOUS
     Most programs fail to re-enable screen blanking if they crash or are killed
     while playing.  We try to detect when this has happened, but that might not
     work  with  all versions of systemd, resulting in screen blanking remaining
     permanently disabled.  If that happens,  killing  and  restarting	xscreen-
     saver-systemd is a workaround.

SEE ALSO
     X(1),  xscreensaver(1),  xscreensaver-settings(1), xscreensaver-command(1),
     systemd(1), sd-bus(3), elogind(8)

COPYRIGHT
     Copyright (C) 2019-2026 by Martin Lucina and Jamie Zawinski.  Permission to
     use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with  or
     without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and
     this permission notice appear in all copies.

     The  software  is	provided "as is" and the author disclaims all warranties
     with regard to this software  including  all  implied  warranties	of  mer-
     chantability  and	fitness.  in no event shall the author be liable for any
     special, direct, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages  whatso-
     ever  resulting  from loss of use, data or profits, whether in an action of
     contract, negligence or other tortious action, arising out of or in connec-
     tion with the use or performance of this software.

AUTHOR
     Martin Lucina <martin@lucina.net>, 4-Jun-2019

X Version 11		       6.15 (30-Mar-2026)		 XScreenSaver(6)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=xscreensaver-systemd&sektion=6&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.1.quarterly>

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