[gpm] Thinkpad T60 bug and small proposal

[Alfredo Matos <alfredo matos digitalself org>]

Hi everyone,

I have a Thinkpad T60 laptop, and i have a bug regarding the LCD Dimm
feature:

- Whenever the LCD dims, it immediately brightens up.

I've tracked down the bug, to gnome-screensaver, and consequently to
X.org. The problem is when the LCD dims (with no activity), the X server
detects and event (usually takes between 100 - 200 microseconds),
causing it to think that there is activity. I'm not sure where to file
this bug, so some help would be appreciated.

To cope with this bug and extra features, i wrote a small program for
the thinkapd (tpdimmer, http://www.digitalself.org/tpdimmer ). The
workaround for the stated bug (since i also caught in my little
program), was to add a very small threshold between dimming and
brightening. Basically, after dimming, xevents are ignored for a few
miliseconds (which is bearable  i think).

And now, my proposal is the following:

What do you guys think about decoupling the inactivity detection from
gnome-screensaver ? The rationale for this is to have the following feature:

- Handle the above stated bug
- Allow independent events of dimming and screen-saver. I would very
much like to allow my screen to dim after say, 30 seconds, and only have
the screensaver kick in much later.
- Further customizable events. Dimm the screen after X seconds. Change
the cpufreq governor after X+Y seconds. Disable one core (in dual core
laptops such as mine) after X+Y+Z.

I think that this could be useful... But would require parting from
gnome-screensaver (but would also eliminate the dependency).

Another small, but i'm not sure about feasibilty here, is to disable
OpenGL screensavers, by means of gnome-power-manager, since they kickin
spending more battery than a screensaver deserves. AFAIK is spends more
battery, but i'm not that sure. Anyways, this is just a side issue.


Any comments would be appreciated,

Best regards,

Alfredo Matos