[SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

stee1rat · 2022-01-03 07:51:20

My journactl is full of the following messages. How do I get rid of it? I don't use gnome or gnome-screensaver, I'm on dwm. It also looks like it has something to do with steam.

Jan 03 10:44:13 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:44:13 rocinante dbus-daemon[7034]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:44:13 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:44:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:44:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[7052]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:44:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:44:43 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:44:43 rocinante dbus-daemon[7095]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:44:43 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:44:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:44:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[7113]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:44:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:45:05 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:45:05 rocinante dbus-daemon[7147]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:45:05 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:45:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:45:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[7226]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:45:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:45:35 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:45:35 rocinante dbus-daemon[7260]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:45:35 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:45:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:45:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[7308]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:45:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:46:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:46:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[7333]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:46:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:46:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:46:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[7363]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:46:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:46:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:46:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[7382]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:46:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:46:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:46:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[7458]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:46:48 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:47:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:47:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[7490]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:47:06 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:47:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:47:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[7511]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:47:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:47:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:47:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[7536]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:47:36 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'
Jan 03 10:48:12 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.39' (uid=1000 pid=4097 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 03 10:48:12 rocinante dbus-daemon[7574]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 03 10:48:12 rocinante dbus-daemon[872]: [session uid=1000 pid=872] Successfully activated service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver'

Last edited by stee1rat (2022-01-04 10:51:18)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-01-03 11:05:08

stee1rat wrote:

How do I get rid of it?

Try

systemctl --user mask org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service

However:

stee1rat wrote:

I don't use gnome

$ pacman -F org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service
extra/gnome-shell 1:41.1-1 (gnome)
    usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service
$

So why is the gnome-shell package installed? Have you tried removing it?

Not sure if the oom_score_adj error is related though. If that persists after getting rid of org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service then please share how you are starting the dwm session.

seth · 2022-01-03 13:40:06

The oom_score_adj error is notabug in systemd 250, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=272590
It's nothing really problematic, just slapstick.

stee1rat · 2022-01-04 03:17:01

The messages are still there after systemctl --user mask org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

So why is the gnome-shell package installed? Have you tried removing it?

The gnome-shell package is installed because I had used gnome before. I can try removing it, however, is it possible to somehow just disable it? Why is it starting at all?

As seth mentioned it's not a problem really, the system works fine. The problem here are the spamming messages in journalctl and the fact that I don't really understand what is happening and don't seem to be able to find an answer on how to get rid of it. Even the arch wiki is kind of short about the dbus.

Here is my .xinitrc, I start my dwm with startx:

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
 xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
 xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
 xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
 xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi

# start some nice programs

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then
 for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do
  [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
 done
 unset f
fi

autocutsel -fork
nvidia-settings --load-config-only

#exec gnome-session

#exec setxkbmap --no-startup-id -layout us,ru -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle' &
#setxkbmap --no-startup-id -layout us,ru -option 'grp:alt_shift_toggle'

xset s off
xset -dpms
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

#xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
#feh --bg-fill /home/steelrat/Pictures/gorod-vancouver-canada.jpg &
#exec bspwm

#exec i3

sxhkd &
dwmblocks &
while true; do
   dwm > /dev/null 2>&1
done
exec dwm

The only thing that could probably be related to the issue is maybe this file?

[steelrat@rocinante ~]$ ls -la /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d
total 20
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Jan  2 18:12 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Aug  2 03:00 ..
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  318 Jun 23  2021 40-libcanberra-gtk-module.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  538 Dec 30 01:26 50-systemd-user.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  435 Dec 29 13:34 90xbrlapi
[steelrat@rocinante ~]$ cat /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/50-systemd-user.sh
#!/bin/sh
#  SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
#
#  This file is part of systemd.
#
#  systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
#  under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
#  the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
#  (at your option) any later version.

systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

if command -v dbus-update-activation-environment >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    dbus-update-activation-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
fi

I have got this part as per recommendation here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit#xinitrc

Also, as I said in my first post, the issue only appears after I start steam.

Last edited by stee1rat (2022-01-04 03:18:29)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-01-04 08:14:17

stee1rat wrote:

The messages are still there after systemctl --user mask org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service

Ah yes, of course, it's a dbus service. Grrr...

See https://dbus.freedesktop.org/doc/system-activation.txt & http://jdebp.uk./Softwares/nosh/avoid-d … ation.html — the second link gives a suggestion to copy the offending unit files to /usr/local/share/dbus-1/services/ then edit the Exec line to start (for example) /bin/true instead.

And there is also the nuclear option (which I have now implemented for my sway desktop):

systemctl --user mask dbus

^ That will probably break stuff but so far it only seems to have broken stuff I don't want or need for my (admittedly very simple) use case. Steam still works anyway.

seth · 2022-01-04 09:31:36

The oom error is from here, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2012166
But even fixing that will keep the screensaver activation messages - steam wants to talk to the mana… screensaver.

/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service is provided by gnome-shell
Shadowing it w/ bin/true may very well lead to stalls in steam (until a 25s timeout) but the activation spam will (likely) stay.

Do rather not mask the user session bus (@HoaS, can you still "systemctl suspend"?)

Ideally you want to prevent steam from talking to the man… screensaver, there's https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/stea … saver-fix/ which seems to preload a custom patched SDL library (what's pretty aggressive)

And some steam bugs…
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … ssues/5532
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … ssues/6009
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam- … ssues/5607

https://github.com/spurious/SDL-mirror/ … bus.c#L339 explains what is happening:
SDL just fires at all screensaver APIs and since the gnome screensaver process doesn't become/remain active, it gets activated over and over and over again.

I'd probably invalidate (prepend an obvious "Not" to the dbus section and all keys) the /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service file and "chattr -i" it so the service won't be found.

stee1rat · 2022-01-04 09:35:48

Unfortunately, changing Exec line to /bin/true in /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service results in service activation timeout:

Jan 04 12:27:20 rocinante dbus-daemon[865]: [session uid=1000 pid=865] Reloaded configuration
Jan 04 12:28:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[865]: [session uid=1000 pid=865] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.25' (uid=1000 pid=2908 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 04 12:28:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[29531]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 04 12:30:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[865]: [session uid=1000 pid=865] Failed to activate service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver': timed out (service_start_timeout=120000ms)
Jan 04 12:30:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[865]: [session uid=1000 pid=865] Activating service name='org.gnome.ScreenSaver' requested by ':1.25' (uid=1000 pid=2908 comm="/home/steelrat/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/stea")
Jan 04 12:30:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[29604]: writing oom_score_adj error: Permission denied
Jan 04 12:32:18 rocinante dbus-daemon[865]: [session uid=1000 pid=865] Failed to activate service 'org.gnome.ScreenSaver': timed out (service_start_timeout=120000ms)

progandy · 2022-01-04 09:48:58

I guess you should use Exec=/bin/false so dbus knows it cannot start it and probably remove the SystemdService line.

The calls probably come from steam trying to inhibit the screensaver using the old gnome method. I have no idea if that is the only option steam tries or if it does other things as well.
https://people.gnome.org/~mccann/gnome- … od-Inhibit

Last edited by progandy (2022-01-04 09:52:33)

seth · 2022-01-04 09:52:03

/bin/false will still get you spam like

Error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited  
Process org.gnome.ScreenSaver exited with status 1

The calls probably come from steam

SDL, see # 6

progandy · 2022-01-04 09:57:41

seth wrote:

/bin/false will still get you spam lik

Maybe a bit less spam than otherwise, but true.

The other option without patching steam is to set up a service for org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver that forwards the commands to the screensaver you use, e.g.
this for xss-lock: https://github.com/timakro/xssproxy (in the AUR)
or for xscreensaver: https://github.com/google/xscreensaver-dbus

Last edited by progandy (2022-01-04 10:01:28)

seth · 2022-01-04 10:06:38

Those don't cover the gnome-specific scrensaver interface, do they?

progandy · 2022-01-04 10:07:49

seth wrote:

Those don't cover the gnome-specific scrensaver interface, do they?

But SDL should ignore the gnome-specific interface if it finds the generic freedesktop one with "Inhibit".

Last edited by progandy (2022-01-04 10:08:27)

seth · 2022-01-04 10:08:57

Ah yeah, true.

stee1rat · 2022-01-04 10:17:30

seth wrote:

The oom error is from here, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 6#p2012166
But even fixing that will keep the screensaver activation messages - steam wants to talk to the mana… screensaver.

Thanks for pointing it out. Removing the OOMScoreAdjust=100 line helped getting rid of the oom_score_adj error messages.

seth wrote:

/bin/false will still get you spam like
Error: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ChildExited
Process org.gnome.ScreenSaver exited with status 1

You are right again.

seth wrote:

I'd probably invalidate (prepend an obvious "Not" to the dbus section and all keys) the /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service file and "chattr -i" it so the service won't be found.

Seems like changing the keywords in /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.gnome.ScreenSaver.service helped. Not sure if that is what you meant here. Also, did you mean chattr +i?

progandy wrote:

The other option without patching steam is to set up a service for org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver that forwards the commands to the screensaver you use, e.g.
this for xss-lock: https://github.com/timakro/xssproxy (in the AUR)
or for xscreensaver: https://github.com/google/xscreensaver-dbus

I don't currently use any screensavers, but I will try it in the future. Thanks for the idea!

seth · 2022-01-04 10:22:54

Also, did you mean chattr +i?

Yes of course, sorry.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2022-01-04 10:27:58

seth wrote:

can you still "systemctl suspend"?

Yeah, works fine. No stalls in Steam either, I've been using it since posting

Arch Linux

#1 2022-01-03 07:51:20

[SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#2 2022-01-03 11:05:08

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#3 2022-01-03 13:40:06

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#4 2022-01-04 03:17:01

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#5 2022-01-04 08:14:17

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#6 2022-01-04 09:31:36

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#7 2022-01-04 09:35:48

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#8 2022-01-04 09:48:58

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#9 2022-01-04 09:52:03

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#10 2022-01-04 09:57:41

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#11 2022-01-04 10:06:38

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#12 2022-01-04 10:07:49

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#13 2022-01-04 10:08:57

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#14 2022-01-04 10:17:30

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#15 2022-01-04 10:22:54

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

#16 2022-01-04 10:27:58

Re: [SOLVED] Activating service name=org.gnome.ScreenSaver

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