Welcome, more about XScreenSaverSuspend below (from man): If XScreenSaverSuspend is called multiple times with suspend set to ’True’, it must be called an equal number of times with suspend set to ’False’ in order for the screensaver timer to be restarted. This request has no affect if a client tries to resume the screensaver without first having suspended it. XScreenSaverSuspend can thus not be used by one client to resume the screensaver if it’s been suspended by another client. If a client that has suspended the screensaver becomes disconnected from the X server, the screensaver timer will automatically be restarted, unless it’s still suspended by another client. a) Suspending the screensaver timer doesn’t prevent the screensaver from being forceably activated with the ForceScreenSaver request, or a DPMS mode from being set with the DPMSForceLevel request. b) XScreenSaverSuspend also doesn’t deactivate the screensaver or DPMS if either is active at the time the request to suspend them is received by the X server. But once they’ve been deactivated, they won’t automatically be activated again, until the client has canceled the suspension. So while using XScreenSaverSuspend according to a) screensaver could be forcibly activated by other app and as stated in b) XScreenSaverSuspend call will not deactivate already active screen saving mode - so if you start mplayer from some script there will be no screen saver deactivation. Periodic XResetScreenSaver calling is better IMHO because it always deactivates screensaver mode. Even one call per second for example doesn't look as a heavy job and should work in any case ;). But it should be tested of course (DPMS and blanking deactivation works for sure but I don't know about KDE screensaver program). Regards -- Adam Tlałka mailto:atlka@pg.gda.pl ^v^ ^v^ ^v^ System & Network Administration Group - - - ~~~~~~ Computer Center, Gdańsk University of Technology, Poland PGP public key: finger atlka@sunrise.pg.gda.pl