K3B Sleeps WTH????

English Applications
1

This is really silly but I have no idea how to investigate this…

K3b (KDE Disk Burning) sleeps while burning a disk, producing a very expensive coaster. Since transitioning
to KDE a few months ago when I installed OpenSUSE 12.1, I have been trying to use the native apps for such
tasks but K3b baffles me.

Here is what happened last time:

  • Late at night I start burning a Blu-Ray disk. The process starts and reaches about 3% saying that 1 hours and 18 mins are left.
  • I leave the computer as is, without logging off, shutting down or anything and go off to bed.
  • The next morning, when I check the computer, the disk burning is at 28%! That is 8 hours later.
  • Then in about 10 minutes it has already moved from 28% to 52%.

The same thing (with slightly different numbers of course) happened last week. Given there is nothing to do about the
disk in progress I let the process complete to 100% and it actually says that it completed successfully when done.
Only thing is that I checked the MD5 sums and did the ZIP file self-test and I got corrupted files on the disk :frowning:

Is there a way to avoid this? Is this normal? In case it makes a difference, this is a desktop system running
OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit with all the packages up to date. I tried this with two burners and K3b slept both times.
One was a Pionner BDR-205 and the other a Plextor LB950SA. BTW, I also disabled Enhanced Halt and AMD
Cool & Quiet without a difference.

Thanks in advance,

  • Itai
2

On 02/24/2012 03:16 PM, idanan wrote:
> Is this normal?

it depends entirely on how you have set up the power management…if,
for example you did a default install and have not adjusted the power
management i’d guess the machine is doing what it was told:

After xx minutes of no keyboard or mouse input, do [something].

and, that something could be tak a nap, turn completely off or some
other thing…

go Personal Settings > Configure Desktop > Hardware > Power Management >
Global Settings and i guess there you will see that the power management
profile for your plugged in desktop is “Performance” and then if you
click (on the left) on “Power Profiles” and in the next window click on
Performance (on the left) then on the right you can see what is check
marked to happen at certain times after the last detected key/mouse input…

give that a whirl… and let us know how you get on…

oh, by the way: my word picture advice is based on my system (11.4 and
KDE4.6.0) so, if it doesn’t fit yours system: next time mention what you
are using in the question and i might save my typing time…

OH MAN, cool photos in your google link! (and, i added you into my SUSE
circle)

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software
What does DistroWatch write about YOU?: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

3

Thanks for the suggestion. I went in and saw that the Profile being used is Performance
but I do not see anything that looks suspicious :frowning:

oh, by the way: my word picture advice is based on my system (11.4 and
KDE4.6.0) so, if it doesn’t fit yours system: next time mention what you
are using in the question and i might save my typing time…

Sorry, you are right, I should mention which version of KDE I use. Guess I did
think about it because I never changed it from what shipped with 12.1 other
than the suggested upgrades. Looks like I have 4.7.2.

OH MAN, cool photos in your google link! (and, i added you into my SUSE circle)

Thanks!

4

On 02/25/2012 01:36 AM, idanan wrote:
> I went in and saw that the Profile being
> used is Performance
> but I do not see anything that looks suspicious

after you saw that you were using Performance then did you switch the
the next page…that is, switch from “Global Settings” to “Power
Profiles” and then click on “Performance” and then see what it is set to
do…mine is set to “Suspend Session” after 150 minutes (see
http://paste.opensuse.org/85115591), if yours is set to anything less
than the time it takes to burn that disk, it will go to sleep before
it is finished burning…because it starts counting from the last time
the keyboard of mouse was used…

as i recall i think 11.4 was default installed with a 30 time limit to
shutdown or . . .

take another look…

–
DD
What does DistroWatch write about YOU?: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

5

On 2012-02-25 01:59, DenverD wrote:
> if yours is set to anything less than the time it takes to burn that disk,
> it will go to sleep before it is finished burning…because it starts
> counting from the last time the keyboard of mouse was used…

It would still be a bug.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

6

On 02/25/2012 04:03 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> It would still be a bug.

well…you may be right (you most often are!) but:

if the user expected the clock-reset to triggered by (say) playing a
audio CD, or video DVD, or burning a blueray, or downloading a torrent
or or or or), and it didn’t–then that would be a bug if the user’s
expectation was founded in a sure knowledge of the system…that is, it
would be a bug if the documentation said that the power saver profile
sampled to see if a disk were being burned would reset the “system in
use” clock each time it found something being burned (or whatever)…

but, it would not be a bug if the doc said that only the keyboard or
mouse were checked…

now, i believe the situation we have here is not a bug but wishing for
an obviously handy new feature…i agree: it would be nice for the
power management folks to offer the users the ability to easily (in a
GUI) specify a wide range of events which could be sampled to determine
if it is ok the shutdown, hibernate, sleep or whatever…

i guess that feature request probably needs to go directly to the KDE
crowd (because apparently the openSUSE devs don’t send FATEs upstream,
or do they?)

–
DD
What does DistroWatch write about YOU?: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

7

On 2012-02-25 20:10, DenverD wrote:
> On 02/25/2012 04:03 AM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
>> It would still be a bug.
>
> well…you may be right (you most often are!) but:
>
> if the user expected the clock-reset to triggered by (say) playing a
> audio CD, or video DVD, or burning a blueray, or downloading a torrent or
> or or or), and it didn’t–then that would be a bug if the user’s
> expectation was founded in a sure knowledge of the system…that is, it
> would be a bug if the documentation said that the power saver profile
> sampled to see if a disk were being burned would reset the “system in use”
> clock each time it found something being burned (or whatever)…

You can consider it two ways at least. The burning application knows that
it should not be interrupted or it will fail, so it should impede the
machine from suspending, same as a video application impedes the screensaver.

For example the xine viewer accesses the keyboard changing the status of
(IIRC) the bloqnum led, so that the operating system thinks there was
keyboard activity. It is a hack, but it works in any desktop.

You can consider that the user doesn’t know he has to manually configure
the system not to sleep unless he is told by the application.

Yes, it also can be considered a feature, but it is indeed needed in that
situation.

The system, when it is going to sleep automatically should tell all
(registered) applications that it is going to sleep and if it is ok to go
to sleep or someone has an impediment. I’m not aware if kde or gnome can do
such a thing, but I remember seeing it in Windows programming more than ten
years ago, so I would expect them to have it implemented. Maybe I expect
too much >:-)

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

8

On 2012-02-25 20:10, DenverD wrote:
> i guess that feature request probably needs to go directly to the KDE crowd
> (because apparently the openSUSE devs don’t send FATEs upstream, or do they?)

Probably.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

9

On 02/25/2012 09:28 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:
> Maybe I expect too much

no we only expect too much if we expect it to work one why while it is
coded another…

i didn’t know xine can stop the power management functions from closing
down the system…

and, wonder how many users might walk away from their system ‘knowing’
it will go to sleep in (say) 30 minutes because they are not using the
keys/mouse…and, then get back 5 hours and a dead battery
later…because the expected it to know the right thing to do ??

i know this: all of my “TV” comes via the net (through Firefox and Flash
in KDE4.6), and i can assure you that that combo WILL go to sleep
exactly as told to in power management regardless of what is streaming
in or out…if i’m not doing the keys/mouse, it will close down.

and, most importantly: that is exactly what i expect it to do.

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
What does DistroWatch write about YOU?: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW

10

Idanan,

Check this thread it maybe of some help:
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/how-faq-forums/unreviewed-how-faq/469147-how-stop-10-minute-screen-blanking-kde.html
In your case especially the 1st part as it applies systemwide.

11

On 2012-02-26 00:30, DenverD wrote:
> On 02/25/2012 09:28 PM, Carlos E. R. wrote:

> i didn’t know xine can stop the power management functions from closing
> down the system…

It does, if it can make the system believe that somebody is using the
keyboard. It is of course configurable, you can disable this feature.

> and, wonder how many users might walk away from their system ‘knowing’ it
> will go to sleep in (say) 30 minutes because they are not using the
> keys/mouse…and, then get back 5 hours and a dead battery later…because
> the expected it to know the right thing to do ??

Too bad! X’-)

If I’m burning a DVD I expect it to be finished even if the battery goes
dead in the process. Next time don’t do it on battery.

Likewise, if I’m sitting in my easy chair watching a movie, I don’t want to
keep poking the keyboard on the computer now and them, lest the screensaver
pops up the moment the assassin is going to be revealed.

Of course, if I’m trying to sleep with a movie in background, I’ll
configure the computer to go to sleep.

> i know this: all of my “TV” comes via the net (through Firefox and Flash in
> KDE4.6), and i can assure you that that combo WILL go to sleep exactly as
> told to in power management regardless of what is streaming in or
> out…if i’m not doing the keys/mouse, it will close down.
>
> and, most importantly: that is exactly what i expect it to do.

Nothing wrong, if that is what you want it to do.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

12

Yes. I did. My ‘Suspend Session’ option is unchecked and the time entry field next to it is completely greyed out and does not respond to input.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

13

On 02/28/2012 05:16 PM, idanan wrote:
> My ‘Suspend Session’ option is unchecked and the time entry
> field next to it is completely greyed out and does not respond to
> input.

what happens if you do put in a check mark next to “Suspend session”,
and then set the time to 600 minutes (10 hours) is it then able to
stay awake all night and finish the DVD??

or, if you are sure it can finish a burn in three hours, type into that
block 180

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
What does DistroWatch write about YOU?: http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW