Bug 1371935

Don't know if this is relevant, but in my .xession-errors there are repeated errors "** (mate-screensaver:3232): WARNING **: Config key not handled:" for:
lock-dialog-theme, disable-command-line, disable-application-handlers, disable-printing, disable-log-out, disable-theme-settings, disable-print-setup, disable-save-to-disk.  For these messages, the screensaver and power-manager settings may have been changed from those given above (which produce the invisible mouse pointer) - currently the power-manager setting for the display is NEVER - so that I don't have to keep rebooting.

This bug is no longer occurring.  Presumably a kernel upgrade or other upgrade corrected the problem.  My .xsession-errors no longer shows the above errors.  Now it shows a different set of repeated errors:

(mate-screensaver:1341): GLib-CRITICAL **: Source ID 20 was not found when attempting to remove it

(mate-power-manager:1222): GLib-CRITICAL **: Source ID 74 was not found when attempting to remove it

These errors are repeated for various Source IDs.  A grep -c "Source" xsession-errors currently shows 13 repeats.

However, regardless of these errors, the mouse pointer no longer becomes invisible.

Problem occurred again, but MUCH less frequently.  Suspicious entries in .xsession-errors:

Window manager warning: CurrentTime used to choose focus window; focus window may not be correct.

Window manager warning: Got a request to focus the no_focus_window with a timestamp of 0.  This shouldn't happen!

Screensaver was set to 45 min idle time, with lock, and power management set to 5 min to put display to sleep (my preferred settings).  Pointer was invisible when I went to unlock the screen.

I never noticed this problem on my notebook or on my other box.
Is this a new problem?
Maybe it's related to a kernel update?
If yes, can you please try a older kernel?

I'm not sure whether this is a new problem.  I mostly have just used the screensaver, and am not sure about how often, or even whether, in the past I used both screensaver and power manager together.  (This is with a desktop computer.)  The problem happens with both the current kernel (4.7.2-201.fc24.x86_64), and also with an older kernel (4.6.6-300.fc24.x86_64).

Also, in the evenings I log out, but leave the computer turned on.  cron jobs are scheduled to run at night, but I'm not logged on, and no desktop environment is running.  Last night, the mouse cursor did not disappear overnight, but only after I logged on in the morning.

The problem occurs in F23 with kernel 4.5.7-202.fc23.x86_64.

Perhaps some more light on what is happening:

Screensaver set to 2 min, no lock; power manager set to 1 min, put display to sleep.  Initially, after 1 minute, the display is put to sleep (yellow indicator light on monitor).  Then after maybe another minute, the screensaver attempts to kick in, but there is a pop-up error notification "Could not switch monitor configuration ..." - screen then fades out.  The indicator light on the monitor is now green (the monitor is awake, even though the screen is blank).  The screensaver was set to the Pictures folder, which is not being displayed.  After a minute or so, the monitor goes back to sleep (yellow light).  Now after maybe 3 minutes, the screensaver should have kicked in again, (maybe?) but it does not - the screen remains blank and asleep (yellow light).  Now, when I wake it up, the mouse pointer is gone.

However, this may not be the only scenario.  My experience is that after the PC has been left idle for maybe an hour, the monitor indicator light is green, indicating the monitor is not asleep (as if the screensaver is taking precedence over the power management), and sometimes the pointer is gone, and sometimes not.  This was with the screensaver set to blank screen.

Not sure if that makes things any clearer or not!

In a sense, I'm trying to use the software in a manner "in which it was not intended to be used": setting the power manager display time less than the screensaver time "doesn't make sense".  What I'm trying to do is have the screen blank after a short period of time, and then lock the screen after a longer period of time - that is a legitimate scenario, but maybe using the screensaver and power manager to accomplish that is using the wrong tools for the job.  I believe I have used the screensaver and power manager together before, but always "as they are intended to be used", with the screensaver kicking in after a short time and the power manager turning off the screen after a longer period of time - and I never had a problem that way.  So, maybe this isn't a bug, but rather an abuse of the software!

Using a smaller value for display power as for the screensaver is not the itend to use mate-screensaver and mate-power-manager. For the reason the default screensaver value is always higher as the display.
Do you have a invisible cursor if screensaver value is higher than display value?

error, i meant
Do you have a invisible cursor if screensaver value is lower than display value?

If the screensaver value is lower than the power manager display value, the mouse cursor is always visible - there is no problem.

I have written a daemon using mate-screensaver-command which does what I was trying to accomplish (wrongfully) using power management: my screen blanks after 5 minutes of idle, but is not locked.  After 45 minutes of idle, the screen locks.

Ok, there was already a discussion to move all setttings from m-s and m-p-m to one application a while a go in Mate for 1.18/20, so this is the real place where this cn be changed.
Feel free to open an upstream report about at github.
Sorry, i can't fix that here if we consider this is a bug.
For me this is more a feature change which can be done only by upstream.