Description of problem: On my Fedora 20 system, I have executed this: $ systemd-inhibit --what idle gedit I see my inhibitor in the list: $ systemd-inhibit --list Who: kparal (UID 1000/kparal, PID 1532/gnome-settings-) What: handle-power-key:handle-suspend-key:handle-hibernate-key Why: GNOME handling keypresses Mode: block Who: Telepathy (UID 1000/kparal, PID 1686/mission-control) What: shutdown:sleep Why: Disconnecting IM accounts before suspend/shutdown... Mode: delay Who: NetworkManager (UID 0/root, PID 853/NetworkManager) What: sleep Why: NetworkManager needs to turn off networks Mode: delay Who: kparal (UID 1000/kparal, PID 1532/gnome-settings-) What: sleep Why: GNOME needs to lock the screen Mode: delay Who: GNOME Shell (UID 1000/kparal, PID 1591/gnome-shell) What: sleep Why: GNOME potřebuje uzamknout obrazovku Mode: delay Who: kparal (UID 1000/kparal, PID 1532/gnome-settings-) What: handle-lid-switch Why: Multiple displays attached Mode: block Who: gedit (UID 1000/kparal, PID 2463/systemd-inhibit) What: idle Why: Unknown reason Mode: block 7 inhibitors listed. However, the system still locks&blanks the screen after an interval. I'm using GNOME. Is this a systemd problem or GNOME problem? Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): systemd-208-15.fc20.x86_64 gnome-power-manager-3.10.1-1.fc20.x86_64 gnome-session-3.10.1-1.fc20.x86_64 gnome-settings-daemon-3.10.2-3.fc20.x86_64 gnome-shell-3.10.4-1.fc20.x86_64 How reproducible: always Steps to Reproduce: 1. set idle timeout to 1 minute in GNOME 2. run `systemd-inhibit --what idle gedit` 3. see display lock and blank in 1 minute
Bastien Nocera confirmed that systemd-based idle inhibiting is not supported in GNOME, and it's not in any immediate plans either. Please modify the manpage to explicitely state which desktop environments are or are not supported. This can save time for many people. Instead of debugging why it doesn't work when it says it should, it should be obvious that it doesn't work in certain conditions (e.g. under GNOME). Thanks.
Hmm? systemd-inhibit does not have a screen lock blocker, that's totally out of scope, and must be implemented in desktop environments, independently on systemd. The idle blockers systemd supports is very different from that, and is documented here: http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/inhibit/ These idle blockers work on any DE, but they simply don't do what you assume they do. They are just about blocking suspend-on-idle, nothing else.
Could the man page at least say that "idle" in systemd sense is different from "idle" in usual DE sense? Because multiple people have been caught in this trap (at least me and dshea), and I assume many more developers will in the future.