MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks

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MercuryHero
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:36 am

MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks

Post by MercuryHero »

Hello,

Using 1.16.4 on Linux, I find that MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks. That is, my screen blanks as normal after a 5 minute timeout, and this also enables a screen lock. The laptop is NOT going into suspend mode but is still running and the lid is still open. Other tasks continue running such as encoding with handbrake.

When I wake the laptop, the drive spins back up and MakeMKV starts reading again.

This seems really strange. Is there any suggestion to stop this happening? It's frustrating having to keep waking up the screen during a long read.
Woodstock
Posts: 9912
Joined: Sun Jul 24, 2011 11:21 pm

Re: MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks

Post by Woodstock »

Wild guess would be that your settings are turning off the optical disk under the assumption that you're watching video. If the screen is off, there is no need to continue playing, right?

In this case, that assumption is wrong.

Check your power management settings to see if it turns off devices.
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MercuryHero
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:36 am

Re: MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks

Post by MercuryHero »

Further details after some more testing:

- Makemkv doesn't stop until the next title is reached. It finishes the current title and spins down the drive. When I wake the screen, the drive spins up and makemkv starts the next title.

- If I manually lock the screen it doesn't seem to happen straight away, suggesting it's not the screen locking doing it but some timeout, which supports the theory is may be a power setting.

Is there any power configuration timeout in linux that you're aware of which would cause, after a timeout, existing titles to keep reading but new titles not to begin being read?
MercuryHero
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2021 5:36 am

Re: MakeMKV stops reading when the screen locks

Post by MercuryHero »

I've discovered more about this.

The default screen locker / screen saver in XFCE (and some other light weight DEs) is light-locker. light-locker is a cut down fork of gnome-screensaver.

One of light-locker's behaviours is to pause or disable media playback while the screen is locked.

XFCE can set light-locker to activate after waking the screen rather than when the screen sleeps. This solves the problem. It appears light-locker's behaviour of stopping media playback also stopped MakeMKV from starting to rip a title.

At this stage my workaround is keeping me happy, just thought I'd provide this update.
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