Looks like it is SDL related, because setting SDL_VIDEO_ALLOW_SCREENSAVER=1 fixes it.
I understand disabling the screensaver is the default in SDL so the screensaver won't activate while watching a movie or playing a game. http://www.libsdl.org/faq.php?action=listentries&category=9#90 Since I don't think this behaviour is desirable for qemu, I guess it would be useful to prevent the disabling of the screensaver in code. -- qemu disables screensaver https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/583462 You received this bug notification because you are a member of qemu- devel-ml, which is subscribed to QEMU. Status in QEMU: New Bug description: lucid, with compiz and fglrx: Screensaver on host will not kick in when qemu is running (kvm or no kvm). It seems to be related to the fact that the idle time reported by libXss.so on the host is being reset every four seconds or so when qemu is running, eventhough there is no activity on either guest or host.
