Please describe the problem:
This seems to be long term conflict, also related to gnome-sreensaver.

Basicaly the problem is, gnome ignores dpms settings set with xset and starts screensaver and/or suspends display even thou X settings are different. Not all application are gnome aware and can use (Un)Inhibit. Also g-p-m should not overwrite X DPMS settings.

Steps to reproduce:
1. open screensaver settings, set it to start in 1 minute
2. open power management set it to 2 minutes
3. xset dpms 240 320 380; xset -dpms


Actual results:
After 60 seconds of inactivity screensaver starts, which from system POV is OK, but after next 60 seconds the monitor is suspended and dpms settings are reset to 0, 0, 0 and DPMS On.

Expected results:
g-p-m should check at its "dpms" event that settings it holds correspond to what g-p-m sets (at the moment 0,0,0) and settings are not modified. If they are then they were overriden with xset and g-p-m should not kick in. g-p-m should not reset X settings. Maybe g-p-m should set X dpms settings and not overwrite them at its setup to 0,0,0.

Does this happen every time?
yes

Other information:
I understand that existing status is most comfortable for Gnome and managing screen saver and DPMS is not easy when two mechanism are in conflict, but at the moment there is a lot of confusion about DPMS and Gnome.