GNOME 3.12 Power and Graphics Issues

Question

Hello, this is my first post.  Please excuse any stupidity...I didn't mean it.  These issues seem related, so I am going to list them all here.  I have searched extensively for infomation on how to fix these problems over the past few weeks and have come up empty handed.  I will try to mention everything I think is relevant and be as concise as possible (but will probably fail).
My Arch is installed on a desktop system, a GPT partition, no dual boot, and uses GRUB (efi) as boot manager.
My packages are fully updated with both "gnome" and "gnome-extra" groups installed.
Kernel is 3.14.2-1 (also tried 3.14.3 from testing - same behavior)
Video is xf86-video-ati with a Radeon 6670 (same problems with a AMD 7950 and onboard Trinity APU)
I did not use GNOME 3.10 so do not know if these problems existed in previous versions.  I switched to 3.12 from KDE (did a fresh install on a wiped HDD)
Problems:
1. When I boot the computer I see the boot messages and everything is fine.  When it gets done and tries to start GDM the screen turns black for approx 5 seconds and then returns to the boot messages for approx. 3 seconds.  Then the screen goes black again for approx. 10 seconds and finally GDM appears.
2. Any time GDM is open, i.e. I have not logged in yet or have logged out of a previous session, and I go to a tty, log in as root or my user, and type "systemctl stop/restart gdm" the computer freezes (including the tty I am on).
3. The blank screen setting in GNOME settings behaves strangely.  If I let it blank and then move the mouse it shows me that clock screen.  If I press escape and the lock screen is enable the clock plays an upwards animation, shows the lock screen, and when I log it shows my desktop, but for approx. 2 seconds none of my user settings (favorites, date in the clock, etc.) are applied.  After the 2 seconds the settings  violently flash into place.  When the lock screen is not enable (what I want), and I wake the screen I get the clock thing and when I press escape there is no upward animation.  The clock screen goes away immediately and then I get the desktop with the same delay in applying my settings.
4. If the screen is blanked for a long time (it is hard to tell how long) and I move the mouse I get the clock but the computer is frozen.  I can kill X with Ctrl+Alt+Backspace and log back in and everything is normal.
5. Suspend is utterly broken.  If I have both the blank screen and suspend timers turned on in the GNOME settings the screen will blank at the appropriate time but the suspend will never happen.  If I have the blank screen option off and auto suspend on the computer suspends but freezes on the clock screen.  In this case if kill X and log back in the desktop works but I have no graphical effects (fade, zoom, etc.).  As far as I can tell the only way to get them back is to reboot the computer.
5.1 If I type "systemctl suspend" in a terminal the suspend happens, and when I wake the computer I am returned directly to the desktop (no clock), but the same graphics problem occurs.  Reloading the shell or logging in/out does not fix it.
5.2 If I boot using "linux-lts" (currently version 3.10.39-1) and suspend using the GNOME setting I get the clock and can get back into the desktop but have the same graphical effects problem.
5.3 If I edit the idle options in "/etc/systemd/logind.conf" the system becomes unstable (choppy effects, delayed keyboard input).  Even after a reboot.
What I've Noticed:
1. In both Cinnamon and Openbox "systemctl suspend" works as expected.
2. Cinnamon's screen blanking and suspend functions work correctly.
3. I tried lightdm, and when using GNOME no power settings work at all.  It seems these features are intrinsic to GDM now.  However, with lightdm I do not get the log in screen delay durring boot.
4. I tried reinstalling the system thinking maybe something got corrupted somehow but it did not help.
5. I tried removing all user settings files from my home directory and it did not help.
6. There are other things I've done as suggested by the wiki or random forum posts, but none of that helped either and probably isn't worth mentioning.
7. These issues are reproducable consistently with no variation.  I believe that these are bugs in GNOME's code, but thought I'd ask anyway (what do I know?).
There are some interesting things in the system logs, but Google returns nothing useful.  There are tons of things in these logs that look important to me, so if you think a particular one will be helpful please tell me which one.
I have found several things (forum threads, bug reports) that resemble what is happening to me, but they all claim that the problems have been fixed or suggest solutions that are not relevant to me (but have led me to believe that the problem is related to ati graphics).
Thank you for your help.
UPDATE:
It seems this is a problem with GDM.  If I use Lightdm "systemctl suspend" works fine when logged into GNOME.  Screen blanking works fine with Xscreensaver.  Unfortunately Xscreensaver turns the screen off when I'm watching videos, so it is useless to me.  I guess the solution for now is to turn the monitor off when I leave the computer and use a terminal and the sleep command to suspend (logind idle settings don't do anything at all with Lightdm, I guess).  This is a terrible solution, but I guess it will have to do until a fix is released, if it ever is.
Last edited by d81 (2014-05-10 23:28:30)

Answer 1

@Strider:
Concerning the second part: Gnome uses tracker to index music, videos etc. globally.
Which directories are indexed can be configured under system settings > search > [cog menu].
There you can add the /videos folder to the indexed folders.
I'm not sure whether this also solves the first problem.