Comment 13 for bug 958279

Refering my last post above;

Using xscreensaver (without using 'Display Power Management') works fine for me, so if you encounter issues with the xorg screensaver freezing, disabling the 'xset' screensaving features and installing/using xscreensaver instead might be a workaround for you as well:

Install package 'xscreensaver'.

Add these two lines to "~/.xinitrc" (or whatever gnome/unity/xfce/kde startup script you have):
xset -dpms &
xset s off &

Set this option in "/etc/X11/xorg.conf":
 Option "DPMS" "false"

Configure xscreensaver with cmd 'xscreensaver-demo' and set it to use "Mode: Blank Screen Only" and do NOT enable any "Display Power Management".

If you sometimes want to manually start the screen saver, use cmd "xscreensaver-command -activate'.

/Mikael