Screen blanking for winners (dpms)

[ivanovnegro]

We are minimalists, so we try to use the smallest tools already provided by our system to achieve our goals.

There is something you can do in power management settings but it depends on the software (xfce4-power-manager etc.) you use and many times it interferes with other things, in this case screen blanking.

Of course you can use the "bloated" tools but we want simple here and how Mr. Ivan prefers it as he is fed up with the popular solutions.

It is nothing mind blowing, just for the uninitiated and new to our hot corner.

There is something called dpms settings that can use the power management provided by X for your monitor if supported on your hardware. A lot of times, if it is enabled, it will interfere with the settings you make e.g. with power management tools from the big desktop environments. So, you have to decide what tool you want to use in first place. As we are on the grill here I will adjust it to our likings, the Ivan way, I will just use dpms settings for my screen blanking on laptops to save energy. Whatever software you use, disable now all the settings for the monitor, e.g. in xscreensaver and in xfce4-power-manager etc.

Test if dpms is running/supported on your machine (maybe you have one of those stickers with something like ENERGY STAR):

Code: Select all

xset -q | grep 'DPMS is'

If you want to see what is set:

Code: Select all

xset q

From the terminal you can already play with it:

Code: Select all

xset +dpms

will activate power savings

Code: Select all

xset -dpms

will disable it. See man xset for more commands and options.

And I want to make it persistent. That means I could play with the xorg.conf settings but I am lazy and have no xorg.conf and do not plan to use one. I will just put it in the .xinitrc or .xsession because I use a minimal window manager but you can also put it into your autostart for DEs.

I decided I want just screen blanking and nothing more after a certain time. I put these lines into my .xinitrc:

Code: Select all

# screen settings
xset +dpms     # enable power saving
xset s 10800   # blank screen after 3 hours

That's it. Adjust to your liking.

You can of course do it the other way, disabling it totally and use the other tools and they will finally work or not. :) Then you would do this.

Code: Select all

xset -dpms    # disable power saving
xset s off    # disable screenblanking 

For the hardcore grillers, without X you can use setterm:

Code: Select all

setterm -powersave on  # enable power saving
setterm -blank 10      # blank the after 10 minutes

Look at man setterm for more on this.

[wuxmedia]

thanks Ivan, I'm still wrestling with turning the blanking off in wheezy, on my server - it's only tapping a key to wake it up. but annoying none the less.

Code: Select all

 setterm -blank 0

has no effect, [powersave off] gives me some warning.

I think I may have to add a cheat code to the kernel line.

[bones]

Excellent tutorial, thanks Ivan.

[dkeg]

good stuff Dave, thank you. Good share. I stumbled across this little gem some time ago, forgot where. I have in my .xinitrc

Code: Select all

## DPMS monitor setting - standby suspend off [in seconds]
xset dpms 300 600 900 &

[machinebacon]

Thanks Ivo.

Users of BBQ can use the command "moviemode" to turn off screen blanking. ;)

[ivanovnegro]

Code: Select all

 setterm -blank 0

has no effect, [powersave off] gives me some warning.

Or try this:

Code: Select all

setterm -blank 0 -powerdown 0

[rhowaldt]

thanks ivo - would you consider adding this to the Wiki?

[wuxmedia]

thanks Ivano, no effect.
It is in a perma-tmux session... maybe that affects it?

kernel option (add to 'kernel' line in grub - to try it out) edit /etc/default/grub to make it stick

Code: Select all

consoleblank=0

is currently in effect (in NoX)

[dkeg]

Thanks Ivo.

Users of BBQ can use the command "moviemode" to turn off screen blanking. ;)

oh yeah, that's right, I forgot about that

[ivanovnegro]

thanks ivo - would you consider adding this to the Wiki?

If I still remember how to edit it, I will do it.

[rhowaldt]

^ no problem. just shoot me a msg when you've made something, and i'll fix the shit you don't remember or whatever :)

[ivanovnegro]

^ Great. Will do then.

[ivanovnegro]

^ It is a mess, done, just copy and paste and some modifications, you *have* to make a surgery.

http://linuxbbq.org/wiki/index.php?title=Dpms_settings

Not sure what more, it is really just based on the man pages.

[rhowaldt]

^ cool, thanks Ivan, i'll take a look at it!

[ivanovnegro]

You are the man. Looks beautiful. Thank you. I knew I forgot some links. Now I also just changed the skin and I can actually see more things. :)

[wuxmedia]

^ yes 'mono' skin FTW, as they say.
do you guys think I should I add the kernel setting on the same page?
as setterm does nothing on my wheezy install.

[machinebacon]

wux, tried with sudo already? I suppose setterm can't do anything to the hardware and signals back a permission problem if you don't run it as root, just guessing.

[wuxmedia]

just tried as root, no dice.

cheat codes FTW!

[machinebacon]

Then take a look at /etc/console-tools/config

there you find the BLANK_TIME and POWERDOWN_TIME entries.

Or this answer: http://superuser.com/questions/152347/c ... g-behavior
by adding it to /etc/rc.local

[rhowaldt]

@ivo: no problem :)
i don't use the BBQ skin for the Wiki btw, but the 'classic' one. dunno why, i like it better, that's all.

as for additions to the article: it's a Wiki, so go ahead. if you are unsure about syntax or whatever, aside from using the obvious Google-Fu (look for Mediawiki + what the fuck you wanna do), just let me know you made changes and i'll look them over with OCD superpowers. just remember to keep shit organized, and look for what is already there so we don't get duplicates.