Screen blacks out...

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: Screen blacks out...
started by: smohrman

Posted by smohrman on Nov. 18 2005,00:28

Hi,

I have DSL running on an Amaz laptop and the screen goes black after about 5 minutes of inactivity. Tap the mousepad and it comes back up.

Checked the bios, and power management is disabled, not other video settings there.

Checked Xvesa once up in DSL, but no option there...am I missing something?

Smohrman :-D

Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 18 2005,03:20

xset b off

This turns off screen blanking in X.

If you want to do it for console:
setterm -blank 0 > /dev/tty1

Posted by smohrman on Nov. 18 2005,18:54

Hi Mikshaw,

I'm not quite saavy enough yet to run with those commands... :-O

When you say "xset b off" is that a startup parameter, or something you enter at the terminal? I tried it at boot, but the screen still blanks out after ten minutes.

Also tried at the console (post-boot):

setterm -blank 0 > /dev/tty1

The screen still goes black. Am I entering these commands at the proper time?

Thanks for all your help. I'd really like to stick with DSL if I can just get it to work :{D
and

Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 18 2005,22:13

The xset command has to be done within an X session. It should work from an x terminal, but if you want it to be automatic, put the command in /home/dsl/.xinitrc, somewhere above the last line. Also make sure it is not inside another command, such as a "case/esac" or "if/fi" block.

The setterm command can be put in /opt/bootlocal.sh, although i forgot part of it:
setterm -term linux -blank 0 > /dev/tty1
I don't know for sure if it works in DSL (can't remember ever testing it), but i have two other systems in which it works fine.
If you have multiple ttys, you can do all of them like so (assuming 4 terminals here):
for TTY in /dev/tty[1-4] ; do
setterm -term linux -blank 0 > $TTY
done

Posted by smohrman on Nov. 18 2005,22:24

OK, here's what I've tried..

** I downloaded and am running RC2
** I did the xset command within an X session.
** Executed setterm -term linux -blank 0 > /dev/tty1 at the XTerm.

Not toally sure how to be "sure it is not inside another command, such as a "case/esac" or "if/fi" block." I opened up XTerminal, sudo su, then exectued the commands.

Still, the screen goes black at 10 minutes.

I'm using the Live CD until I can get these issues resolved, so I can't put the setterm command in /opt/bootlocal.sh.

I appreciate your help. If you have any other suggestions please let me know. I hate to go back to Windows,

but I need this laptop to work... This doesn't count the sound problem I'm having....

Thanks again

Posted by mikshaw on Nov. 19 2005,06:06

I'm not sure about the setterm command, but the xset command should be run as user dsl, not root, since it is dsl that starts the x server.

If it still doesn't work as user dsl, then it would likely be something to do with your laptop's power management, and i have no knowledge about that.

Posted by smohrman on Nov. 22 2005,18:25

Thanks Mikshaw for your help. I've tried all the commands and suggestions both as su and not, and the screen still blanks out. I've checked and re-checked every power setting in the bios and there is nothing else to turn of in the way of power managment.

I'm downloading Ubuntu as I write. I hate capitulate like that, but on this particular laptop I need the screen to stay on all the time as it is a network monitoring station. I also noticed that each night it goes into a sleep mode from which I cannot awaken it and have to reboot. I would think that this is the bios, but I haven't any more options there..

Thanks for your support. I love DSL, and I'm not going to give up on it entirely.... :-D

Posted by tatlow on Nov. 27 2005,20:41

Not sure, but here's how I got my pictureframe I've been working on to not blank

in /opt/bootlocal.sh I did:

Code Sample

for NUM in `seq 0 9`; do
setterm -term linux -blank 0 > /dev/tty$NUM 2> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -blank 0 > /dev/pts$NUM 2> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powersave off > /dev/tty$NUM 2> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powersave off > /dev/pts$NUM 2> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powerdown 0 > /dev/tty$NUM 2> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powerdown 0 > /dev/pts$NUM 2> /dev/null
done

Then I created a script called "try_to_unblank.sh" that does the following:

Code Sample

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/mouse bs=1 count=10 &> /dev/null
echo > /dev/console &> /dev/null
echo > /dev/tty5 &> /dev/null

setterm -term linux -blank 0 &> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powersave off &> /dev/null
setterm -term linux -powerdown 0 &> /dev/null

xset b off &> /dev/null

xset dpms off &> /dev/null
xset -dpms &> /dev/null

xset s length 0 &>/dev/null
xset s noblank &> /dev/null
xset s off &> /dev/null
xset -v &> /dev/null

This is just w/ the Vesa server (which I don't think supports most of those extensions... but better safe then sorry).
And in ~dsl/.xinitrc I just make sure to source the script.

. /opt/bin/try_to_unblank.sh

Hope it helps someone...

Posted by Smohrman on Nov. 28 2005,05:08

Thanks so much for your help. The problem is closed now since I moved on to Ubuntu and it solved the problem.

My best to all who helped....

Smohrman

Posted by khagberg on Dec. 06 2005,19:37

If yo do xset q it will show you the current screen saver settings. Note that timeout is set for 600 which is 10 minutes.

I ran xset s off

rerun xset q and the timeout will be 0 which means that the screensaver is disabled.

Hope it works for you.

Posted by fixkiet on Feb. 05 2006,03:34

Quote (khagberg @ Dec. 06 2005,14:37)

Your tip worked for me. Thanks

Posted by fixkiet on Feb. 06 2006,01:05

UPDATE:
the xset s off only work to next reboot. I'm searching for a better solution.

Posted by FermateBerlusconi on Feb. 10 2006,16:37

Edit the .xinitrc file in your home dir and insert:

xset s off &

for example at the beginning of the file.
This works!

Posted by dvdljns on Mar. 03 2006,23:25

Here is what I just did that worked. I booted into root then opened aterm typed in xset q and looked at the info then typed xset s noblank hit enter then typed xset q hit enter. verified that it set my screensaver to noblank and the two setting that said 600 to 0. now my screen does not blank out.