DPMS problems

Not sure if I am posting this in the right area but i am having a hard time with my screen blanking after six minutes I took the DPMS option out of my xorg.conf, added a bash script to start up with the command xset -dpms and running xset q reveals it is enabled after a reboot. This problem started after my upgrade from 11.4 to 12.1 I will post xset q here. If anyone has any ideas or advice I would really appreciate it.

chris@vox:~> xset q
Keyboard Control:
auto repeat: on key click percent: 0 LED mask: 00000002
XKB indicators:
00: Caps Lock: off 01: Num Lock: on 02: Scroll Lock: off
03: Compose: off 04: Kana: off 05: Sleep: off
06: Suspend: off 07: Mute: off 08: Misc: off
09: Mail: off 10: Charging: off 11: Shift Lock: off
12: Group 2: off 13: Mouse Keys: off
auto repeat delay: 660 repeat rate: 25
auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
fadfffefffedffff
9fffffffffffffff
fff7ffffffffffff
bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
acceleration: 20/10 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/Type1/,/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/URW/,/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/truetype/,built-ins,/home/chris/.fonts
DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 600 Suspend: 600 Off: 600
DPMS is Disabled
Font cache:
Server does not have the FontCache Extension
chris@vox:~>

Ok this is kinda weird after doing more research i found a command that are supposed to disable screen blanking setterm -blank 0 -powerdown 0 after running that in terminal the screen still blanks after six minutes. Maybe xset is not what i need. KDE 4.7 in case you need to know what destop.

Have you checked your screen saver configuration in KDE, to make sure it’s not the culprit?

System Settings>>Display and Monitor>>Screen Saver

Maybe it’s set to blank screen after…

You may also want to check the power management settings (power profiles) too. Make sure that Screen energy saving is turned off.

Yeah I have checked those and made sure those options were disabled. But thanks for the suggestion.

Try disabling screen blanking with

xset s off

or to be completely thorough

xset -dpms s off

Does that make a difference?

Nope. But I did try going into the power management and just setting it to a really high number like 360 which i s six hours. But as far as disabling it through xset i have tried both the command you mentioned plus a few more also tried putting them into a bash script and running it at start up. It’s a real mystery. Thanks for the input.

So far using that really high number in power management seems to be working. I left it for fifteen minutes and it was still on. Of course disabling it completely is still my goal but I guess some battles you just can’t win.

I can only guess that this may be specific to the video driver and/or graphics hardware in question. Are you using the proprietary driver?

Yes I am the Nvidia driver and you might be right. Maybe future update might solve this if Nvidia would get a repository going it would help. I will update if there is any change.

Hi,
I have the same problem using Nvidia driver.
any help?

I don’t have nvidia hardware, but may be there is something that can be set in nvidia-settings? I know that nvidia uses powermizer to control the clock speed etc. This might be useful:

http://riskable.com/?p=281

The following xorg.conf option may also work

Option "DPMS" "0"

This can be added to the monitor section of xorg.conf (if you have one), /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf if preferred.

Deano,

Just to be sure that’s “0” as in the numeral Zero right? Not a Cap O?

Yep, it is a zero.

Hey all!!
Thanks Deano!!
In my case it was 10 minutes before blank out. I’ve left for 16 minutes & the desktop was still going!
Looks like

Option         "DPMS" "0"

written into this file:
/etc/x11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf.d
WORKS!!
Here’s How My 50-monitor.conf.d looks before modding it:

# Having multiple "Monitor" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
#Section "Monitor"
#  Identifier "Default Monitor"
#
#  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
#  ## defaults here
#  #HorizSync 28-85
#  #VertRefresh 50-100
#
#  ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool
#
#EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Gateway HD1700"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
    Option         "DPMS" 
EndSection

Here’s how it looks after modding it:

# Having multiple "Monitor" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
#Section "Monitor"
#  Identifier "Default Monitor"
#
#  ## If your monitor doesn't support DDC you may override the
#  ## defaults here
#  #HorizSync 28-85
#  #VertRefresh 50-100
#
#  ## Add your mode lines here, use e.g the cvt tool
#
#EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "Gateway HD1700"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 81.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 76.0
    Option         "DPMS" "0"
EndSection

See that “0” by the DPMS it’s the numeral Zero.
Once again Thank You Deano!

Once again Thank You Deano!

Glad it worked for you. (I’m still not sure why the xset command is not respected though).

written into this file:
/etc/x11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf.d

You mean /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-monitor.conf

I added the line to my 50-monitor.conf file and x refused to start. It complained that “0” was not valid. I use the ATI proprietary driver in OpenSuSE 12.1 if it makes a difference. I removed the line from the file and all is well again.

I’m not sure why this failed in your situation (unless you made a typo perhaps)? Are you using dual-head by chance? You would need to examine /var/log/Xorg.0.log (or /var/log/Xorg.log.old from previous boot), for messages or errors reported to find out why this failed.

FWIW, this thread discusses DPMS with the proprietary fglrx driver. (Maybe it depends on the capability of the graphics hardware too). I know that it works with my X300 (and did when it was supported by the proprietary driver a few years back). That is all that I can offer.

Hey all bad news here :’(
After a reboot I’m right back to it blanking out after 10 min.
Sorry Deano, it did work for an hour until I rebooted.
Just to make sure I double checked the .conf files. It’s the way I left it. Just as in my post.
D@#$ what is causing this?

Did you check your desktop (screen saver and power management) settings as well?

Here is a screen blanking primer that discusses the DPMS options:
Screen Blanking Under X