openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 6 of 6 Screen Saver / Screen Blanking

English Install/Boot/Login
1

So, I have installed openSUSE 11.4 M6 of 6 on one PC and M5 of 6 on a different PC, both with nVidia video drivers loaded. No matter what setting I use in Power Management or even if you add the YaST-Power Management program, the screen blanks after 10 minutes. It does the same with or without a screen saver selected. If I set the screen saver to start say in five minutes, then it works, but after 10, it just goes blank. Since we are all creatures of habit, perhaps I just setup everything such that this happens every time. Since I use KDE, perhaps this is why.

I would like to hear from anyone that has observed this problem (screen going blank) or would like to let me know that they do not have this problem. Video and desktop setup info would be appreciated. Here is my setup at present.

OS:  Linux 2.6.37-20-desktop x86_64
Current user:  james@linux-ngrl
System:  openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 6 of 6 (x86_64)
KDE:  4.5.95 (4.6 RC2)

Vendor:  nVidia Corporation
Model:  GeForce 8800 GT
2D driver:  nvidia
3D driver:  NVIDIA 260.19.36

I guess I could borrow please_try_again’s signature question, Am I crazy or is it just the Internet?

Thank You,

2

This does appear to be KDE specific. I have a 32-bit LXDE of 11.4 M6 on two very old PCs and do not have this problem.

I’m currently debating if I should install a 32-bit KDE 11.4 M6 on a slightly less old PC (but have not yet decided to do so) and if I do, I’ll advise.

3

This does appear to be KDE specific. I have a 32-bit LXDE of 11.4 M6 on two very old PCs and do not have this problem.

I’m currently debating if I should install a 32-bit KDE 11.4 M6 on a slightly less old PC (but have not yet decided to do so) and if I do, I’ll advise.
Thanks so much for your response oldcpu. I was afraid everyone was just going to say … crazy, sorry. lol!

4

Same here. My screensaver is set for 10 minutes but all it does is go blank. The desktop comes back fine when I move the mouse.

I did a quick check for screensaver bugs but didn’t find any.

5

Hi there,
I would venture to say that you have an LCD screen, and not a CRT. The LCD screens, at least some of then, have a 10 minute timeout. IF there is no activity from the keyboard … they blank. It saves on the bulbs and reduces power usage. Read closely the documentation that came with your monitor… or search the Web for more info.
Take care, but have fun,
Chuck

6

Hi there,
I would venture to say that you have an LCD screen, and not a CRT. The LCD screens, at least some of then, have a 10 minute timeout. IF there is no activity from the keyboard … they blank. It saves on the bulbs and reduces power usage. Read closely the documentation that came with your monitor… or search the Web for more info.
Take care, but have fun,
Chuck
So far, I have not used a LCD that included it own screen saver per say. If NO video signal is sent to them, they do go into standby mode, but the lack of video output comes from your computer. I can only say that it would be real interesting to figure out what was going on if your monitor had its own blanker function outside of your software and since the keyboard does not connect to it, only by the changing of the video signal would it know any “movement” was going on. Thanks for your comments Chuck.

Thank You,

7

I experienced these exact problems (M5, then on M6) with KDE only. Gnome worked as expected (:slight_smile: ). I posted the screensaver problem(s) elsewhere, along with the Gnome success. Responses indicated that the problem(s) resulted from transition from Hal to -udev.

Once KDE was up to 4.6, the screensaver and power management functions correctly on 11.4 M6. Gnome, of course, continues satisfactorily. The only downside of KDE 4.6 was on my remaining 11.3 installs : screensaver/power management stopped with 4.6 (on 11.3). <sigh>

8

I have an lcd with M6 and KDE 4.6 on my desktop. My screensaver does not start after ten minutes. The screen just goes blank.

The power setting is set to ‘Performance’ and the screensaver is set to ‘Random’ after 10 minutes. The Power Profile is the default setting, dim the screen after 30 minutes. A test of the screensaver works fine.

9

It is working for me.
KDE Development Platform: 4.6.00 (4.6.0)
OpenSUSE 11.4 M6 (Linux 2.6.37-20-desktop x86_64)
Try to update to 4.6.0

10

This is happening eith me with all versions of Suse, no matter if it is Gnome or KDE, 11.2, 11.3 or 11.4.

11 
OS Information
OS:  Linux 2.6.38-rc3-20-desktop x86_64
  Current user:  james@linux-9w3h
  System:  openSUSE 11.4 Milestone 6 of 6 (x86_64)
  KDE:  4.6.00 (4.6.0)
  Display Info
Vendor:  nVidia Corporation
  Model:  GTX460
  2D driver:  nvidia
  3D driver:  NVIDIA 260.19.36

So this happens, the blanking of the screen after 10 minutes, no matter what computer I load it on. Here is a different computer and I did update KDE to 4.6, but still the same problem as before. Since this is consistence across different computers, the only common item are different nVidia video cards and the install of the binary video driver. If it is somehow related to nVidia, it may miss others, but I am thinking this problem of unwanted screen blanking is very common with KDE 4.6.

Thank You,

12

In those cases, where blanking occurs, what status does xset report?

xset q

I’m not sure if KDE has a hand in setting these (or Xorg), but it can be turned off with

xset s noblank -dpms

I guess this could be configured via script in ~/.kde4/Autostart if desired…

13

Hello deano_ferrari and here is the output from xset q:


james@linux-9w3h:~> xset q
Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    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:  250    repeat rate:  30
  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/james/.fonts
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
Font cache:
  Server does not have the FontCache Extension

I then created a new script file called ssreset that says:

#!/bin/bash

#: Title       : /home/james/bin/ssreset
#: Date Created: Fri Feb 4 20:43:00 CST 2011
#: Last Edit   : Fri Feb 4 20:43:00 CST 2011
#: Author      : J. McDaniel
#: Version     : 1.00
#: Description : 
#: Options     : 

xset s noblank -dpms

exit 0
# End Of Script

I added to my AUTOSTART of KDE in openSUSE 11.4 and it does seem to work.

After the above command, this is changed to:

Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  no    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  0    cycle:  600

So, this is based on only three cycles and one restart as you do need to wait at least 10 minutes each pass. On the first pass, the screen did not blank, but my main screensaver did not start either. So, I changed it from 10 minutes to nine minutes and WAM, it worked and kept working. I am not sure why having it at the same interval as the disabled one would make any difference at all. So, thanks a million and I shall keep you posted over the long hall as to if it continues to keep working.

Thank You,

14

Thanks for the update James. It would be nice if the KDE power management GUI could adjust this via this xorg utility directly. I’ve seen a number of posts describing this issue…

15

Thanks for the update James. It would be nice if the KDE power management GUI could adjust this via this xorg utility directly. I’ve seen a number of posts describing this issue…
deano_ferrari, just to report back on your solution. It is still working! I have restarted openSUSE 11.4 several times now and the screen blanking is gone and my selected screen saver (GLMATRIX) is still working. You appear to be brilliant. The KDE 4 team could sure use your help. This work around is so painless I consider the whole thing solved, for me at least.

Thank You,

16

I’m glad it worked for you. The Xorg CLI tool has been around longer than the DE’s power management services (and I’ve seen it mentioned in threads across all distros many times over the years), so I’m sure the KDE team can take it into account if necessary. Maybe worth filing a bug report…