What keeps waking my screens?

English Hardware
1

not sure if this is the correct place for this post.
I have dual monitors, nvidia cards(2 of them) and
in X11 i can use this to put them to sleep
xset -display :0 dpms force off

The screens power off but about 20 seconds later they wake up again
My TW is up to date and my video driver is currently the proprietary driver 570.172.08 and kernel 6.16.7-1-default. I dont know if the xset -q helps but here it is

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: 600 repeat rate: 25
auto repeating keys: 00ffffffdffffbbf
fadfffefffedffff
9fffffffffffffff
fff7ffffffffffff
bell percent: 50 bell pitch: 400 bell duration: 100
Pointer Control:
acceleration: 2/1 threshold: 4
Screen Saver:
prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0x0 WhitePixel: 0xffffff
Font Path:
/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/Type1/,/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/ghostscript/,/usr/share/fonts/cyrillic:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/truetype/,built-ins
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
Standby: 0 Suspend: 0 Off: 0
DPMS is Enabled
Monitor is On

in journalctl i find:

org_kde_powerdevil[36152]: [ 36293] Device /dev/i2c-3 lacks R/W permissions
org_kde_powerdevil[36152]: [ 36293] Device /dev/i2c-4 lacks R/W permissions
so I tried setting the perms to go+rw but it didn’t make any difference, probably unrelated to my issue

in dmesg i see this after it wakes up:

[ T36293] nvidia-gpu 0000:01:00.3: i2c timeout error e0000000
[ T36293] nvidia-gpu 0000:02:00.3: i2c timeout error e0000000
[ T36293] nvidia-gpu 0000:01:00.3: i2c timeout error e0000000
[ T36293] nvidia-gpu 0000:02:00.3: i2c timeout error e0000000
Which seems to be something to do with the nvidia card and usb which my cards don’t have so i may try and blacklist nvidia i2c and see what happens
How can i determine whats waking them up?
TIA

2

Sorry, I can not say anything useful about your problem, but you may be more precise with posting. Use Preformatted text (the button </>) for your copied/pasted computer texts. And for them only (and then copy including the line with the command). Now you seem to use the Blockquote for text and comments in an indifferent way, which makes interpreting your post difficult (some might even skip your post entirely because of this even if they could have helped you when it was readable).

3

Hi, It would be interesting to review some information about the machine. What is the output of inxi -GSaz --za.

4 
$ inxi -GSaz --za
System:
  Kernel: 6.16.7-1-default arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 15.2.0
    clocksource: tsc avail: acpi_pm
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.16.7-1-default root=UUID=<filter>
    noresume security=apparmor apparmor=0 mitigations=off pcie_aspm=off
    intel_pstate=passive plymouth.enable=0 rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau
    usbcore.autosuspend=-1 nvidia-drm.modeset=1
    module.blacklist=i2c_nvidia_gpu
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.4.5 tk: Qt v: N/A info: frameworks v: 6.17.0
    wm: kwin_x11 tools: avail: xscreensaver vt: 2 dm: SDDM Distro: openSUSE
    Tumbleweed 20250914
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA TU106 [GeForce RTX 2060 Rev. A] vendor: eVga.com.
    driver: nvidia v: 580.82.09 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm
    non-free: 550-580.xx+ status: current (as of 2025-08; EOL~2026-12-xx)
    arch: Turing code: TUxxx process: TSMC 12nm FF built: 2018-2022 pcie:
    gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 8 link-max: lanes: 16 ports: active: none
    off: DP-1,HDMI-A-1 empty: DVI-D-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1f08
    class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA TU104 [GeForce RTX 2060] vendor: eVga.com. driver: nvidia
    v: 580.82.09 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 550-580.xx+
    status: current (as of 2025-08; EOL~2026-12-xx) arch: Turing code: TUxxx
    process: TSMC 12nm FF built: 2018-2022 pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 8 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s lanes: 16 ports: active: none
    empty: DP-2,DVI-D-2,HDMI-A-2 bus-ID: 02:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:1e89
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.15 with: Xwayland v: 24.1.8
    compositor: kwin_x11 driver: X: loaded: nvidia unloaded: modesetting,vesa
    alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv gpu: nvidia,nvidia-nvswitch display-ID: :0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 80 s-size: 1219x343mm (47.99x13.50")
    s-diag: 1266mm (49.86")
  Monitor-1: DP-1 note: disabled pos: primary,left model: Asus VE278
    serial: <filter> built: 2020 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60 scale: 100% (1)
    dpi: 82 gamma: 1.2 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23") diag: 686mm (27")
    ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  Monitor-2: HDMI-A-1 mapped: HDMI-0 note: disabled pos: right
    model: Asus VE278 serial: <filter> built: 2020 res: mode: 1920x1080 hz: 60
    scale: 100% (1) dpi: 82 gamma: 1.2 size: 598x336mm (23.54x13.23")
    diag: 686mm (27") ratio: 16:9 modes: max: 1920x1080 min: 640x480
  API: EGL v: 1.5 hw: drv: nvidia platforms: device: 0 drv: nvidia device: 1
    drv: nvidia device: 4 drv: swrast gbm: drv: nvidia surfaceless: drv: nvidia
    x11: drv: nvidia inactive: wayland,device-2,device-3
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6.0 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: nvidia mesa v: 580.82.09
    glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060/PCIe/SSE2
    memory: 5.86 GiB
  API: Vulkan v: 1.4.321 layers: 4 device: 0 type: discrete-gpu
    name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 driver: nvidia v: 580.82.09
    device-ID: 10de:1f08 surfaces: N/A device: 1 type: discrete-gpu
    name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 driver: nvidia v: 580.82.09
    device-ID: 10de:1f08 surfaces: N/A device: 2 type: discrete-gpu
    name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 driver: nvidia v: 580.82.09
    device-ID: 10de:1e89 surfaces: N/A device: 3 type: discrete-gpu
    name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 driver: nvidia v: 580.82.09
    device-ID: 10de:1e89 surfaces: N/A device: 4 type: cpu name: llvmpipe
    (LLVM 20.1.8 256 bits) driver: mesa llvmpipe v: 25.2.2 (LLVM 20.1.8)
    device-ID: 10005:0000 surfaces: N/A
  Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
    de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor gpu: nvidia-settings,nvidia-smi
    wl: wayland-info x11: xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr

I tried the latest nvidia driver (580.82.09) but it didnt help. Also, turning off the i2c made no difference either. I am experimenting with modifying /usr/lib/systemd/logind.conf
I changed IdleAction to poweroff and IdleActionSec to 5 min. Lets see if that helps

5

I’ve had somewhat similar issue, but in my case it was the bluetooth which was waking my machine up from sleep for some reason. Disabling it “fixed” it apparently

6

Did you check the solution from your old thread?

7

I recently had the same problem … turned out it was the cheap batteries shipped with my wireless keyboard/mouse … replaced those and the problem disappeared

8

Interesting. I will try new batteries. I have a wireless keyboard and mouse. Th e mouse batteries are fine but i have not changed the keyboard batteries in ages. It very well may be the problem. Thanks for the tip
As of now i have disabled kscreen and the monitors sleep like they should but i am not fond of that as solution, only a temporary work around

9

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