Screen blanking

[zjimward]

I'm using KDE 3.2.2-3 under FC2 test 3 and disabled both the screen saver and display energy saving. Some how though my screen still goes blank. Any one know of a setting which I may have missed or is this a bug?

[ghaefb]

What kind of monitor do you have? Brand, model..
I use Philips 170S4 (17"), and it always goes blank after certain time, then it switches to power saving mode.

[zjimward]

Samsung SyncMaster 950b, but I can definitely say that it doesn't have a feature to poweroff. That and I know under FC1 that when I did these similar settings it never went blank.

[LordMorgul]

My monitor is currently doing a 'low power mode' change while the system is in use (actually... it happens right in the middle of hardcore deathmatching sometimes, so it definitely is getting the wrong signals from somewhere). There was a post (and I think a bug report I can't find atm) about this problem when X.org X11 was first introduced. I wasn't sure at the time whether the screensaver was doing this or something else... and I sorta forgot to do more in depth testing.

I will try to figure out what is triggering this on my own system, once again.

Are you using the DPMS capability of the monitor (does it have this? it is often referred to as 'energy star compliance' blahblah)? Just double check, the vast majority of them do now.

In /etc/X11/xorg.conf (of XF86Config if that is still the config file you're using, either works) do you have this option in the Monitor section?
Option "DPMS"

I'm using this option currently, and have xscreensaver enabled and using power features... so I will start meddling with the options. I am using a Dell P992 monitor which is a carbon-copy (actually just a new case..same tube) of the 19" Sony Trinitron (don't know the model).

[zjimward]

Okay, I was wrong my monitor does claim to be Energy Star compliant.

The following is in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "Monitor"

### Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC:
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "SyncMaster"
DisplaySize 360 270
### Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC:
# HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0
# VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection

I do know that in FC1 when using KDE all I had to do to stop the Energy Star compliant was to turn off the screensaver and make sure that display power control was disabled, under the control center; power control settings. I did find the following:
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=109297

This is a different bug, but I'm going to try turning off the apmd service and leave on the acpid service.

[LordMorgul]

Originally posted by zjimward
Section "Monitor"

### Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC:
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "SyncMaster"
DisplaySize 360 270
### Uncomment if you don't want to default to DDC:
# HorizSync 30.0 - 85.0
# VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0
Option "dpms"
EndSection


Comment out the DPMS option as well. Turning off xscreensaver should stop the system from blanking the screen in X (the consoles might still blank), so the fact that it does not indicates we have a bad configuration --or-- a bug involved. I have been using acpi rather than apm so I am not sure if that is a fully unrelated issue or not.

[zjimward]

So far turning off the apmd and acpid did not stop the screen from blanking. I'm going to try commenting out the " option 'dpms' "

[zjimward]

Commenting out the " option 'dpms' " did the trick. I'll be curious to see where the bug is located.

[zjimward]

This is still a problem in the final release of FC2. For this reason I wrote a Python script to remark out the line. Any one that wants the script can get it here:

http://www.jkci.biz/netimp/jdwopen/apps.php

The script not only comments out the 'Option "dpms"' line, but creates an original copy of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file also.

Any questions about use just email me.