Arch Linux

douglas123

Banned

Registered: 2015-05-05

Posts: 8

monitor turns off during install

i tried installing arch, monitor just turns off at a regular interval every single time.. i think its around 10 min mark..

i tried adding nomodeset to the kernel line, via a boot-dvd, i pressed tab, added "nomodeset".. but it doesnt work.

i also tried

setterm -blank 0
setterm -powersave off

while in the terminal.. and it still turns off.. my brain is melting from this, i googled for hours - could not find the answer to my problem.
a month ago i tried to install debian wheezy.. monitor turns off while in gui...
i tried ubuntu.. same f* thing... monitor turns off at a regular interval...
i tried mint.. same thing..  then i though this must be something do to with debian since ubuntu & mint were derived from debian...

then.. i installed manjaro.. not a single problem during install.. everything worked fine.. since im new to linux, i wanted to see other distros to learn as much as i can..

and now.. i wanted to try arch... and the monitor thing started happening again.. is this something to do with kernel? i tried googling but i am very suprised that nobody is complaining about this.. is seems nobody is having this problem..

out of frustration.. i reinstalled manjaro.. and now eveything works.

can someone help me with this?

my graphics card is ati radeon 4870...

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: monitor turns off during install

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beginners'_guide#Troubleshooting_boot_problems ? It's for Intel and about the screen going blank during the boot process - is it what's happening in your case?
You're talking about 10 minutes, so I don't think so.

Did you try pressing a key on the keyboard?

Last edited by karol (2015-05-05 04:20:50)

douglas123

Banned

Registered: 2015-05-05

Posts: 8

Re: monitor turns off during install

yes, of course.. nothing happens.. it feels like a power saver (sreen saver) or something..

karol

Archivist

Registered: 2009-05-06

Posts: 25,440

Re: monitor turns off during install

What keys did you press?
Power saving kicks in when there's no user interaction. If you press a key, it should go back to normal.

einhard

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2010-01-05

Posts: 89

Re: monitor turns off during install

create 30-monitor.conf in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ (it doesn't have to be 30-monitor.conf, it can be 40-something.conf just stick to xorg conf file convention) with this inside

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "ServerLayout0"
    Option "StandbyTime" "0"
    Option "SuspendTime" "0"
    Option "OffTime" "0"
    Option "BlankTime" "0"
EndSection 

and see if it turns off still after startx (do this in one TTY and switch as xorg conf is only read at server start I think) or just restart

You can set them also with xset, type xset to see options, you can also try:
xset s off - this will disable xsreensaver
xset -dpms - this will disable dpms

with setterm there are also:
setterm --powerdown 0
setterm --blink off
setterm --blank 0 (setterm -blank 0 shouldn't work)
setterm --powersave off

One thing to clarify, you are having this problem after installing Arch or in installation process? If in installation, are this 10 minutes related to inactivity time? I mean, is your monitor turning off even if you keep pressing keys in regular intervals?

Last edited by einhard (2015-05-05 23:12:08)

douglas123

Banned

Registered: 2015-05-05

Posts: 8

Re: monitor turns off during install

@karol - i think you did not understand me, it goes like this: i follow the arch installation guide, i type commands in the terminal, and then at about 10 minutes in, my screen turns off = monitor button stars blinking and the picture is all black. i cannot finish the installation. in the middle of my command typing screen just dies. it seems to me that it always dies at the same time mark.

a few months ago i installed ubuntu. it installed without problems, but at about 10 minutes of using it, screen turned off and monitor button started blinking. EXACTLY like this arch problem.
except that in ubuntu it happened while i was in graphical environment, while in arch it happens while i'm in text mode. and i try pressing any key on my keyboard, nothing happens.

i dont know what is happening. at first i thought it must be something in the BIOS.. but theres nothing there. then i though, it must be something in the kernel? this feels like something is putting my computer to sleep... this never happened in windows nor in manjaro so i dont think it is a hardware related problem?

@einhard -- thanks, but i dont have X installed. my installation "crashes" before i even get the chance to install X...

i dont know what to do.. out of frustration i installed centos minimal.. it goes to sleep after 10 mins of non-activity in text mode (wrong, it goes to sleep even if i am active, i just was typing something in centos text mode and it died just like arch).. arch went to sleep during my activity (typing commands).. i think im going to try adding "acpi=off apm=off" as kernel parameters.. this must be somehow related to some power setting or something...

Last edited by douglas123 (2015-05-05 23:25:27)

douglas123

Banned

Registered: 2015-05-05

Posts: 8

Re: monitor turns off during install

@ einhard - yes it happens while i am active.. i am installing arch and typing commands in my text mode prompt.. and the screen just dies and starts blinking.. at a fixed time interval.. and no matter what i do the screen wont come back to normal

i tried all those setterm options. nothing worked.

Last edited by douglas123 (2015-05-05 23:17:44)

einhard

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2010-01-05

Posts: 89

Re: monitor turns off during install

@ einhard - yes it happens while i am active.. i am installing arch and typing commands in my text mode prompt.. and the screen just dies and starts blinking.. at a fixed time interval.. and no matter what i do the screen wont come back to normal

i tried all those setterm options. nothing worked.

Can you post your full hardware spec? It sounds to me like kernel panic or hardware failure on some systemd service, not power saving problem. Truth to be told it's the first time I am hearing about this kind of issue. It may be some bug in recent mesa or kernel for your particular config and install iso has it but manjaro not yet and that's why it installed correctly. Are you using 2015.05.01 iso?

Do you have modems, external drives, usb wifi cards plugged in?

Last edited by einhard (2015-05-06 22:01:34)