Arch Linux

davvil

Member

Registered: 2008-05-06

Posts: 165

DPMS on external monitor

I have an external monitor connected to my laptop, using a multi-head configuration via randr. I would like the external monitor to go into energy saving modus after a time of inactivity, but I don't seem to find the correct option.

I do not use any kind of {x-,k-,gnome-}screensaver, just the plain X "screensaver" that blanks the screen. Output of '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:  660    repeat rate:  25
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        9fffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  3/1    threshold:  4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  600    cycle:  600
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0    WhitePixel:  16777215
Font Path:
  /usr/share/fonts/misc,/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,/usr/share/fonts/TTF,/usr/share/fonts/Type1,built-ins,/usr/share/fonts/local/
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
Font cache:
  Server does not have the FontCache Extension

It claims that DPMS is on and indeed, the backlight of the laptop screen switches itself off. Googling I have seen a proposal for randr 1.4 to support per-screen dpms settings, but nothing which I could apply right now. And really I don't care about per-screen settings. The same setting for all screens is quite ok for me. Any pointers?