[Solved] External monitor not blanking

peloris · 2023-01-19 15:15:49

I have a laptop running arch and XFCE4 with an external monitor. In xfce4-power-manager, I have it set so that the screen is supposed to go blank after 1 minute, sleep after 10, switch off after 15. For some reason, the external monitor will not turn off.

The external monitor is a new addition, the laptop was working fine for a couple years with its own screen. I have xfce4-display-settings set so that the desktop is mirrored, my laptop appears to turn off its own screen when I close the lid. The screensaver does turn on, and the screen locks, it just never blanks or turns off, at least not during the 12 hours I've had it idle each of the past two nights. I have a possibly related problem in that the display dialog is open when I do unlock it after that amount of time.

I can turn off the screen using "xset dpms force off".

It's hard to test all of this since I have to wait several minutes for all of these events to happen.

In searching for answers, I learned the following outputs were supposed to be helpful with issues like this, so here they are:

~ » xfce4-power-manager --dump
---------------------------------------------------
       Xfce power manager version 4.18.0
With policykit support
Without network manager support
---------------------------------------------------
Can suspend: True
Can hibernate: True
Authorized to suspend: True
Authorized to hibernate: True
Authorized to shutdown: True
Has battery: True
Has brightness panel: True
Has power button: True
Has hibernate button: True
Has sleep button: True
Has battery button: True
Has LID: True

~ » xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -lv
/xfce4-power-manager/battery-button-action              3
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-ac                        1
/xfce4-power-manager/blank-on-battery                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-level-on-battery        50
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-on-battery              9
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch                  0
/xfce4-power-manager/brightness-switch-restore-on-exit  1
/xfce4-power-manager/critical-power-action              2
/xfce4-power-manager/dpms-on-ac-sleep                   10
/xfce4-power-manager/general-notification               false
/xfce4-power-manager/handle-brightness-keys             true
/xfce4-power-manager/hibernate-button-action            3
/xfce4-power-manager/lid-action-on-ac                   3
/xfce4-power-manager/logind-handle-lid-switch           false
/xfce4-power-manager/power-button-action                3
/xfce4-power-manager/show-panel-label                   1
/xfce4-power-manager/show-tray-icon                     false
/xfce4-power-manager/sleep-button-action                3

~ » 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:  500    repeat rate:  20
  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:  no    allow exposures:  no
  timeout:  300    cycle:  300
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  /usr/share/fonts/misc,/usr/share/fonts/TTF,/usr/share/fonts/OTF,/usr/share/fonts/100dpi,/usr/share/fonts/75dpi,built-ins
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 0    Off: 900
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On

I can change the prefer blanking to yes with "xset s blank", but that doesn't seem to fix it.

Last edited by peloris (2023-01-20 16:48:40)

seth · 2023-01-19 15:49:22

I have it set so that the screen is supposed to go blank after 1 minute, sleep after 10, switch off after 15

DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 0    Off: 900
  DPMS is Enabled

There's 10 and 15 minutes, but "suspend" is disabled - that's acutally no legal combination and panels also do not necessarily respond to all events.

xset dpms 60 90 120

and try the behavior.

peloris · 2023-01-19 17:48:44

Okay, I'll try that, I'll have to wait to see if it works during lunch.

That's going to reset on reboot though, right? As much fun as it would be to put a script in startup to call xset with those values, is there some more standard way to make sure that's set, so I don't have to remember I have a script somewhere changing it? I don't see where that "suspend" number might be in xfce4-power-manager, since the other two correspond to "Put to sleep after" = "Standby" and "Switch off after" = "Off".

Last edited by peloris (2023-01-19 17:49:20)

seth · 2023-01-19 20:41:14

That's going to reset on reboot though, right?

Yup.

is there some more standard way to make sure that's set

/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d, https://man.archlinux.org/man/extra/xor … #Option~10

But I suspect that something in xfce4 sets this (because those aren't default values) and that will override the server configuration.
And I've unfortunately no idea where xfce sets this, how or why it would en up with this illegal constellation (Suspend < Standby)

Maybe you can at least prevent it from touching this

peloris · 2023-01-19 21:05:05

Okay, that didn't work, and now I'm not sure that my problem is what I thought it was.

When I came back to my computer, the external monitor still showed the screensaver slideshow. I tried to wake it up by tapping on the keyboard, but it didn't do anything. The mouse cursor was showing up, though.

I lifted the lid of my laptop and it showed a password prompt already displaying. But there was still not one on the external monitor.

After entering my password to unlock, the display dialog from xfce4-display-settings was up, the one that shows a four options for what to do with the external monitor. It had defaulted to showing my external monitor as an extension of my desktop, instead of mirroring. So, I now wonder if I'm missing something in the display settings that tells it to keep the previous profile.

EDIT: I just set up a profile in display settings, and then checked "Automatically enable profiles when new display is connected". I'll see if that fixes it. I'm assuming that when the laptop goes idle the hdmi connection is turned off and that it thinks it's a newly connected monitor.

Last edited by peloris (2023-01-19 21:08:30)

seth · 2023-01-19 22:29:33

So, I now wonder if I'm missing something in the display settings that tells it to keep the previous profile.

The question is why this happens itfp.
Does it not happen for "xset dpms force off"? Even not after a while?
What if you disable the screensaver?

Edit: forgot F5

I'm assuming that when the laptop goes idle the hdmi connection is turned off and that it thinks it's a newly connected monitor.

That's likely but would not explain different behavior w/ an explicit dpms trigger either.

Last edited by seth (2023-01-19 22:30:50)

peloris · 2023-01-20 16:47:42

The change to the display manager profiles (in the edit in my last comment) seems to have fixed the problem. It still works after rebooting, which means the dpms suspend setting is now 0 again, but it didn't effect anything. Thanks for your help.

Arch Linux

#1 2023-01-19 15:15:49

[Solved] External monitor not blanking

#2 2023-01-19 15:49:22

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

#3 2023-01-19 17:48:44

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

#4 2023-01-19 20:41:14

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

#5 2023-01-19 21:05:05

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

#6 2023-01-19 22:29:33

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

#7 2023-01-20 16:47:42

Re: [Solved] External monitor not blanking

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