Arch Linux

Reasons

Member

From: Washington

Registered: 2007-11-04

Posts: 572

Laptop screen off after X time

I've looked through all of laptop-mode-tools and there isn't an option for the screen to go off after the computer being idle for a while. Is this a feature I'm not seeing or is there a different way to do this.

stonecrest

Member

From: Boulder

Registered: 2005-01-22

Posts: 1,190

Re: Laptop screen off after X time

You can set this in your xorg.conf or by using 'xset'.

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iggames

Member

From: California, US

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 13

Website

Re: Laptop screen off after X time

Also make sure you have:

Option     "DPMS"

in your monitor section. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_Displ … _Signaling)

ie:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier         "Monitor0"
  VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
  ModelName    "Monitor Model"
  Option     "DPMS"
EndSection

Just having that makes my laptop screen go black after a while (haven't timed it, though).

Reasons

Member

From: Washington

Registered: 2007-11-04

Posts: 572

Re: Laptop screen off after X time

I made those changes so it looks as follows but it never does anything.

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Touchpad"  "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "AllowMouseOpenFail"  "true"
    Option    "BlankTime"    "1"  # just blank the screen
    Option    "StandbyTime"  "3"  # DPMS state "stand by"
    Option    "SuspendTime"  "3"  # DPMS state "suspend"
    Option    "OffTime"      "10"  # DPMS state "off"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "record"
    Load  "GLcore"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "xtrap"
    Load  "type1"
    Load  "freetype"
    Load  "synaptics"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard"
    Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "TouchPad"
    Driver "synaptics"
    Option "SendCoreEvents"
    Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "LeftEdge" "60"
Option "RightEdge" "930"
Option "TopEdge" "115"
Option "BottomEdge" "710"
Option "FingerLow" "14"
Option "FingerHigh" "15"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "ClickTime" "0"
Option "EmulateMidButtonTime" "75"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "10"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.45"
Option "MaxSpeed" "0.75"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.020"
Option "EdgeMotionMinSpeed" "200"
Option "EdgeMotionMaxSpeed" "200"
Option "UpDownScrolling" "1"
Option "CircularScrolling" "0"
Option "CircScrollDelta" "0.1"
Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
Option "RTCornerButton" "2"
Option "RBCornerButton" "3"
Option "TapButton2" "2"
Option "SHMConfig" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier   "Monitor"
    VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
    ModelName    "Monitor Model"
  Option     "DPMS" "true"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "intel"
    Driver      "intel"
    VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName   "Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
    Option      "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
    Option      "EnablePageFlip" "true"
    Option      "RenderAccel" "true"
    Option      "AccelMethod" "XAA"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen"
    Device     "X3100"
    Monitor    "Monitor"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes "1280x800"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
    Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
    Mode 0666
EndSection

jbromley

Member

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 268

Re: Laptop screen off after X time

I made those changes so it looks as follows but it never does anything.

What software are you running? Have you tried this with no programs running? I've noticed that I occasionally have the same problem, but it only seems to happen when certain programs are open. It seems that these certain programs "trick" the X server into thinking that they're actually doing something. I've not done a scientific investigation on the matter, but one example of this behavior seems to be with Firefox after using Flash.

Perhaps try shutting down all of your main apps and seeing if the DPMS works. If it does you can then work out which application is the troublemaker.

Regards,
j

Reasons

Member

From: Washington

Registered: 2007-11-04

Posts: 572

Re: Laptop screen off after X time

That would probably defeat the purpose of it though, at least for my needs. This is more for when I'm in class taking notes and there is a short period of time when the professor isn't talking. This would mean some typing program would be open.