How to remotely turn turn my monitor off

[bobdobbs]

Hi guys.

I'd like to know if, given ssh access, I can turn off the signal to the screen of my desktop workstation's monitor.

My remote machine is running ubuntu 9.10, and I have have ssh access to it.

It's all the way over at my desk, perhaps three metres away. I'm in bed with my laptop, and I don't want to have to go all the way over there to turn it off before I go to sleep.

The screen is constantly flashing because it my browser is open and showing javascript animations that I've been working on.

I could ssh in and kill my browser, but this is a second-best solution.

Any suggestions ?

[mcduck]

At least when you are running X you can use the following command:


xset dpms force off

[nothingspecial]

I don`t know how turn actually turn the monitor off, but I have these 2 aliases in my laptop`s .bashrc to lock and unlock the screen of the main pc


alias lock="ssh -X user@address \"export DISPLAY=:0; gnome-screensaver; gnome-screensaver-command -l;\""
alias unlock="ssh -X user@address \"export DISPLAY=:0; gnome-screensaver; gnome-screensaver-command -d;\""

So I just type
lock when I`m being a mean old dad, and
unlock when I am being a gracious and benevolent father.

The screen will go dark.

[bobdobbs]

At least when you are running X you can use the following command:


xset dpms force off


This command returns this:

xset: unable to open display "0"

My guess is that this command works best locally.

[bobdobbs]

I don`t know how turn actually turn the monitor off, but I have these 2 aliases in my laptop`s .bashrc to lock and unlock the screen of the main pc


alias lock="ssh -X user@address \"export DISPLAY=:0; gnome-screensaver; gnome-screensaver-command -l;\""
alias unlock="ssh -X user@address \"export DISPLAY=:0; gnome-screensaver; gnome-screensaver-command -d;\""

So I just type
lock when I`m being a mean old dad, and
unlock when I am being a gracious and benevolent father.

The screen will go dark.

Thats a pretty nifty trick, niftily employed.

Unfortunately, I can't figure out how to adapt the commands for my case.
If I ssh into my target host and issue "gnome-screensaver", I get this:


** (gnome-screensaver:32277): WARNING **: Cannot open display:

I find X really confusing, so I'm not sure what this means.
But I'm guessing that this tells me that this command can't be issued remotely.

[mcduck]

Try using the "-Y" option with the ssh command, that should sort the display problem automatically for you.

Alternatively you could try exporting the DISPLAY variable, like in the command nothingspecial suggested.

export DISPLAY=remote machine name:0; xset dpms force off

[bobdobbs]

Try using the "-Y" option with the ssh command, that should sort the display problem automatically for you.

Alternatively you could try exporting the DISPLAY variable, like in the command nothingspecial suggested.

export DISPLAY=remote machine name:0; xset dpms force off

Alas, these remedies don't seem to work.
This is what I'm doing:

ssh -Y remotehost

export DISPLAY=0

gnome-screensaver

And then I still get this:

** (gnome-screensaver:4901): WARNING **: Cannot open display:

Then I try gnome-screensaver, and I get this:

** (gnome-screensaver:4901): WARNING **: Cannot open display:

What am I missing ?

[nothingspecial]

Sorry to ask the obvious, but is your remote machine running a default Ubuntu install with gnome-screensaver installed?

[bobdobbs]

Sorry to ask the obvious, but is your remote machine running a default Ubuntu install with gnome-screensaver installed?

Not quiet a default installation.
It's ubuntu studio, based on ubuntu 9.10.

Ubuntu studio is pretty much just ubuntu with some extra packages installed for multimedia production.

It does indeed have gnome-screensaver installed.

[vol7ron]

I'm trying to learn Linux for work and found this thread interesting. Although we're not using Ubuntu at work, I've installed it at home (I know all Linux versions are not created equal) to learn more and understand how the different shells operate.

I could see this being useful, especially with iPhone SSH integration.

Does it help if you change "export DISPLAY=0" to "export DISPLAY=:0" (with the colon)?

vol7ron

[jasonnur]

Yea of course...

[jasonnur]

Yea of course...




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[nothingspecial]

I realize copying and pasting stuff you randomly find on the internet (and then adapting it to your personal want) can be a bad idea.

But if you are uncomfortable with it then you have to research it fully and type it correctly.

No offence meant, to anyone, but ............