8.04 Server putting monitor into sleep mode? (how to?)

[stevecs]

Just slapped in 8.04 server (amd64) yesterday and so far pretty good. One item though that I'm noticing is that with LCD panels as the main head on the server the system will blank the screen which is good, but it does NOT put the monitor into sleep mode.

This keeps the backlight on all the time with a blank screen so no 'power-saving' actually happens.

Should note that this is a DVI-only monitor (though shouldn't really matter).

Anyone have a tip on how to do this under the server build?

[MrHippocampus]

The gentoo wiki has a section on doing just this, link (http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Automatically_turn_off_your_monitor#Configur e_XOrg_to_use_DPMS.). It should work for ubuntu in the same way.

Remember to backup your existing xorg.conf just in case anything goes wrong!

[stevecs]

This has nothing to do w/ xorg. Power saving does work under desktop. This is a server build (no X running at all or even installed). This is pure console.

[MrHippocampus]

Ah I see, that wasn't clear from your first post. Anyway, the setterm program is the one your after.


setterm -powerdown 20

That should power down the monitor after 20 minutes, there are also a few other power saving options available if you run setterm --help.

[stevecs]

Thanks, and sorry if I sounded 'gruff' above (was rushed to get to a meeting). Anyway, I tried setterm -powerdown already and that does not appear to actually do anything (screen still blanks but it does not put the monitor into powersave mode).

The monitor is the HP LP3065, attached through a nvidia 7600GT card.

[tubezninja]

I have the same problem with my ubuntu servers (Hardy 8.04 amd64 and i386, and also had the same issue with 7.10). Sleep mode for the screen works IF I install ubuntu-desktop and have the GNOME interface running, but obviously I'd rather not do that on a server. On the text-only console, the screen will blank after a time but will not go to sleep.

Also, even if the setterm variable works when someone is logged in, it doesn't have any effect when someone is logged off the terminal, right?

Anyway, I do know this same issue affects Redhat and SuSE (our servers running those variants have the same issues), so it's not limited to just Ubuntu.

Up to now I would just "put up" with having to turn off the monitor completely when I walk away from the console, or let the KVM rest on an OS X or Windows machine, both of which put the screen to sleep properly. *shrug*

[MrHippocampus]

Also, even if the setterm variable works when someone is logged in, it doesn't have any effect when someone is logged off the terminal, right?

In theory if you could get setterm to run in a startup script then you could get it to work even if nobody is logged in. But getting setterm to work in the first place is another matter.

[Dmitry13]

как же все-таки сделать так, чтобы монитор выключался через заданный интервал времени? уже теперь на Ubuntu Server 10.10 ? не делал экран черным, а именно выключал его!

[Dmitry13]

Sorry for my Russia )) .. didn't realise I was writing it. So I'll repeat the question. The problem asked above remains unsolved. What does one do in order to set Ubuntu Server 10.10 so that it would switch off the display after set limit of time?

[CharlesA]

It would be better to start a new thread, since this one is almost 2 years old and is referencing 8.04.

With that said, thread closed.