Set screen to turn off after time. Command line not desktop.

[Raymond Day]

Installed Ubuntu server 20.04.1 on a EVOO tablet. it works real good on it.

But the screen stay on all the time. Can I set a timer like for 5 minutes if no keyboard the screen will turn off.

It's a tablet and there is no way to just turn the screen off without turning off the whole tablet.

It had Windows 10 on it I just DD backed that up before installing Ubuntu server.

Found out this command will do it but with time it goes away.

echo -e "\033[9;1]" > /dev/tty1

That will turn the screen off in 1 minute with not keyboard use. But like I said it will not stay. I have to type it back in avery few days.

Change the 9:1 to like 9:5 and it will turn the screen off in 5 minutes.

-Raymond Day

[Raymond Day]

Looking on the web a long time for a answer and 3 months ago ask about the same thing here:

So I don't think any one will know here either.

Guess have to make like a cron job so that command gets done about 1 time a day. Then it my stay.

Or maybe I can open this up and install a switch on it to turn off the built in LCD screen. Not sure.

-Raymond Day

[ameinild]

I think your best bet is to use either screen or tmux - both are terminal multiplexers. Both programs offers the ability to set a screensaver in the console, as well as other cool features.
I'm not aware how you set a screensaver in a "raw" bash terminal, but I use tmux myself.

[Doug S]

A few years ago, the screen used to default to turning off after a few minutes. Now it defaults to staying on all the time. To restore the original behavior, you can add a timeout to your grub command line. Example (7.5 minutes, and I have other stuff on the line also):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="ipv6.disable=1 consoleblank=450 intel_pstate=passive msr.allow_writes=on cpuidle.governor=teo"

The relevant bug report.

[Raymond Day]

Just made a file name "screen-blank" in /etc/cron.daily/ that has just this in that file:

echo -e "\033[9;1]" > /dev/tty1

Will see if I can get the grub one to work.

So I added this to /etc/default/grub

# Turn screen off after 60 sec. of no use.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="consoleblank=60"


Then ran the update-grub command.

After a reboot will see if it works.

Will post back if it works.

Thank you.

-Raymond Day

[Raymond Day]

It did not work waited about 10 minutes and the screen never went off. Got Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS server on it now.

Did I do the Grub command wrong some how?

-Raymond DAy

[Raymond Day]

There is a command to show if it's working I did this:

root@rayday-tablet:~# grep consoleblank /boot/grub/grub.cfg
        linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
                linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
                linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-45-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
root@rayday-tablet:~#

Should it show 3 of them? Maybe that is what is wrong. It is does like 60x60x60 that would be a long time before it does it. Not sure.

-Raymond Day

[Doug S]

So I added this to /etc/default/grub

# Turn screen off after 60 sec. of no use.
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="consoleblank=60"


Then ran the update-grub command.
After a reboot will see if it works.

O.K. sounds right.

Did I do the Grub command wrong some how?

It looks O.K. to me.

There is a command to show if it's working I did this:

Code:

root@rayday-tablet:~# grep consoleblank /boot/grub/grub.cfg
        linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
                linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-47-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
                linux   /vmlinuz-5.4.0-45-generic root=/dev/mapper/ubuntu--vg-ubuntu--lv ro  consoleblank=60
root@rayday-tablet:~#

Should it show 3 of them? Maybe that is what is wrong. It is does like 60x60x60 that would be a long time before it does it. Not sure.

I think it should be 1 per kernel, plus 1 repeated for the default kernel. I get a bit different, but think it is a red herring. I have 30 kernels installed at the moment, so won't show all:

linux   /boot/vmlinuz-5.4.0-42-generic root=UUID=0ac356c1-caa9-4c2e-8229-4408bd998dbd ro  ipv6.disable=1 consoleblank=450 intel_pstate=passive msr.allow_writes=on cpuidle.governor=teo

what does your kernel command line show? here is mine:

$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.9.0-rc4-stock root=UUID=0ac356c1-caa9-4c2e-8229-4408bd998dbd ro ipv6.disable=1 consoleblank=450 intel_pstate=passive msr.allow_writes=on cpuidle.governor=teo