DPMS Turns Itself On

[reyfer]

Add the following lines to ~/.bash_profile (If .bash_profile does not exist create it -- notice it is a "hidden file", its name begins with a period.)

xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
xset s noblank

this seems to work for me for the moment, thank you

[GreyGeek]

Add the following lines to ~/.bash_profile (If .bash_profile does not exist create it -- notice it is a "hidden file", its name begins with a period.)

xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
xset s noblank

Zeros are supposed to turn off those settings, but you could use

xset dpms 32547 48820 65094

to make the times longer than a movie.

dpms flags...
The dpms option allows the DPMS (Energy Star) parameters to be set. The option can take up to three numerical values, or the `force' flag followed by a DPMS state. The `force' flags forces the server to immediately switch to the DPMS state specified. The DPMS state can be one of `standby', `suspend', `off', or `on'. When numerical values are given, they set the inactivity period (in units of seconds) before the three modes are activated. The first value given is for the `standby' mode, the second is for the `suspend' mode, and the third is for the `off' mode. Setting these values implicitly enables the DPMS features. A value of zero disables a particular mode.

[reyfer]

Any news about this issue? It is getting really annoying to have to move my mouse every 9 minutes so the screen doesn't go blank while I watch a movie

[IanSammel]

I investigated the problem a bit more. As I mentioned above, DPMS gets turned on when I enter the administrator password when doing a software update. If I turn it off whilst the download is still in progress then it gets turned on again when the actual update starts. Still no idea what's causing it though.

[JustinBailey]

I'm having this same problem. Nothing I try seems to work. I turn DPMS off, but then something turns it back on again later, and I don't know what's doing it.

[IanSammel]

I have a similar problem which may be related and which started when I upgraded to Precise. Everything is OK until I perform a software update. Afterwards the screen blanks within a minute. When I check I find that dpms is enabled although it was disabled before. The solution is simply kset -dpms then everything is OK until the next update. Rebooting also clears it but it's annoying and I would like to find the cause. The last time I did an update, I monitored the dpms status. It stayed off until I was prompted to enter the administrator password. As soon as I pressed enter dpms was enabled. So for some reason entering the administrator password during a software update enables dpms. KDE version 4.8.3 Any ideas?

[GreyGeek]

Ok guys timely thread here. Check this out: I started using my computer as a TV (streaming video content full-screen) since I upgraded my data plan and got a reasonably large LCD monitor. I was having this issue where the monitor would go to hibernate after around 10 minutes, whereby I would have to hiy a key to get it back on. This was really irritating! Like others, I went and turned off any and all power saving modes in system settings and also the "Dim Display" and "Screen Energy Saving" check boxes were inactivated. I also checked the monitor settings via the monitor's menu and made sure all power-save functions were off. However the issue persisted....

After struggling with this for weeks, I think I found a work-around. What I did was go back to those two prior-mentioned settings in my "Energy Saving Settings" section of "System Settings" and went ahead and checked (activated) them. However I changed the time values to 60 minutes from their default, which I think was 10 IIRC. Since then, I have not had my monitor shut off. Of course, at some point during an hour I'll likely hit a key or move my mouse thereby re-setting the timer, but it's great to know I can watch a video for up to an hour without my monitor shutting off.

This of course is less than ideal: Kubuntu should be respecting the fact that I previously had those features turned off. But turning them on and settng a variable seems to be the only workaround that I have found. Maybe these findings can help a dev furthur track down the root cause.

I think you are on to something, dequire.

Screen Saver "timeout" set to zero is, I suspect, supposed to deactivate it. But, it's been zero when blanking occurred so I don't know what it is supposed to do.

Something, and I have no clue what, turned on DPMS and at the same time set the dpms flags you see below in "standby", "Suspend" and "off".

Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 32547 Suspend: 48820 Off: 65094
DPMS is Enabled
Monitor is On

But, since that change occurred my display has not blanked. It seems to me that one could set those flags using

xset dpms 32547 48820 65094

[dequire]

Ok guys timely thread here. Check this out: I started using my computer as a TV (streaming video content full-screen) since I upgraded my data plan and got a reasonably large LCD monitor. I was having this issue where the monitor would go to hibernate after around 10 minutes, whereby I would have to hiy a key to get it back on. This was really irritating! Like others, I went and turned off any and all power saving modes in system settings and also the "Dim Display" and "Screen Energy Saving" check boxes were inactivated. I also checked the monitor settings via the monitor's menu and made sure all power-save functions were off. However the issue persisted....

After struggling with this for weeks, I think I found a work-around. What I did was go back to those two prior-mentioned settings in my "Energy Saving Settings" section of "System Settings" and went ahead and checked (activated) them. However I changed the time values to 60 minutes from their default, which I think was 10 IIRC. Since then, I have not had my monitor shut off. Of course, at some point during an hour I'll likely hit a key or move my mouse thereby re-setting the timer, but it's great to know I can watch a video for up to an hour without my monitor shutting off.

This of course is less than ideal: Kubuntu should be respecting the fact that I previously had those features turned off. But turning them on and settng a variable seems to be the only workaround that I have found. Maybe these findings can help a dev furthur track down the root cause.

[whatthefunk]

I wouldnt be surprised if it was Power Management. I gave up on that program working months ago....

[GreyGeek]

It is now 9:20AM. I began using this computer at 5AM. When I turned it on and checked the settings with xset the dpms was disabled. About 8AM I checked again and it was enabled!! So, the old xsettings-kde isn't the cure. I reinstalled the upgrade.

Jonathan thought the problem was in the xscreensaver, or an app that is activating it. That app could be the Power Management.
Using xset I have made the following settings:

Screen Saver: prefer blanking: no allow exposures: no
timeout: 0 cycle: 600
Colors:
default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0 WhitePixel: 16777215
Font Path:
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1,built-ins
DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 0 Suspend: 0 Off: 0
DPMS is Disabled

Now I am going to play around and see if I can find the culprit.

[GreyGeek]

Last night I replaced xsettings-kde from the launchpad PPA of KDE 4.8.3 with the version that was installed with Precise and KDE 4.8.2.

I booted up this morning and checked dpms. It was disabled.

DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 600 Suspend: 600 Off: 600
DPMS is Disabled

Since I had removed my kernel mod powersaver setting, and the mods to ~/.bash_profile, I do not know where the setting is that turned it off. But, so far, after an hour and a half, I have not had a blanking episode.

[GreyGeek]

That previous post was made at 7:27PM. I continued using Kubuntu until nearly midnight without a blanking episode. Today (Sunday) I booted up at 8pm and at around 10pm I had a blanking episode, so my i915 powersave setting didn't work.

I opened a Konsole and set
xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
and left the Konsole open. I had noticed before that when I made those settings and closed the Konsole it wasn't long before the blanking began. So now I am leaving the Konsole open but minimized. So far, since 8pm. I haven't had a blanking episode.

Jonathan, a KDE dev, thinks the issue is a xscreensaver bug. In checking the man pages for the xscreensaver-* binaries I noticed a reference to ~/.xscreensaver, which is not in my home directory. I used "touch ~/.xscreensaver" to create it. I will watch it to see if it is used.

So, the blanking bug appears to be on KDE 4.8.3 from the Ubuntu Launchpad PPA.

[GreyGeek]

Four hours later and no blanking.

[GreyGeek]

.bash_profile? Or did you mean .profile? I have no .bash_profile anywhere on my system, but do have a .profile in my users home directory.

~/.bash_profile

Its contents get executed only during a login. In this situation "xset dpms 0 0 0" gets executed only during the initial login.

It isn't installed by default on Kubuntu, but it is on other distros that I've used. I took advantage of it for this dpms problem.

This explains the difference: http://hacktux.com/bash/bashrc/bash_profile

[GreyGeek]

Well, as it turns out, even though "xset dpms 0 0 0" works, the setting can and is undone by unknown factors. I can have blankless periods lasting for as long as I normally use my system. But, if I leave to go do a "honey do", when I come back the monitor is blank. After that it blanks after a few seconds of inactivity.

So, I started casting about and wondered if the i915 driver had a parameter, and it did:

parm:           modeset:Use kernel modesetting [KMS] (0=DRM_I915_KMS from .config, 1=on, -1=force vga console preference [default]) (int)
parm:           fbpercrtc:int
parm:           panel_ignore_lid:Override lid status (0=autodetect [default], 1=lid open, -1=lid closed) (int)
parm:           [COLOR=#ff0000]powersave[/COLOR]:Enable powersavings, fbc, downclocking, etc. (default: true) (int)
parm:           semaphores:Use semaphores for inter-ring sync (default: -1 (use per-chip defaults)) (int)
parm:           i915_enable_rc6:Enable power-saving render C-state 6 (default: -1 (use per-chip default) (int)
parm:           i915_enable_fbc:Enable frame buffer compression for power savings (default: -1 (use per-chip default)) (int)
parm:           lvds_downclock:Use panel (LVDS/eDP) downclocking for power savings (default: false) (int)
parm:           lvds_use_ssc:Use Spread Spectrum Clock with panels [LVDS/eDP] (default: auto from VBT) (int)
parm:           vbt_sdvo_panel_type:Override selection of SDVO panel mode in the VBT (default: auto) (int)
parm:           reset:Attempt GPU resets (default: true) (bool)
parm:           enable_hangcheck:Periodically check GPU activity for detecting hangs. WARNING: Disabling this can cause system wide hangs. (default: true) (bool)

I used kdesudo kwrite in a Konsole to create a text file that contained
options i915 powersave=0
and saved it as i915.conf under /etc/modprobe.d/

I've been running about 30 minutes. So far no blanking.