Turn off monitor

[Ivan Voras]

Is there a way to turn off the system monitor (console screen)?

There are actually two things I'd like: to turn off the screen after
some period of inactivity (but after the screen saver runs - to keep the
screensaver as a reminder that the monitor will be turned off soon), and
to turn it off programatically, with a system command/program.

Are these things supported?

[Ivan Voras]

On the (syscons(4)) console, you can enable screen blanking as a
screensaver in its own right. You would load either the "green" or
"apm" screen saver (available as kernel modules) and enable it with
vidcontrol(1). I don't think you can trigger it by hand.

I tried both (before posting the question) - green_saver just blanks the
screen (doesn't turn it off), and apm_server misbehaves - just 'freezes'
the screen without any other effect. I know turning it off works
because, well, it works ok in Windows...

Under X, of course, doing what you want it easy.

Turn the monitor off? How?

[Kevin Kinsey]

Post by Ivan Voras

On the (syscons(4)) console, you can enable screen blanking as a
screensaver in its own right. You would load either the "green" or
"apm" screen saver (available as kernel modules) and enable it with
vidcontrol(1). I don't think you can trigger it by hand.

I tried both (before posting the question) - green_saver just blanks
the screen
(doesn't turn it off), and apm_server misbehaves - just 'freezes' the
screen without
any other effect. I know turning it off works because, well, it works
ok in Windows...

Under X, of course, doing what you want it easy.

Turn the monitor off? How?

Hmm, from XF86Config(5):


Options
Some Option flags that may be useful to include in
Monitor sec-
tions (when needed) include "DPMS", and "SyncOnGreen".


Now, I have:

Option "DPMS"

in /etc/X11/XF86Config, and my monitor does what I call "sleeping"
after a period of inactivity, but I can't say how this really coincides with
the current discussion, as I'm jumping in mid-stream and can't even seem
to find Lowell's reply to you anywhere (other than what you quoted).

Hmm, what about acpi(4) ?

HTH,

Kevin Kinsey

[Ivan Voras]

Post by Kevin Kinsey
Option "DPMS"

Ok, this works! Also, with command "xset dpms force off" I can turn it
off at will.

Now only to find something for the (text) console...