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[SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:11 pm
by cdysthe
Hi,

When I'm not using compiz (metacity + gnome compositing) on two laptops I have a problem with the screen going blank after 10 minutes regardless of what I set as screensaver and power settings. With no screensaver set and no power settings enabled the screen still goes blank after 10 minutes. Very annoying when watching movies.

I have spent a lot of time trying to research this, but I can not find a solution. I have the same problem on two machines running fully updated LMDE, one with nvidia graphics, the other with Intel. Screen is blank after 10 minutes. I have removed DKMS from xorg.conf. No changes. I have tried to disable dkms from the command line after login (xset -dpms) but still the same 10 same result, screen blank after 10 minutes. Other xset commands works as expected, and verything else works fine: I can turn the screens on and off, I can dim them and the power settings for when on battery works fine.

It seems to me there's something in Gnome/Metacity causing this since it's not a problem under Compiz, but I can't for the life of me find out where the 10 minute timeout comes from.

[SOLVED]: Someone said it might be a bios setting, but I couldn't find such a setting. I then went and got a bios update and it now has an option to disable "LCD Power Saving". With that disabled the screen stays on. One question remains: How does compiz disable this bios setting?

Anyone else seen this, and where should I now look for a solution? I have worn our Google! :)

Re: [SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Wed Jul 20, 2011 4:27 am
by Brian49
This is most likely an Xorg server issue - it has hidden settings called ServerFlags, which by default will blank the screen after ten minutes in the way you describe. If that is the issue in your case, you can fix it in this way:

(1) Go to the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf, or create it if it doesn't already exist

(2) Editing the file as root, insert a section with the following text:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "StandbyTime" "0"
Option "SuspendTime" "0"
Option "OffTime" "0"
EndSection

(3) Save the file and reboot

If it's any consolation, it took me months to track down this fix when I first encountered the issue a couple of years ago.

Re: [SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2011 7:07 pm
by linfreeman
Hi,
I followed these instructions exactly. To be root, I began with sudo su. Went to /etc/X11. There was no "xorg.conf" file. So I created one. The contents I loaded are:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "StandbyTime" "0"
Option "SuspendTime" "0"
Option "OffTime" "0"
EndSection

I saved the file and rebooted. But I STILL get a blank screen after 10 minutes. Any suggestions would be welcome!

Thanks








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Re: [SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:20 pm
by linfreeman
I recently upgraded from Linux Mint 8 (which was getting increasingly unstable) to LM 11. I really like 11, but I has one characteristic that is driving me out of my mind. Every 10 minutes the screen blanks and, upon mouse movement, it presents a locked screen along with the demand that I key in my password and hit an "unlock" button.

After a search I found two apparent "solutions." One suggested going to /etc/X11 and creating a file, "xorg.conf" that contained the following:

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "IgnoreABI" "True"
Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "StandbyTime" "0"
Option "SuspendTime" "0"
Option "OffTime" "0"
EndSection

I saved and rebooted, but that had exactly no effect. The other "solution" suggested editing that same file and entering:

Section "Device"
Option "DPMS" "FALSE"
EndSection

After reboot, that created a situation in which there was no screen at all!
After some jiggling with a CD boot of LM 10 I was able to find my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and wipe out the DPMS stuff.

So now I have a working machine again, but I still have to face the unreasonable demand that I enter my password to unlock the screen.

Please, someone, I need help on this.

Re: [SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 1:58 pm
by secipolla

Re: [SOLVED] Involuntary screen blanking after 10 minutes

Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2011 8:00 pm
by Inkit
Hey linfreeman, maybe all you need to do is go to the screensaver app in menu and uncheck the second option at the bottom "Lock screen when screensaver is active."
Edit: Sorry just saw your other post. Please disregard.