LXDE Screensavers

balanga · May 30, 2024

I've never paid any attention to screen savers but have recently noticed that the display on my ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 1 running FreeBSD 13.2 no longer switches off after a period of inactivity.

Can anyone tell me what causes the display to switch off? It was working previously but has now stopped.

tingo · Jun 1, 2024

xset q will tell you if it is DPMS.

balanga · Jun 1, 2024

tingo said:
xset q will tell you if it is DPMS.

I get

unable to open display ":0"

Aminavy · Jun 1, 2024

X server is running?
you are executed this with which user?

balanga · Jun 1, 2024

Aminavy said:
X server is running?
you are executed this with which user?

I'm running LXDE as root.

Aminavy · Jun 2, 2024

Why?
Try again with normal user.?

balanga · Jun 6, 2024

tingo said:
xset q will tell you if it is DPMS.

After a reboot, I get

Code:

Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Compose:     off    04: Kana:        off    05: Sleep:       off
    06: Suspend:     off    07: Mute:        off    08: Misc:        off
    09: Mail:        off    10: Charging:    off    11: Shift Lock:  off
    12: Group 2:     off    13: Mouse Keys:  off
  auto repeat delay:  500    repeat rate:  30
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        9fffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent:  50    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  20/10    threshold:  50
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  no    allow exposures:  no
  timeout:  0    cycle:  0
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  /usr/local/share/fonts/misc/,/usr/local/share/fonts/TTF/,/usr/local/share/fonts/OTF/,/usr/local/share/fonts/Type1/,/usr/local/share/fonts/100dpi/,/usr/local/share/fonts/75dpi/,catalogue:/usr/local/etc/X11/fontpath.d,built-ins
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On

I think the screensaver must stop working after some period.

I guess I need to run xset -q periodically to see if I get any output...

Minbari · Jun 6, 2024

There is no need for a screensaver if you use ServerFlags.

eg. cat /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/serverflags.conf

Code:

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "LVDS-1"
    Option "DPMS"   "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "HDMI-1"
    Option "DPMS"   "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier  "HDMI-2"
    Option "DPMS"   "true"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    Option "BlankTime" "30"
    Option "StandbyTime" "31"
    Option "SuspendTime" "32"
    Option "OffTime" "0"
    Option "DontZap"   "off"   # Allow Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
EndSection

balanga · Jun 11, 2024

balanga said:
balanga said:

I get

unable to open display ":0"

Click to expand...

After a day's uptime this value returns.

How can I tell what caused this?

balanga · Jun 23, 2024

balanga said:
I get

unable to open display ":0"

After a reboot, which cured my problem for a day or two, I get the same thing.

Can I use xset to get the screen to switch off automatically?

tingo · Jun 24, 2024

Sure. xset dpms force off ; sleep 0.1; xset dpms force on will turn off the display, small delay, then turn it on again. It helped me when I had trouble with a monitor that didn't want to resume from dpms "sleep" way back.
Adjust to your environment.