[gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Walter Dnes]

  I did an update yesterday that pulled in, amongst other things,
x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-6.8.0-r1

  I'm running 32-bit linux on an Intel Prescott.  The video card is

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO]
(rev 01) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: ATI Technologies Inc RV280 [Radeon 9200 PRO]
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 21
        Memory at d0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at cc00 [size=256]
        Memory at fdef0000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at fde00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2

  I prefer to run usenet and email on a real textmode console, at 80
columns x 48 rows (YES; fourty-eight).  For web-browsing or spreadsheets,
I have to flip over to X.

  - if I walk away from the machine for several minutes *WHEN IT'S IN
    TEXT CONSOLE MODE* and the screensaver kicks in, I can get the
    screen back by hitting the shift key, or whatever.

  - if I walk away from the machine for several minutes *WHEN IT'S IN
    X11 GUI MODE* and the screensaver kicks in, I *CANNOT* get the
    screen back by hitting the shift key, or whatever.  Even hitting
    {CTRL-ALT-F1} (back to the text console) doesn't allow me to get the
    screen back by hitting a key.  I have to monkey around with the
    buttons on my LCD monitor, essentially switching from the DVI input
    to the VGA input, and back.  This is a pain.  Is there any way to
    turn off this behaviour?

  Another thing I noticed is that X11 spits out a whole bunch of garbage
on the tty that invoked it.  I do not have TV or any other special video
stuff.  A 24" 1920x1600 LCD is enough for me.  Here is a sample of the
output on the tty that invokes X11...
  

best_post_div: 2
restore memmap
restore common
restore crtc1
restore pll1
finished PLL1
restore FP
enable montype: 3
enable montype: 3
disable montype: 3
finished PLL2
finished PLL1
Entering Restore TV
Restore TV PLL
Restore TVHV
Restore TV Restarts
Restore Timing Tables
Restore TV standard
Leaving Restore TV
disable montype: 3
init memmap
init common
init crtc1
init pll1
freq: 154000000
best_freq: 154000000
best_feedback_div: 308
best_ref_div: 27
best_post_div: 2
restore memmap
restore common
restore crtc1
restore pll1
finished PLL1
restore FP
enable montype: 3
enable montype: 3
disable montype: 3
finished PLL2
finished PLL1
Entering Restore TV
Restore TV PLL
Restore TVHV
Restore TV Restarts
Restore Timing Tables
Restore TV standard
Leaving Restore TV


-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>
-- 
gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

How about: not using screensavers at all?

-- 
gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Walter Dnes]

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:08:03PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> How about: not using screensavers at all?

  Now for a stupid-sounding question... what is the screensaver called?
A "ps -ef" doesn't show any process with "screen" in the name.  Man x
and man xorg don't help.  I'm running blackbox, so I don't have a
gazillion settings widgets (nothing helpful in man blackbox).  How can I
find what program is blanking the screen?  Once I do that, I can either
set parameters or disable it.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Jan Seeger]

I guess that X is blanking the screen (I have a similar problem with
blanking). So the correct location to look would be /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Regards,
Jan Seeger
--
Four bits at a time
www.thenybble.de

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Samstag, 19. Juli 2008, Walter Dnes wrote:
> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:08:03PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
>
> > How about: not using screensavers at all?
>
>   Now for a stupid-sounding question... what is the screensaver called?
> A "ps -ef" doesn't show any process with "screen" in the name.  Man x
> and man xorg don't help.  I'm running blackbox, so I don't have a
> gazillion settings widgets (nothing helpful in man blackbox).  How can I
> find what program is blanking the screen?  Once I do that, I can either
> set parameters or disable it.

so you are not using a screensaver but dpms screen blanking?

xset --help

will answer your question.

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Mick]

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On Saturday 19 July 2008, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> On Samstag, 19. Juli 2008, Walter Dnes wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:08:03PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> >
> > > How about: not using screensavers at all?
> >
> >   Now for a stupid-sounding question... what is the screensaver called?
> > A "ps -ef" doesn't show any process with "screen" in the name.  Man x
> > and man xorg don't help.  I'm running blackbox, so I don't have a
> > gazillion settings widgets (nothing helpful in man blackbox).  How can I
> > find what program is blanking the screen?  Once I do that, I can either
> > set parameters or disable it.
>
> so you are not using a screensaver but dpms screen blanking?
>
> xset --help
>
> will answer your question.

In your xorg.conf check the setting for: 

Option "SuspendTime" "10"

under "ServerLayout".  If you set it to 0 I think that it will not suspend 
anymore.  Also you could set it with xset (look at the dpms settings) as said 
above.

Pressing the Alt button should however get you out of it.

If you are running xscreensaver then the PID could be found by greping for 
xscreensaver.

HTH.
-- 
Regards,
Mick

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Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Volker Armin Hemmann]

On Sonntag, 20. Juli 2008, Mick wrote:
> On Saturday 19 July 2008, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote:
> > On Samstag, 19. Juli 2008, Walter Dnes wrote:
> > > On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:08:03PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> > >
> > > > How about: not using screensavers at all?
> > >
> > >   Now for a stupid-sounding question... what is the screensaver called?
> > > A "ps -ef" doesn't show any process with "screen" in the name.  Man x
> > > and man xorg don't help.  I'm running blackbox, so I don't have a
> > > gazillion settings widgets (nothing helpful in man blackbox).  How can
> > > I find what program is blanking the screen?  Once I do that, I can
> > > either set parameters or disable it.
> >
> > so you are not using a screensaver but dpms screen blanking?
> >
> > xset --help
> >
> > will answer your question.
>
> In your xorg.conf check the setting for:
>
> Option "SuspendTime" "10"

you don't need to edit xorg.conf

you can set all that stuff via xset (or kcontrol).

Re: [gentoo-user] Screen-saver annoyance after recent update

[Walter Dnes]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2008 at 12:08:45AM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> On Samstag, 19. Juli 2008, Walter Dnes wrote:
> > On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:08:03PM +0200, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote
> >
> > > How about: not using screensavers at all?
> >
> >   Now for a stupid-sounding question... what is the screensaver called?
> > A "ps -ef" doesn't show any process with "screen" in the name.  Man x
> > and man xorg don't help.  I'm running blackbox, so I don't have a
> > gazillion settings widgets (nothing helpful in man blackbox).  How can I
> > find what program is blanking the screen?  Once I do that, I can either
> > set parameters or disable it.
> 
> so you are not using a screensaver but dpms screen blanking?
> 
> xset --help
> 
> will answer your question.

  xset doesn't recognize "--help" as an option.  And the "usage" stuff
is sent to stderr instead of stdout. So I used my "magic less" command.
The command is...

xset {any illegal parameter} > /dev/stdout 2>&1 | less"

"xset q" shows the following relevant info (much snippage)...
================================================
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  600    cycle:  600

DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 1200    Suspend: 1800    Off: 2400
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
===============================================

  One additional bit of info.  If I let the system sit until the monitor
goes into DPMS standby (backlight is off) I can recover by hitting any
key.  It's the "software screensaver" that seems to be the problem.  A
bit of experimentation reveals that I can't directly invoke "dpms off"
from an "on" state.  Instead, I have to walk the monitor through the
series like so...

#!/bin/bash
sleep 3; xset dpms force standby;
sleep 3; xset dpms force suspend;
sleep 3; xset dpms force off

  So here's my plan.  In ~/.xinitrc I'll include the statements...

xset s off
xset dpms 360 365 370

  This will turn off the "software screensaver" and turn off the monitor
via dpms after 6 minutes of inactivity.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

[gentoo-user] I goofed (was Screen-saver annoyance after recent update)

[Walter Dnes]

  Never mind.  Here's one for the books.  I have 2 computers.  d530 is
the "production" machine and d531 is the "hot backup".  I only have one
24" LCD, which has 1 DVI plug and 1 VGA plug.  So I hooked up the DVI to
d530, and the VGA to d530.  My former production machine died recently,
and I moved d530 from hot backup to production status, and bought a
similar machine (d531) to use as my new hot backup.  Normally I only
start up the hot backup every 2 to 4 weeks to update it with the latest
updates/patches, then I switch it off.

  Since d531 is relatively new, I was still screwing around customizing
it to my specs.  So both machines were on for hours on end.  Rather than
switching the LCD monitor back and forth, I ssh'd from d530 to d531.

  It turns out that...
  - if the DVI and VGA inputs are hooked up to 2 different computers
    that are turned on
  - and the DVI connection is active
  - when the screensaver on the DVI-attached PC kicks in
  - the LCD monitor automagically switches over to the VGA-attached PC

  Now I understand.  Pounding away on d530's keyboard is *NOT* going to
wake up d531 from screensaver mode<g>, which the LCD is now displaying.
And it also explains why I had to go into the monitor's menu and
manually switch the connection back to the DVI-attched PC.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>