Screen blanking in Bullseye

On a sunny day (Thu, 19 Jan 2023 01:12:19 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net> wrote in <tqa5dj$14e8m$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

I dunno, but I always use xset from a terminal in Linux:

xset s 300 blanks the sceen after 300 seconds.

xset s 0 stops any blanking

see man xset for more good stuff

Put it in your startup script? Works on my 32 bit Pi4 8GB, just tested and on all my Linux computahs ;-)

I tried using xset s 30 in interactive mode. It changed the timeout value for xset q, so I think it "took", but the screen still doesn't blank.

This is a 64 bit system, might that be the trouble? Must the command be issued when the x serter is started?

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

On a sunny day (Fri, 20 Jan 2023 02:42:10 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net> wrote in <tqcv22$1t3f1$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Strange, I do not have the 64 bit version on my Pi4, so cannot test that. I use it after X is started from a terminal.

Did man xset say anything? there is a dpms function, energy star related so The -dpms option disables DPMS (Energy Star) features. xset -dpms

The +dpms option enables DPMS (Energy Star) features. xset +dpms

xset q shows the current settings

From man xset 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 orce' flag followed by a DPMS state. The orce' flags forces the server to immediately switch to the DPMS state specified. The DPMS state can be one of tandby', uspend', f', or '. 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 tandby' mode, the second is for the uspend' mode, and the third is for the f' mode. Setting these values implicitly enables the DPMS features. A value of zero disables a particular mode. Maybe enable DPMS? What does xset q say about DPMS?

Screen Saver: prefer blanking: yes allow exposures: yes timeout: 30 cycle: 600 Colors: default colormap: 0x20 BlackPixel: 0x0 WhitePixel: 0xffffff Font Path: built-ins DPMS (Energy Star): Standby: 600 Suspend: 600 Off: 600 DPMS is Enabled Monitor is On

As of last night blanking didn't work. This morning, it does. The only change was killing the chromium browser. When I restarted the browser blanking still worked.

I'm thoroughly puzzled. When first set up the machine didn't blank, then I turned blanking on and it worked. After an update/upgrade cycle it stopped blanking, after repeated attempts to set blanking on and rebooting it still didn't blank. Just now, a little while after stopping chromium, blanking resumed.

I'll do nothing and watch how it behaves after a few reboots.

Thanks for writing!

bob prohaska

On a sunny day (Fri, 20 Jan 2023 15:42:04 -0000 (UTC)) it happened bob prohaska snipped-for-privacy@www.zefox.net> wrote in <tqecoc$24ag9$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Good it works, I reminds me of something. If the system thinks something is running it won't blank. I think I did see that with for example mplayer playing movies. Maybe chromium had some URL with video or similar content selected?

Yes, that seems to be the problem. Chromium had a New York Times front page open tab, which contained a video clip that didn't stop looping. There doesn't seem to be a visible way to turn it off.

Is there some way to make the screen blanker ignore HDMI traffic and only react to mouse and keyboard? The default behavior is self defeating and seemingly counterproductive.

Thanks for reading!

bob prohaska

Because whether it does screen blanking/screen saver is nothing to do with a "BIOS"?