I recently switched from running a full X server to using a frame buffer console. When the machine is not in use I would like to turn off the screen. In X I used dpms but that's obviously no longer available so I did some reading and found that setterm should be able to yield a similar result. setterm works fine to configure the screen blanking but none of the powerdown functionality works. I've tried many different iterations but basically none of the following works: setterm -powersave on setterm -powersave powerdown setterm -powerdown 1 I found a reference to the same problem at: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=12653 but as its a gentoo installation I thought best to log it here. sorry if this is wasting your time but not sure how to progress this issue? Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. setterm -powersave on 2. setterm -powersave powerdown 3. setterm -powerdown 1 Screen stays on Expected Results: screen should turn off but it does not
*** Bug 267808 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Please post the output of emerge --info util-linux
frame ~ # emerge --info util-linux Portage 2.1.6.7 (default/linux/x86/2008.0, gcc-4.1.2, glibc-2.6.1-r0, 2.6.28-gentoo-r5 i686) ================================================================= System Settings ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.28-gentoo-r5-i686-Pentium_III_-Coppermine-with-glibc2.0 Timestamp of tree: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 15:45:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 3.2_p17-r1 dev-lang/python: 2.4.4-r13 dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r6 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.61-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r1 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4 sys-devel/libtool: 1.5.24 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.23-r3 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://portage.macrolan.co.za ftp://ftp.is.co.za/linux/distributions/gentoo http://gentoo.virginmedia.com" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://wolverine.macrolan.co.za/gentoo-portage" USE="X acl apache2 berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cups dri fbcon fortran gdbm gpm iconv isdnlog midi mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam pcre perl pppd python readline reflection session spl ssl sysfs tcpd unicode x86 xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx radeon" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY ================================================================= Package Settings ================================================================= sys-apps/util-linux-2.13.1.1 was built with the following: LDFLAGS="" >>> Attempting to run pkg_info() for 'sys-apps/util-linux-2.13.1.1' * pkg_info() is not defined: 'util-linux-2.13.1.1.ebuild' frame ~ #
it's a kernel problem
According to other people, there is no reliable way to turn of a screen phsically with ACPI. You need to enable APM in your kernel.
