How to disable screen blanking

[Foggy]

Hi,

I have tried to stop the terminal from blanking out.

sudo nano /etc/rc.local and added
setterm -blank 0

apt-get install x11-xserver-utils
Now open up your ~/.xinitrc file (if you don't have one then create it) and enter this:
xset s off # don't activate screensaver
xset -dpms # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features.
xset s noblank # don't blank the video device
exec /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager # start lxde

Nothing seems to work - Even after reboot.

Any suggestions would be appreciated - its starting to drive me crazy.

Best wishes.

James.

[kilokahn]

Totally +1 on this!

[Foggy]

Hi,

I think I have figured it out.
However I'm a newbie so you may want to double check - But it works for me.

sudo nano /etc/kbd/config

Change these two lines.

# screen blanking timeout. monitor remains on, but the screen is cleared to
# range: 0-60 min (0==never) kernels I've looked at default to 10 minutes.
# (see linux/drivers/char/console.c)
BLANK_TIME=0 (Was 30)

# Powerdown time. The console will go to DPMS Off mode POWERDOWN_TIME
# minutes _after_ blanking. (POWERDOWN_TIME + BLANK_TIME after the last input)
POWERDOWN_TIME=0 (I think it was 15)

Re start the file or just reboot
sudo /etc/init.d/kbd restart

Monitor has now been on for over 2 hrs - so looking good.
Hope it helps some one.

Best wishes.

James.

[Rasadmin]

Tried Foggy's way, and it did not work for me.
I found another solution elsewhere in these forums and it works for me:

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

In that file, look for:
[SeatDefault]

and insert this line:
xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms

My test monitor has been on for a couple of days now

[hgreen]

This is a great solution for me, thanks. The app I'm running outputs log messages to the console, so I often just plug in a HDMI screen to see the status of the application on the RPi, but I don't connect a keyboard to it.

I just set those two lines to 0 (BLANK_TIME and POWERDOWN_TIME) and this worked great.
I am running Debian Wheezy (soft-float).

[SmokyFrosty]

Neither fix is working for me, Pi still blanks after 15 mins. Need a system that is always on screen wise.

Frosty

[RaTTuS]

Neither fix is working for me, Pi still blanks after 15 mins. Need a system that is always on screen wise.

Frosty

the kbd version will stop all console screen blanks

[jojopi]

the kbd version will stop all console screen blanks

Putting it another way, kbd will only stop the kernel from blanking the screen when X is not running.

And lightdm.conf is only effective if you boot straight into X using that particular display manager.

And .xinitrc only works after you log in and run "startx" (or use a display manager that defaults to a user session, and allows .xinitrc instead of .xsession).

So you might need all three. And if you run full-screen non-X programs like XBMC you may need to configure them not to blank as well.

[Alvaro]

So it is not possible at all with the default display manager? (There is no .xinitrc file in the home directory.)

[Blackcell]

Is there no way to fix this? I'm sorry I'm not a linux programmer, but it seems ridiculous that there isn't a fix to keep the frikin screen from turning off.

[tleland]

Only way I've been able to fix this issue is install xscreensaver. To install you need "sudo apt-get install xscreensaver" . In the gui you will now have the "screensaver" option under preferences. Here you can disable the blank screen. Let me know if this makes sense and helps!

[Anu]

Installing xscreensaver worked on me too ...Thanks

[pi18]

Found this thread as I was having the same blank screening issues ever since I enabled the PI to boot automatically, xscreensaver did the trick ! Many thanks for sharing your post tleland

[tleland]

Glad i was able to help.

[pabluk]

For me it worked by editing /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc and changing

Code: Select all

exec /usr/bin/X -nolisten tcp "$@"

by

Code: Select all

exec /usr/bin/X -s 0 dpms -nolisten tcp "$@"

I'm using Raspbian “wheezy” and I start my X session with startx.

[DetlevSchm]

And another one:

I have a non-pygame Python script running in the background, that displays every five minutes some stuff on the desktop.

That alone is not sufficient, but after I put

Code: Select all

pygame.event.get()

in the loop, the screen refrains from blanking.

Needs initial

Code: Select all

import pygame
pygame.init()

[tom.chamberlain]

I got fed up with all the different options and just wrote a script to kill the screen saver process should it be running;

1 create a file /home/pi/killScreenSaver.sh

#/bin/bash

PID=`ps -ef | grep 'xscreensaver -no-splash' | grep -v "grep" | cut -c 3-14 | sed 's| ||g'`
kill $PID

exit 0


2 Set the file to executable (chmod +x /home/pi/killScreenSaver.sh)

3 Make the file run automatically every minute in cron by executing crontab -e and entering

* * * * * /home/pi/killOffScreensaver.sh > /dev/null

Very hacky and might not be safe but was quick and simple for me. For an explanation;

It prints the process tree (ps -ef), takes only lines with the phrase 'xscreensaver -no-splash' in (grep 'xscreensaver -no-splash'), then removes lines with the word grep in (as the grep process itself will appear), then takes characters 3-14 that contain the ID of the process (cut -c 3-14), then removes all white space using sed, then issues the kill command on the process ID).

[solar3000]

that's not going to work because xscreensaver is not installed by default.

[carlhage]

I finally had success disabling blanking with the default Raspbian installation. The xset program is not installed by default, so I did the "sudo apt-get install x11-xserver-utils". I tested using the "xset q" command. To disable the screen blanking with the default LXDE, edit the file:
/etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart
comment out a xscreensaver command, and add these xset lines

Code: Select all

#@xscreensaver -no-splash
@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank

More info at: http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewt ... 91&t=57552

[naumann]

by Rasadmin worked for me

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

In that file, look for:
[SeatDefault]

and insert this line:
xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms

My test monitor has been on for a couple of days now

[mrmsbarnes]

About 2 years ago Rasadmin may well have posted THE answer for your system. However, I vote for carlhage, because that solution worked for my late model Raspbian system (uname -r says '3.12.22+' with LXDE display manager). Don't put magic xset commands in /etc/rc.local as advised elsewhere. Use the magic @xset commands where carlhage says.

You know you got it licked when your first terminal command after start up:
xset q
says:
prefer blanking: no allow exposures: yes
timeout: 0 cycle: nnn (600 in my case)
and:
DPMS is Disabled

[NeilEric]

Re tleland's post from 2013 about installing xscreensaver in order to be able to disable screen blanking from the GUI rather than from the command line:

- I installed xscreensaver and rebooted my Pi.
- When I restart the GUI, I still don't have a screensaver option in the GUI under Preferences.

Is there more to using xscreensaver than simply installing it by typing sudo apt-get install xscreensaver and rebooting?

Thanks,
Neil

[idris]

I am curious as to where all these obscure commands come from? Linux seems just so over whelming surely there must be documentation somewhere that explains these issues. I have tried the lightdm.conf , kdb and none of them have worked, The TV display blanks out after 10 mins. I start the GUI display which I assume is the X server via startx. It looks like the chap from France might have the fix for this.
Cheers Alan

[holyman83]

sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

In that file, look for:
[SeatDefault]

and insert this line:
xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms

Worked for mine...well I had all the other all ready in.

[klricks]

Re tleland's post from 2013 about installing xscreensaver in order to be able to disable screen blanking from the GUI rather than from the command line:

- I installed xscreensaver and rebooted my Pi.
- When I restart the GUI, I still don't have a screensaver option in the GUI under Preferences.

Is there more to using xscreensaver than simply installing it by typing sudo apt-get install xscreensaver and rebooting?

Thanks,
Neil

I installed xscreensaver and it shows up in preferences as Screensaver. (Assuming the latest version of Raspbian installed)
If you can't find that then go to xterminal and run:

Code: Select all

 xscreensaver-demo

Then do this:
In the [Display Mode] tab, set like this - Mode: [Disable Screen Saver]