# Screen Power Saver - Shut Off?



## Ruler2112 (Nov 9, 2011)

I have a FreeBSD machine running 8.2/amd64 and KDE3 installed.  I went into the Desktop Config->Display->Power Control and turned off power saving mode for the monitor.  However, whenever I leave my office for a good period of time, the monitor has been turned off.  The light on the monitor is amber when this happens, indicating that there's no signal being supplied.  The same monitor does not go into power saving mode when used on other machines, so I'm fairly confident it's something on my FreeBSD box turning it off.

How does one go about shutting off the power saving mode on the monitor so that the screen saver will run and be displayed forever as long as nobody touches the keyboard/mouse?


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## Dru (Nov 9, 2011)

Do you have:

```
saver="NO"
blanktime="NO"
```
in your:/etc/rc.conf?

I'm guessing you have dpms off already, and FreeBSD is loading the greensaver.


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## jrm@ (Nov 9, 2011)

What does `% xset -q` tell you?


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## Ruler2112 (Nov 9, 2011)

I do not have either in /etc/rc.conf, but will add them.

DPMS is most likely the culprit though.


```
xset -q
...
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
...
```

I take it something needs to be added to the xorg.conf file to disable this?  I checked and the 
	
	



```
Option "DPMS"
```
 line is commented out.


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## bbzz (Nov 9, 2011)

In your .xinitrc add:

```
xset dpms 0 0 0
```
which will turn off dpms features, whenever you start X.

There's also x11/xautolock which can run some screensavers and require a password to unlock the screen.


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## wblock@ (Nov 9, 2011)

For X, in the ServerLayout section:

```
Option       "BlankTime" "0"
        Option       "StandbyTime" "0"
        Option       "SuspendTime" "0"
        Option       "OffTime" "0"
```


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## Dru (Nov 9, 2011)

Now I'm curious, I have had to solve the same issue in 8.2, and now 9.0. I haven't used x11/xset to change anything, nor do I have the above mentioned code in ServerFlags or ServerLayout options in xorg.conf.

I do notice that the code mentions blanktime, which is what I'm setting in rc.conf.

If I am correct in my thinking, the above solutions will only work while youre in X, I dunno...but sometimes I like to drop out of X to build, and I don't like my monitors turning off then either.


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## wblock@ (Nov 9, 2011)

Screen saver settings in /etc/rc.conf affect splash(4) screensavers that run through syscons(4).  AFAIK this doesn't affect X screensavers.


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## nedry (Apr 29, 2017)

Hi i have tried to modify the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to disable dpms as advised above my new xorg.conf file is: 
	
	



```
Section "ServerLayout"
    Option "BlankTime" "0"
    Option "StandbyTime" "0"
    Option "SuspendTime" "0"
    Option "OffTime" "0"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
    DefaultDepth 24
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device    "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport 0 0
        Depth    24
        Modes    "1024x768"
    EndSubsection
EndSection
```

unfortunately xorg crashes out so i have got something wrong, any ideas? I have looked for a sample xorg.conf file to check my changes but not luck.


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## getopt (Apr 29, 2017)

nedry that happens when digging out legacy threads. 
Do not use xorg.conf any more, unless there is a real need to do so.

Try in ~/.xinitrc

```
xset -dpms
xset s <your seconds>
```
See xset(1).


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