Shut Off LCD Screen

Hi.

I have been playing around with Fedora Core 3 on a Dell Inspiron 9100 laptop. Not until recently, noticed that when I close the lid, the monitor does not shut off. Is this ok for the screen and can it be "fixed" so that it can shut off? The reason I ask is that I began connecting a CRT monitor to the laptop and using it as a regular desktop computer.

Thanks for any information.
Robert2513

Did it start this after you attached the second monitor? My laptop screen stays on only when I have external video attached.

No, it occurs when the monitor is disconnected too.

You have acpi running with all features and dell extra's compiled and loaded?

What do you mean by "dell extra's compiled and loaded"? Running with WINE?

Sorry if I am being dumb but I am still learning. :-/

The "Dell Laptop Extras" listed as a kernel module when you go to compile a kernel?

Sorry for taking so long to post back. I have been playing around with compiling a kernel trying to get everything working.

When I started xconfig, I didn't find anything named "Dell Laptop Extras" but did find something under power management: I found a component that mentions something about shutting off the LCD Screen when the lid is shut. However, after recompiling the kernel (with 2.6.10), it still didn't work. While surfing the web, I found this RPM: i8kutils. According to website, it is suppose to something with the SMM BIOS of a Dell laptop. However, after installing this, nothing seemed to change.

Am I in going in the right direction with xconfig? Please forgive me as I am slowly learning Linux.
Thanks in advance.
Robert2513

I for a long time have had the same problem. I have the same laptop as you also. What you need to do is make sure that linux sees the lid button. At least for debian not sure if it applies to fedora.

do this

cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state

it should change when you push the button and release it. If it does than you have what you need mostly. Next make an event for this in /etc/acpi/events called lidbtn. Inside of it should look like this.
# /etc/acpid/events/lidbtn

# Optionally you can specify the placeholder %e. It will pass
# through the whole kernel event message to the program you've
# specified.

# We need to react on "button power.*" and "button/power.*" because
# of kernel changes.

event=button[ /]lid
action=/etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh

Then make a file in /etc/acpi called lidbtn.sh It should look like this.
#!/bin/sh

state=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk '{print $2}'`

logger -i "LID state $state"

if [ "$state" = "closed" ]; then
/usr/sbin/radeontool light off
else
/usr/sbin/radeontool light on
fi

Now that all of that is done you need that radeontool. Get it here: http://fdd.com/software/radeon/radeontool-1.5.tar.gz
Untar it and type make in the directory. It makes a file radeontool. Copy that to /usr/sbin and everything should work. Tell me if I need to clarify something but I think I have it all there.

good luck

Thanks for the reply.

When I create the file in the events folder, that is suppose to be a .conf file, corrent?

Question to TFMegatron

I have been messing with the same problem on my ProStar Laptop. It does not shutoff when closed. This is what bugs me is when I cat /proc/acpi//button/lid/LID0/state it always says closed whether it is open or closed. But I do get a responce from acpi_listen and it says it is recieving a lid signal. Tried many things but to no avail.

In your post if it changes you are on your way. What do I need to do if it does not?

kernel 2.6.10-rc2 ( does not work with any previous I have installed lately) I like to say it did work at one time. Really need a junk 2.5" drive to experimnet with.
acpi compiled in kernel
no apm

Thanks for any help here.
Brian1
" Google the Linux way @ http://www.google.com/linux "

Yes sorry, everything you do in this setup is going to need you to be root. And no it is not a .conf file just /etc/acpi/events/lidbtn just like that no extentions.

Brain1

What do you get when you run acpi_listen and push the lid button? This is what I get.
debian:/home/tfunicron# acpi_listen
button/lid LID 00000080 00000003
button/lid LID 00000080 00000004
button/lid LID 00000080 00000005
button/lid LID 00000080 00000006
button/lid LID 00000080 00000007
button/lid LID 00000080 00000008

This is pushing it 3 times. It counts 1 up for every action. I had seen some people where having problems with a bug in this regard. I will have to find the article again then I'll post.

Exact same responce as you. I just had a thought. I have an ext USB drive that contains a 2.5" hardrive. Theres no data I need on it so I am going to swap harddrives and see if an old verison of mandrake,redhat, or suse works. Then I will have something to go by. At least I will know if it will work or not.

Off line for about 12 hours.
Thanks for the help.
Brian1

Hmm, its still not working. When I create the files, I do it in the text editor, correct? I did this with the lidbtn file that goes in the events folder and the lidbtn.sh file that goes in /etc/acpi. The only difference is when I saved the lidbtn.sh file, I renamed it with that extension. Was the correct? Being a Windows user moving to Linux, I figured this is what you do, but I am not 100% sure this is correct since it's not working

Thanks for helping me. I really appreciate it.

The file lidbtn.sh needs to be executeable. Go into /etc/acpi/events and compare it to mine. Then goto /etc/acpi and do the same. The problem my lie in that it is just not executable. Use ls -l to list this stuff.

tfunicron@debian:/etc/acpi/events$ ls -l
total 8
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 304 Jul 23 2003 lidbtn
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 423 Feb 17 2004 powerbtn
tfunicron@debian:/etc/acpi/events$ cd ..
tfunicron@debian:/etc/acpi$ ls -l
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 96 Dec 26 23:35 events
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 217 Dec 30 11:36 lidbtn.sh
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 299 Oct 1 02:11 powerbtn.sh
tfunicron@debian:/etc/acpi$

see on the left for the permissions of lidbtn.sh it has the x's. Better yet just goto a console, su to root and type this.

cd /etc/acpi
chmod -u+r+x+w lidbtn.sh

if you have everything else set up that should make it work.