blueCow: does this script work if acpid is running?

That just uses DPMS to turn off the screen? Would it work if there is no X running?

I'll try it in a bit...

Well, that script seems to work great as long as X is running. My only complaint (beyond it requiring X) is that when I open the lid, I can no longer click with the track pad -- I have to use the buttons.

Edit-
Another problem: the script only works once! I can hit the lid button as many times as I want and nothing happens. /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state still reads the status correctly.

@Pig Monkey: How do you start the script?
Try starting it with ./script &

instead of just
./script

I'm not starting it at all. I moved it into /etc/rc.d
Doesn't that load it automatically?

nope. make sure you added execute permission (chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.myscript) first. then decide where you want to call it. i suppose a fairly safe place would be rc.local, but other ppl probably have more suggestions. so anyway, open up rc.local and add a line starting your script:

/etc/rc.d/rc.myscript start

and *then* it will load automatically at boot.

Ok, I did that. At first it couldn't find xset (not in root's path, I guess), but I changed it to the full location in the script (/usr/X11R6/bin/xset) and fixed that problem. Now the script appears to run but do nothing. Whether it launches through rc.local or I launch it myself (both as user and root), nothing happens. It returns no errors, but hitting the lid button does nothing.

Before I still had the power management enabled in KDE's control center, which is why I saw it doing something. Strangely, that seemed to work better than it ever had before (it actually went to sleep and woke back up, only with the previously mentioned problems of only working once and not being able to click with the trackpad) and I'm not sure what I've done to cause that.

Everything is commented out in /etc/acpi/events/default and when testing the script I disabled everything in KDE's power control.

Yes you are right. This script will only work when X is running. I am currently looking for a way to fix that.. It would have to be completely different though, seeing as the only thing I am really doing is monitoring the state and running the x command to turn off the display.

This script will work with acpid running and I believe it has to have acpid running to work.

Glad it helped out some of you.