Controlling desktop power, so that it doesn't go into standby automatically.
 

I have Mandrake Linux on a desktop PC and after half an hour of inactivity it goes into standby power mode. This is even when programs are using the network.

I haven't found anything useful on the help; most of it seems to be for laptops. Is there a service I should disable? Is there a UI interface for controlling power options? I don't have apd on my machine. Is there something equivalent?

I have Mandrake 9.0.

Thanks,
Dave.

Which desktop environment are you using?

I'm using Gnome.

I'm using Mandrake 10 Community and KDE and have power management disabled in my BIOS. I've looked in the "configure desktop" area and turned off anything related to power management but the system still slips into standby. Is there a secret to turning this standby "feature" off completely?

At a command prompt try xset -q (you must do this as root, while x windows is running).
This will output the x windows settings. In the output you'll see a section that looks something like:

DPMS (Energy Star):
Standby: 1200 Suspend: 1800 Off: 2400
DPMS is Enabled

To completely disable these features you could use the command xset -dpms,

Or you can set the values for the various actions to something more agreeable, or disable only certain features by setting their respective values to 0.

For example if you wanted to extend their times by one minute you would use the command xset dpms 1201 1801 2401

Or if you wanted to just change the last value by one xset dpms 1200 1800 2401

The first number is the standby timeout, the second is the suspend timeout, and the third is the off.

Remember to post back if it did/didn't work for you so others can learn from your experience.

There's a setting in the KDE control centre for power management.

Unfortunately xset didn't work. It was already disabled before I tried changing anything, I haven't checked my bios however.

Dave.