Dell laptop lid issue on Slack 12

brooky9999 · 04-18-2008, 03:04 AM

Hi all,

I'm wondering if someone can help me. I'm trying to get my Dell D430 to "do nothing" when I close the notebook.

Currently when I close the lid the screen goes black and doesn't come back. The machine is still on, but I have to manually reboot when I open the lid again.

There is nothing listed in /etc/acpi/events/default. The currently state is listed in /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state and is correct.

Does anyone know the answer to this?

Many thanks,

Mark.

samwise17 · 04-18-2008, 08:01 AM

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400, and although I never got suspend-to-ram to work, I use vbetool to turn the screen back on when I open the lid. Hopefully this will work for you.

Install vbetool from Slackbuilds.org here.

In /etc/acpi/events/lid, put

Code:

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

In /etc/acpi/actions/lid.sh, put

Code:

#!/bin/sh
# script to start screen again when lid opened

LIDSTATE=/proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state
if grep -q open $LIDSTATE; then
  # start screen again
    vbetool dpms on
fi

Don't forget to make the lid.sh script executable by doing a chmod +x.

brooky9999 · 04-18-2008, 08:34 AM

Hiya,

Thanks for the reply.

While it does sound like a solution, it won't work for me because of my intel driver / X issues.

Ideally I'd like to find out what makes the screen go off in the first place, and disable it. I tried unloading the button module, but that didn't work :-(

M.

samwise17 · 04-18-2008, 10:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brooky9999

While it does sound like a solution, it won't work for me because of my intel driver / X issues.

What sort of issues? are you using X at all?

Quote:

Originally Posted by brooky9999

Ideally I'd like to find out what makes the screen go off in the first place, and disable it. I tried unloading the button module, but that didn't work :-(

Good question. However, it might be automatically built into the screen or bios or something.

If you are using X, you might also try locking the screen with xlock, xscreensaver or the KDE screensaver before closing the lid, this also worked for me but it's not automatic.

brooky9999 · 04-19-2008, 04:43 AM

Hi samwise17,

Quote:

What sort of issues? are you using X at all?

My issue is that whenever I logout / restart / shutdown then X crashes. The only course of action I can take after that is to power off the machine.

It's something to do with a

Code:

pipe error should be 2, resetting to 1

error. I've done some research but couldn't find the answer. I think it's an Intel driver issue (I have an Intel 945 card). I'm waiting for 12.1 to come out.

The screen goes blank even when X isn't running. But in /var/log/messages I get:

Code:

logger: ACPI action lid is not defined

So there must be a way to define an action as "do nothing".

M.

janhe · 04-19-2008, 08:32 AM

the fact that you get an "ACPI action lid is not defined" message implies that the software on you system does nothing when the lid gets closed. I guess there's nothing you can do about the screen turning blank.

I used to have a similar issue on a latitude 120L: the screen got powered off when the lid closed, and I needed to reboot to get it back on. That issue got solved by putting

Code:

Option "DPMS" "true"

in the monitor section of xorg.conf

Now, it comes back on when a key is pressed

brooky9999 · 04-21-2008, 08:41 AM

Hi Janhe,

This didn't work for me :-(

I wasn't convinced it would - the screen does not come back on automatically when I'm in pure console mode. So the X DPMS option is unlikely to work as this is an issue which occurs outside of X.

Back to Google for me :-(

M.