ever since switching to slackware, my monitor won't power down. it powered down in red hat, in mandrake, and in windows, but not in slack.

i scoured the web trying various methods to get it to work -- including enabling apm, adding dpms to the xf86config options, changing the BIOS to all three different power off settings (including by dpms) -- but nothing seems to do it.

i'm using an LCD, and i'd really like to preserve the backlight. does anyone have any ideas i could try?

Do you have apmd or any other Power Saver running/enabled.. etc.

a /usr/sbin/apmd and (for some reason) a [kapmd] are running... ?

I wouldn't worry apm, or otherwise. The whole thing should be handled by X dpms. Could you show us the relevant parts of your XF86Config? Perhaps there is an error. Also, have you restarted X since changing the options?

yes, i've been trying to get it to work for weeks. here's the config:

# **********************************************************************
# Monitor section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of monitor sections may be present

Section "Monitor"

Identifier "My Monitor"
VendorName "Samsung"
ModelName "Syncmaster 172T"
Option "DPMS"

# HorizSync is in kHz unless units are specified.
# HorizSync may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

HorizSync 31.5 - 64.3

# HorizSync 30-64 # multisync
# HorizSync 31.5, 35.2 # multiple fixed sync frequencies
# HorizSync 15-25, 30-50 # multiple ranges of sync frequencies

# VertRefresh is in Hz unless units are specified.
# VertRefresh may be a comma separated list of discrete values, or a
# comma separated list of ranges of values.
# NOTE: THE VALUES HERE ARE EXAMPLES ONLY. REFER TO YOUR MONITOR'S
# USER MANUAL FOR THE CORRECT NUMBERS.

VertRefresh 50-70


EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Graphics device section
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of graphics device sections may be present

# Standard VGA Device:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Standard VGA"
Driver "ati"
VendorName "Unknown"
BoardName "Unknown"

# The chipset line is optional in most cases. It can be used to override
# the driver's chipset detection, and should not normally be specified.

# Chipset "generic"

# The Driver line must be present. When using run-time loadable driver
# modules, this line instructs the server to load the specified driver
# module. Even when not using loadable driver modules, this line
# indicates which driver should interpret the information in this section.

Driver "vesa"
# The BusID line is used to specify which of possibly multiple devices
# this section is intended for. When this line isn't present, a device
# section can only match up with the primary video device. For PCI
# devices a line like the following could be used. This line should not
# normally be included unless there is more than one video device
# intalled.

# BusID "PCI:0:10:0"

# VideoRam 256

# Clocks 25.2 28.3

EndSection

# Device configured by xf86config:

Section "Device"
Identifier "** ATI Radeon (generic) [radeon]"
Driver "radeon"
VideoRam 65536
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "** ATI Radeon (generic) [radeon]"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************

# Any number of ServerLayout sections may be present. Each describes
# the way multiple screens are organised. A specific ServerLayout
# section may be specified from the X server command line with the
# "-layout" option. In the absence of this, the first section is used.
# When now ServerLayout section is present, the first Screen section
# is used alone.

Section "ServerLayout"

Option "OffTime" "30" # Turn off DPMS Monitor

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"

# Each Screen line specifies a Screen section name, and optionally
# the relative position of other screens. The four names after
# primary screen name are the screens to the top, bottom, left and right
# of the primary screen. In this example, screen 2 is located to the
# right of screen 1.

Screen "Screen 1"

EndSection

What version of X are you using?

The only thing I can see is that your Offtime option is under 'Server Layout' rather than in 'Server Flags', which is where I have it - and mine works.

Perhaps you should change the location of that setting?

okay, getting closer maybe, but still no cigar. i changed the offtime location in xf86config to the server flags section and set it to 1 minute to test (and restarted X, of course), but it didn't work. i wondered if the xscreensaver might be interfering so i killed that, and this time after the 1 minute the screen blanked like it does now, but it still didn't power off. this is totally frustrating! do i need acpi instead of apm or something?

it's X version 4.3, btw.thanks for any more suggestions, i'm about to lose it.

Well, DPMS is kindof it's own thing, so acpi, apm, whatever shouldn't matter. Have you tried setting all the DPMS phases? Maybe try setting all of them to "0", then setting Offtime to 1 or whatever, and try that?

sorry it's taken me so long to respond, i've been wrangling with my kernel. (finally got it compiled btw, yeehaw )

good suggestion signal9, but it didn't work. i can only conclude at this point that the problem is possibly that either:

1) something unknown is overriding the shutdown command,

2) RH and windows were using acpi to power down the monitor, or

3) slackware has a bug/hardware incompatibility with this LCD.

I guess it may be that RH or 'doze were using ACPI. Can't say for sure. As for Slackware having a bug, well, it's using X like everyone else, right? If a linux OS were a consolidated system, I may be willing to write problems off as bugs, but that is not as often the case as one would like it to be. A solution is most certainly available - no more or less likely than with any other system.

Are you certain that the ATI card you are using is fully vesa capable? In fact, why not post your complete hardware configuration, ie. Card, Monitor, etc?

Hi there,

synaptical are You talking about turnig off of your PC? Cuz I have the same 'problem'. When I let my PC go down: halt I thought it will turn off all devices it has, but my monitor do not goes off.
I am having Compaq LCD, type and so, I do not remember as I am at work atm.

but any how if your problem is the same then we can team up to solve it

kind regards

no, i am talking about having the monitor power down (as opposed to only going into standby or suspend modes) after a period of inactivity. i can't get it to work with slackware yet.

as for your problem, do you have apm enabled? i remember i had to enable that to get my computer to power off after doing the shutdown -h command, maybe it is related somehow? gl

>edit, signal9:

it won't power off, but will only standby/suspend, when i'm not even in X yet. i wonder if that is a clue? btw, i have an ATI radeon 8500LE, and a samsung 172T LCD monitor.

Hello all - I have Slack 9.0/Dropline Gnome and my monitor wouldn't power down either. Samsung SynMaster 950p running on a VisionTek Geforce 3. APM kernel module is functioning fine and the system powers down normally. All I could get was for the monitor to go into "standby" mode. I was browsing this forum and encountered your thread - after uncommenting
Option "off time" "xx" in the "ServerFlags" section of my XF86Config, and adding Option "DPMS" to the "Monitor" section, it works, finally! I have the "Power Off" setting in the screen saver daemon set to the same time as the Option "off time" in my XF86Config, but I don't know if that matters or not. Thanks for the help.

Paul

thanks, that was one of the first things i tried (see my xfconfig earlier in the thread), but it didn't work on my computer. DPMS doesn't even shut it down when i enter the settings at the command line. i've long since given up on it and now just shut off the monitor at night manually. i think there is an incompatibility with linux and this LCD. glad you got yours working, good job.