DPMS working again after X updates, yet commented out in xorg.conf

[Nigel Henry]

On Monday 18 June 2007 18:57, Nigel Henry wrote:
> On Monday 18 June 2007 09:32, Xavier Bestel wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-06-17 at 19:02 +0200, Nigel Henry wrote:
> > > I read a while back that xorg.conf was being deprecated. My xorg.conf
> > > has "options DPMS" commented out because I want the CRT monitor to stay
> > > on.
> > >
> > > There were a bunch of X updates lastnight for Debian Lenny, and now my
> > > commented out "options DPMS" appears to be being ignored.
> > >
> > > Can anyone point me towards some new file where I can once again stop
> > > DPMS from putting my monitor into standby mode after about 30mins?
> >
> > What happens if you uncomment it and replace it with "Option DPMS Off" ?
> >
> >  Xav
>
> This is bizarre, and has only happened after a bunch of X updates on Debian
> Lenny (testing). Someone on the Debian list had suggested trying.
> Option     "DPMS" "False", and that didn't change anything, and I tried
> "Off", but as that's the same as false, there is still no change.
>
> Someone else on the Debian list suggested xset -dpms, and that works ok
> until I reboot, and then goes back to default, which should be DPMS
> disabled, as the Options DPMS line in xorg.conf was commented out, but that
> line is being ignored.

> I'm clutching at straws really, to get this back to how it was working
> before. The only alternative I see, is to put a little script in KDE's
> autostart, which will run "xset -dpms" when I login to KDE.
>
> Some time later:
>
> Well the script works ok, but is a bit of a hack.

> Thanks for your reply Xavier. I'll try and find out which X packages were
> updated, and have caused this problem.
>
> Nigel.

Here's a bit of output from /var/log/xorg.log for Debian Lenny since the X 
updates, whereby DPMS is always enabled now.

(II) LoadModule: "extmod"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libextmod.so
(II) Module extmod: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
 compiled for 1.3.0, module version = 1.0.0
 Module class: X.Org Server Extension
 ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 0.3
(II) Loading extension SHAPE
(II) Loading extension MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD
(II) Loading extension BIG-REQUESTS
(II) Loading extension SYNC
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(II) Loading extension XC-MISC
(II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
(II) Loading extension XFree86-Misc
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(II) Loading extension TOG-CUP
(II) Loading extension Extended-Visual-Information
(II) Loading extension XVideo
(II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
(II) Loading extension X-Resource

With the DPMS option line set as: Option   "DPMS" "false" , I get this, 
further down xorg.conf.

(==) TRIDENT(0): Backing store disabled
(**) Option "dpms" "false"
(**) TRIDENT(0): DPMS enabled
(II) TRIDENT(0): Trident Video Flags: VID_ZOOM_INV VID_ZOOM_MINI 

And DPMS remains enabled.

This is the same part of the xorg.log, but on Debian Etch, where I just 
commented out the "Options  "DPMS" "  line. And that is, without the X 
updates, that have changed the DPMS behaviour on Lenny.

(II) LoadModule: "extmod"
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libextmod.so
(II) Module extmod: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
 compiled for 7.1.1, module version = 1.0.0
 Module class: X.Org Server Extension
 ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 0.3
(II) Loading extension SHAPE
(II) Loading extension MIT-SUNDRY-NONSTANDARD
(II) Loading extension BIG-REQUESTS
(II) Loading extension SYNC
(II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
(II) Loading extension XC-MISC
(II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
(II) Loading extension XFree86-Misc
(II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(II) Loading extension TOG-CUP
(II) Loading extension Extended-Visual-Information
(II) Loading extension XVideo
(II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
(II) Loading extension X-Resource

And running xset q , I get.

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

It's interesting that if I uncomment the DPMS option line in Debian Etch, and 
set it as.  Option   "DPMS" "false" , the xorg log now shows the same as the 
one on Debian Lenny, as below.

(**) Option "dpms" "false"
(**) TRIDENT(0): DPMS enabled

But running xset q, still shows DPMS as disabled

Just to check that I hadn't missed anything in Etch's Xorg log.

grep -i dpms /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(**) Option "dpms" "false"
(**) TRIDENT(0): DPMS enabled

Just to verify who's lying, I 've left Etch alone for about 1hr, and it hasn't 
gone into standby, so it looks like the log is lying, xset q is telling the 
truth.

Anyway. It's looks like on Lenny at the moment, (unless anyone has any other 
suggestions) I will have to continue using my script in ~/.kde/Autostart, 
which runs "xset -dpms".

Nigel.