How to turn off screen with shortcut in Linux?

Question

Since my monitor takes an awful lot of time to turn back on after being physically turned off, I'm looking for a command or a simple utility to turn off my screen with a shortcut. Setting a black screensaver is not satisfactory; I want the screen to "hibernate" (the same effect I would get by turning off the computer while leaving the screen physically on).

The same question for Windows: How can I make my screen blank by a shortcut?

Press STRG a than k and than y – Daniel Jan 04 '12 at 21:25 — Daniel, Jan 04 '12 at 21:25

score 84 · Accepted Answer · edited Jan 04 '12 at 21:13

84

Try using

xset dpms force off

to force the screen to turn off.

edited Jan 04 '12 at 21:13

wizlog

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answered Jan 04 '12 at 19:35

Siva Charan

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That's really great. For the OP though, when a key is pressed, it turns the screen back on. I'm not sure if that's desirable. – Brigand Jan 04 '12 at 21:18
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Sometimes works better if you do `sleep 1 ; xset dpms force off` otherwise remnants of the last keyboard activity (I guess) sometimes turns the screen back on immediately. – Mat Jan 04 '12 at 21:19
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This is exactly what I've been looking for. Thanks @siva-charan. The only thing I was wondering is how I could ask for a password when I wake the screen. I'm basically using a shortcut to turn off my screen and I would like it to ask for password on wake. – Isabel Inc Feb 06 '17 at 00:07

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 05 '13 at 09:07

31

I made a file called /home/me/bin/blank and made it executable chmod +x blank with the following in it:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 1; xset dpms force off

Then I set a shortcut in Gnome3 application "keyboard" (gnome-control-center keyboard) to run that script when I push CTRL+ALT+Q.

Man I love linux.

answered Mar 05 '13 at 09:07

hamstar

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I liked this :) Just as a little addendum, take a look at https://systembash.com/how-to-turn-off-your-monitor-via-command-line-in-ubuntu/ to see how you could set up a timed use of this trick and turn your monitor on/off at specified time – danicotra Jun 25 '17 at 11:01
you mean turning your monitor on at a specified time with cron? – frankster Feb 02 '18 at 17:20
How do u turn them back on? lol – Jamie Hutber Mar 11 '21 at 00:24
@JamieHutber just press a key or move the mouse to turn the screen on again. – Luke Hutchison Aug 08 '21 at 09:05
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I created a launcher icon on my taskbar that runs the following command: `bash -c "sleep 1; xset dpms force off"` – Luke Hutchison Aug 08 '21 at 09:07

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 18 '19 at 12:01

4

I use Alex Cabal script to turn my two monitors screens off and on and it works very fine for me.

#!/bin/bash

# turn screens off/on
# (ɔ) alex cabal

screenOffLockFile=/tmp/screen-off-lock

if [ -f $screenOffLockFile ];
then
    rm $screenOffLockFile
    notify-send "Screen on." -i /usr/share/icons/gnome/48x48/devices/display.png
else
    touch $screenOffLockFile
    sleep .5
    while [ -f  $screenOffLockFile ]
    do
        xset dpms force off
        sleep 2
    done
    xset dpms force on
fi

answered Dec 18 '19 at 12:01

almaceleste

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Generally, answers are much more helpful if they include an explanation of what the code is intended to do, and why that solves the problem without introducing others. – MMM Dec 18 '19 at 12:40
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@MMM By clicking on the provided link, any interested user can go to a page of the original author of the script that explains in detail how it works. – Tropilio Feb 03 '20 at 16:51
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Ideally answers are self contained so everything is still here if a linked site disappears. – Alan De Smet Dec 22 '21 at 15:38

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jun 25 '17 at 11:22

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As a premise, I personally prefer hamstar/Siva Charan solution. Anyway, I know another possible way could be a script that sets screensaver to blank and then make it start:

rem #!/bin/bash

xset s blank ; sleep 1 ; xset s activate

So as just not to let unspoken things

answered Jun 25 '17 at 11:22

danicotra

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... And it seems like there's even a more complex one using python for this: https://www.howtogeek.com/61836/how-to-turn-off-your-monitor-with-a-hotkey-in-ubuntu/ (I didn't test it) – danicotra Jun 25 '17 at 11:26

tavish · Answer 5 · 2020-06-19T08:17:18.547

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You can go to your distro's settings, and add a shortcut => putting the command - xset dpms force off, then put a hotkey(say F9). That's it, whenever you hit the hotkey, your monitor's screen will turn off

edited Jun 19 '20 at 08:17

answered Jun 16 '20 at 06:39

tavish

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Welcome to Super User! Please don't post irrelevant answers to questions – Virtuality Jun 17 '20 at 09:00
Is this irrelevant? If yes, how? – tavish Jun 17 '20 at 11:41
You describe how to perform this action in Ubuntu. The author requests a solution to this for Linux. – Virtuality Jun 17 '20 at 11:59
thank you, I have edited my answer and it should work with most Linux distro's (especially if you use use gnome-shell). – tavish Jun 19 '20 at 08:19
Perfect, good to know. – Virtuality Jun 19 '20 at 10:02
on KDE I had to bind the shortcut to `sleep 1 && xset dpms force off` to prevent it from immediately turning on again – xeruf Nov 15 '22 at 21:42

score 2 · Answer 6 · answered Nov 22 '12 at 19:09

2

slock locks the screen gracefully.

answered Nov 22 '12 at 19:09

octosquidopus

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I just installed it and screen totally locked without turning LED off! and seems there isn't any way to unlock screen again :| – Morteza Nov 28 '15 at 14:29
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@MortezaZiaeemehr It's very minimal. Just enter your password and press Enter. – octosquidopus Dec 17 '15 at 01:58

How to turn off screen with shortcut in Linux?

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