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My computer automatically stops sending a video signal when I stop typing in my console for a while, regardless if any command is running for a long time (like watch).

My question is, how can I disable this "power management" and force Linux to keep sending a video signal via VGA (in case that matters)?

Edit:// The machine is not running an XSever. It's just the bare console. The kernel version is 3.8.0-27-generic and it's a standard Ubuntu Server 13.04

MechMK1
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  • Do you mean outside entirely of X, or do you mean when you are using a terminal window within an X session? The answer will be very different. (Also check to make sure it isn't the monitor itself powering off because it thinks the image is "dark enough" to not be useful. Doesn't sound likely if you're running something through e.g. watch, but might be worth double-checking regardless.) If you mean outside of X, please specify your kernel version (`uname -a` output should do nicely) and possibly distribution and distribution version (contents of `/etc/os-release` should do nicely). – user Aug 09 '13 at 14:02
  • I know this is an old question, but nevertheless - did you find a solution? It seems that this [question/answer](https://superuser.com/q/152347/238539) explains what is going on and how to fix it. – VL-80 Mar 02 '22 at 17:29
  • @VL-80 Honestlyy, I wish I knew. This was 9 years ago. I don't even remember what I ate for dinner last week. – MechMK1 Mar 02 '22 at 17:35

2 Answers2

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To turn off VESA power saving, use the setterm command

setterm -blank 0 -powersave off -powerdown 0
xset s off

Resource

spuder
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4

This is DPMS in action. It will turn your monitor off by default after 10 minutes of inactivity. There is command 'xset' which can help you to disable this behavior. You should install it first if you do not have it already.

Try following

xset -display :0.0 -dpms
xset -display :0.0 s off
xset -display :0.0 s noblank

First one should do the trick. Try other two if first will be not enough.

xset q

should display current settings. By default it will return (amongst other stuff): DMPS is Enabled. After execution of first commands run xset q again to verify it was disabled. Be inactive for 10 minutes to verify that monitor does not go off.

VL-80
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