[arch-general] dpms in text mode worked 1st boot, now monitor blanks but won't power off

[Rodrigo Rivas]

On Wed, Dec 4, 2013 at 2:43 AM, David C. Rankin <
drankinatty at suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:

> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 12/03/2013 12:51 PM, Jakub Klinkovský wrote:
> > I use 'consoleblank=<seconds>' kernel parameter to set the delay. See
> also
> > ArchWiki page:
> >
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Display_Power_Management_Signaling#DPMS_interaction_in_a_Linux_console_with_setterm
> >
>
> Thanks Jakub,
>
>   I have tried:
>
> # setterm -blank 1
> # setterm -powerdown 1
> # setterm -powersave hsync     (waited - did not poweroff moniter, just
> blanked)
> # setterm -powersave powerdown (same thing - no poweroff)
>
>
>   So I am at a loss as to how it worked on the first boot and now no longer
> worked. I read:
>
>
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Display_Power_Management_Signaling#DPMS_interaction_in_a_Linux_console_with_setterm
>
> http://webpages.charter.net/dperr/dpms.htm
>
> and so far I have not found a way to repeat the poweroff that worked on
> first boot.
>
> I did install the nvidia package for future use, which pulled in
> xorg-server as
> a dependency, but X is not started. I don't see why that would influence
> console
> behavior.
>

Well, that certainly is a difference. The nvidia package includes the file
 `/usr/lib/modprobe.d/nvidia.conf` that contains the line `blacklist
nouveau`. That's necessary because if the nouveau driver is loaded first,
then the nvidia one cannot work properly.

But you are not loading X, so I'm guessing that your nvidia driver is not
being loaded either (the kernel driver is probed by the X driver IIRC), so
you are running with the default vesa console.

You can try running `modprobe nvidia` and see if it makes a difference. If
that's not the case, reboot and run `modprobe nouveau`.

Or maybe I'm wrong and the nvidia driver is being loaded automatically. If
that's true, you can try blacklisting it and modprobing nouveau.

Best regards
-- 
Rodrigo.