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by Graham Williams
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Issue: Monitor not Sleeping

With Ununtu 11.10 upgrade on Nyx (36.13) the power management using gnome-screensaver did not put the monitor into power saver mode (Dell E2209W flat screen LCD display). Instead, it seems to simply blank the screen and in a dark room we can still see that the screen is on, blanked, rather than off. This was not a behaviour noticed prior to Ubuntu 11.10. Previously the screen would go into power saver mode and the green led would go orange. To revert to an older screen saver to ensure the screen is completely turned off, we need to change some packages.

First, remove gnome-screensaver:

$ wajig remove gnome-screensaver

If you are currently running a Gnome session you will also want to stop the currently running instance of gnome-screensaver:

$ killall gnome-screensaver

Next, install xscreensaver and friends:

$ wajig install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra

The new screen saver will not start automatically when you log in—it needs to be added to the Startup Applications. To do this go to the Control menu at the top right of the screen. Choose Startup Applications.... Click the Add button. Name the new entry Screen Saver and type in the following Command:

xscreensaver -nosplash

Using Dash (press and release the Super key) to startup the Screensaver application. I tend to use Blank Screen Only Mode under the Display Modes tab and then enable Quick Power-off in Blank Only Mode on the Advanced tab. This way I don't use unnecessary power displaying a screen saver and my screen now goes into power saver mode immediately.


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