[kde-linux] Why is it so difficult to disable a screensaver?

[James Richard Tyrer]

Robin Pedersen wrote:
> Have you ever tried to disable the screensaver on your linux box, to have  
> the screen powered on at all times?
> 
This can be confusing because there are redundant things that can have 
the same effect -- cause the screen to go black.

There is blanking the screen.  This can occur as a screen saver setting. 
  This does not save much power; it just blanks your screen.

And there is "Display Power Management"  This will also result in a 
blank screen but what is actually happening is that your monitor is 
going into sleep mode.  KDE has controls for this in the Control Center 
(renamed "System Settings in KDE4).

The monitor sleep mode is progressive: Standby, Suspend, & Power Off. 
Which effects how much power is saved and how long it takes the screen 
to return to showing the image again.

As Anne said: in addition to this software control, if you have an 
Energy Star motherboard, it is possible that the BIOS settings are also 
configured to blank the screen or to put the monitor into sleep mode.

So, if you have turned off the screen saver and disabled Display Power 
Management and the screen still goes blank, you will need to change your 
BIOS settings.

-- 
JRT