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

[Robin Pedersen]

On Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:21:43 +0100, James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj at acm.org>  
wrote:

> 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.

Yes, exactly

> 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.

Interresting. Considering how short time it took for the screen to come  
back, I guess it was just a blacked out screen.

> 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.

I have turned them all off (and by the way, it's not enough to turn off  
settings in KDE, you have to hack with xorg.conf or xset), but it looks  
like some events cause some powersaving feature to be reenabled, and it  
happens from time to time.

-- 
Robin Pedersen