Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
> I'm sure it worked though, if i don't disable it i get 1 -2 hours maximum and > then it blanks out. You were asking how to automatically disable it. I figured you could get some ideas on how to do that from the link. To run commands like this before the display manager starts up (the program that gives the graphical login screen) traditionally you would modify /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup or /etc/gdm/Init/Default or /etc/kde4/kdm/Xsetup or /etc/kde3/kdm/Xsetup or /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf or whatever your display manager or greeter uses. But, from what they were saying, apparently the desktops don't respect whatever the display manager has set and insist on overriding it and turning the dpms back on so once you login any settings like that are lost. That's why it only worked after you logged in. Normally to automate that after login you would modify ~/.xinitrc, with the commands DISPLAY=:0 xset -dpms DISPLAY=:0 xset s off DISPLAY=:0 xset s noblank DISPLAY=:0 xset s noexpose DISPLAY=:0 xset s 0 0 But the folks posting found that does not work anymore because the desktop manager forces dpms back on even after you login. But whatever - I'm not actually really sure what you need, anyway. All I can end with saying is that yes, I've also observed some video cards are not entirely compatible with some X servers and if you allow dpms to be on, it will bork the machine. I'm old school and I generally disable the display manager entirely on FreeBSD and Linux servers. All you get is a text mode command prompt. If I want to run X, I login at the command line and run startx so putting xset commnds in ~/.xinitrc works just fine for me. Ted
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
On Tue, 2 May 2023 15:14:27 + Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > From the following > https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4466/screen-turns-on-automatically-xset-dpms-force-off > > is this awful hack: > > I used cron with this set to run every 5 mins (enter crontab -e from the > command-line as your X11 logged in user): > > */5 * * * * /usr/bin/env DISPLAY=:0.0 xset -dpms > > Or even worse: > > If non of the above worked for you. I had the same problem on a 64bit linux > mint machine. The only thing that worked for me was this python script : > > import sys, select, subprocess > while True: > p = subprocess.Popen(['xset', 'dpms', 'force', 'off'], > stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) > if sys.stdin in select.select([sys.stdin], [], [], 0)[0]: > break > > Of course, he also did misspell the word "none" LOL > > I feel there is something smelly in the garbage when you have to write a > frigging program to slap down what the eco-greenie warriors feel justified in > forcing on you. Sigh. > huh. that's strange. as I was saying I did 'xset -dpms' once and had no problems overnight. i'll wait a couple of hours and check to see if the xset status has changed. I'm sure it worked though, if i don't disable it i get 1 -2 hours maximum and then it blanks out. Brian
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
>From the following >https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4466/screen-turns-on-automatically-xset-dpms-force-off is this awful hack: I used cron with this set to run every 5 mins (enter crontab -e from the command-line as your X11 logged in user): */5 * * * * /usr/bin/env DISPLAY=:0.0 xset -dpms Or even worse: If non of the above worked for you. I had the same problem on a 64bit linux mint machine. The only thing that worked for me was this python script : import sys, select, subprocess while True: p = subprocess.Popen(['xset', 'dpms', 'force', 'off'], stdout=subprocess.PIPE, stderr=subprocess.PIPE) if sys.stdin in select.select([sys.stdin], [], [], 0)[0]: break Of course, he also did misspell the word "none" LOL I feel there is something smelly in the garbage when you have to write a frigging program to slap down what the eco-greenie warriors feel justified in forcing on you. Sigh. Ted -Original Message- From: PLUG On Behalf Of bri...@pounceofcats.com Sent: Monday, May 1, 2023 8:52 PM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group Subject: Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang Hi, Problem is verified. xset -dpms and i can leave it on all night and no problem. don't do that and the display goes away at some point. I did verify it's only the video card as I was logged in remotely. The second part of this question would be how can I kill and restart the X server from the ground up ? I'm using linux mint and it's not particularly straightforward. I managed to figure out how to restart the display manager but I realized that's not good enough and that I really need to restart the x-server (after killing it) and see if it will recover. Not even sure that will work, it probably needs to reinitialize the video card which may only happen at boot. Brian On Mon, 17 Apr 2023 03:36:32 + Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > X and friends have insisted on actuating the screensaver for a long time now > and they use dpmi > > I have found this does lock up some hardware. Not just on Linux I've had > Windows lock up various laptop hardware as well attempting to "save the LCD > screen from burn in" (I wasn't aware LCD screens burned but what do I know > LOL) > > For some reason X makes it damn near impossible to shut the screensaver off > on boot so that the machine will just boot to the login screen and leave it > on forever. When the system is on a KVM it does NOT need a screensaver. Nor > does it need to be wasting CPU cycles on drawing "pipes" or other nonsense. > > Various xset invocations once you login seem to disable the "screensaver" > > Ted > > -Original Message- > From: PLUG On Behalf Of bri...@pounceofcats.com > Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2023 7:21 PM > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group > Subject: [PLUG] the dreaded hang > > Hi, > > So i just finished putting together a new PC AMD K7/Asus MB. > > if i leave it alone for some indeterminate amount time, on the order of 1 to > 2 hours, it decides to lock up - sort of. The caps lock key is still working, > for example, but the monitor doesn't see a signal. > > A few things that i've checked: > > 1 set the display shut-off to a few minutes and sat there and watched it shut > off the display. Not a problem. > > 2 suspended it, unsuspended it, and it recovered. that was a shocker. suspend > mode and linux have never worked for me. not ever. > > Regardless i have suspend mode time set to never and i just now changed the > display shut-off time to never. Even though i watched it shut-off without a > problem I'm still suspicious that it may be the problem (for example, maybe > it has to stay in display shut off for a few minutes). > > A couple of things i would like to do. > > Is there a way to enable more detailed kernel tracing so i could look at a > log file and see if can figure out if there's a particular activity preceding > the problem ? > > One thing that occurs to me as i'm typing this is that I did not try to SSH > in and see if things were working - it could simply be a video card driver > problem (AMD video card). > > The odd thing is that it's running 100% reliably when i'm sitting at the > computer > > Any other things I might try to narrow down the problem ? > > > -- Brian
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
Hi, Problem is verified. xset -dpms and i can leave it on all night and no problem. don't do that and the display goes away at some point. I did verify it's only the video card as I was logged in remotely. The second part of this question would be how can I kill and restart the X server from the ground up ? I'm using linux mint and it's not particularly straightforward. I managed to figure out how to restart the display manager but I realized that's not good enough and that I really need to restart the x-server (after killing it) and see if it will recover. Not even sure that will work, it probably needs to reinitialize the video card which may only happen at boot. Brian On Mon, 17 Apr 2023 03:36:32 + Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > X and friends have insisted on actuating the screensaver for a long time now > and they use dpmi > > I have found this does lock up some hardware. Not just on Linux I've had > Windows lock up various laptop hardware as well attempting to "save the LCD > screen from burn in" (I wasn't aware LCD screens burned but what do I know > LOL) > > For some reason X makes it damn near impossible to shut the screensaver off > on boot so that the machine will just boot to the login screen and leave it > on forever. When the system is on a KVM it does NOT need a screensaver. Nor > does it need to be wasting CPU cycles on drawing "pipes" or other nonsense. > > Various xset invocations once you login seem to disable the "screensaver" > > Ted > > -Original Message- > From: PLUG On Behalf Of bri...@pounceofcats.com > Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2023 7:21 PM > To: Portland Linux/Unix Group > Subject: [PLUG] the dreaded hang > > Hi, > > So i just finished putting together a new PC AMD K7/Asus MB. > > if i leave it alone for some indeterminate amount time, on the order of 1 to > 2 hours, it decides to lock up - sort of. The caps lock key is still working, > for example, but the monitor doesn't see a signal. > > A few things that i've checked: > > 1 set the display shut-off to a few minutes and sat there and watched it shut > off the display. Not a problem. > > 2 suspended it, unsuspended it, and it recovered. that was a shocker. suspend > mode and linux have never worked for me. not ever. > > Regardless i have suspend mode time set to never and i just now changed the > display shut-off time to never. Even though i watched it shut-off without a > problem I'm still suspicious that it may be the problem (for example, maybe > it has to stay in display shut off for a few minutes). > > A couple of things i would like to do. > > Is there a way to enable more detailed kernel tracing so i could look at a > log file and see if can figure out if there's a particular activity preceding > the problem ? > > One thing that occurs to me as i'm typing this is that I did not try to SSH > in and see if things were working - it could simply be a video card driver > problem (AMD video card). > > The odd thing is that it's running 100% reliably when i'm sitting at the > computer > > Any other things I might try to narrow down the problem ? > > > -- Brian
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
On Sat, 22 Apr 2023, bri...@pounceofcats.com wrote: i forgot about xset. just tried xset -dpms and after 2+ hours no problem. came back to my desk and the screen saver was active but the screen hadn't blanked. I was just reminded that, at least in Xfce4, screensaver is separate from power management and it's the latter that needs to be set to blank the screen. Regards, Rich
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
On Mon, 17 Apr 2023 03:36:32 + Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > X and friends have insisted on actuating the screensaver for a long time now > and they use dpmi > > I have found this does lock up some hardware. Not just on Linux I've had > Windows lock up various laptop hardware as well attempting to "save the LCD > screen from burn in" (I wasn't aware LCD screens burned but what do I know > LOL) > > For some reason X makes it damn near impossible to shut the screensaver off > on boot so that the machine will just boot to the login screen and leave it > on forever. When the system is on a KVM it does NOT need a screensaver. Nor > does it need to be wasting CPU cycles on drawing "pipes" or other nonsense. > > Various xset invocations once you login seem to disable the "screensaver" > aha. i forgot about xset. just tried xset -dpms and after 2+ hours no problem. came back to my desk and the screen saver was active but the screen hadn't blanked. Could be the trouble. Need to test and see if there's a difference between standby/suspend/off. Looks like i can invoke xset to force a particular mode. Thank you. -- Brian
Re: [PLUG] the dreaded hang
X and friends have insisted on actuating the screensaver for a long time now and they use dpmi I have found this does lock up some hardware. Not just on Linux I've had Windows lock up various laptop hardware as well attempting to "save the LCD screen from burn in" (I wasn't aware LCD screens burned but what do I know LOL) For some reason X makes it damn near impossible to shut the screensaver off on boot so that the machine will just boot to the login screen and leave it on forever. When the system is on a KVM it does NOT need a screensaver. Nor does it need to be wasting CPU cycles on drawing "pipes" or other nonsense. Various xset invocations once you login seem to disable the "screensaver" Ted -Original Message- From: PLUG On Behalf Of bri...@pounceofcats.com Sent: Sunday, April 16, 2023 7:21 PM To: Portland Linux/Unix Group Subject: [PLUG] the dreaded hang Hi, So i just finished putting together a new PC AMD K7/Asus MB. if i leave it alone for some indeterminate amount time, on the order of 1 to 2 hours, it decides to lock up - sort of. The caps lock key is still working, for example, but the monitor doesn't see a signal. A few things that i've checked: 1 set the display shut-off to a few minutes and sat there and watched it shut off the display. Not a problem. 2 suspended it, unsuspended it, and it recovered. that was a shocker. suspend mode and linux have never worked for me. not ever. Regardless i have suspend mode time set to never and i just now changed the display shut-off time to never. Even though i watched it shut-off without a problem I'm still suspicious that it may be the problem (for example, maybe it has to stay in display shut off for a few minutes). A couple of things i would like to do. Is there a way to enable more detailed kernel tracing so i could look at a log file and see if can figure out if there's a particular activity preceding the problem ? One thing that occurs to me as i'm typing this is that I did not try to SSH in and see if things were working - it could simply be a video card driver problem (AMD video card). The odd thing is that it's running 100% reliably when i'm sitting at the computer Any other things I might try to narrow down the problem ? -- Brian
[PLUG] the dreaded hang
Hi, So i just finished putting together a new PC AMD K7/Asus MB. if i leave it alone for some indeterminate amount time, on the order of 1 to 2 hours, it decides to lock up - sort of. The caps lock key is still working, for example, but the monitor doesn't see a signal. A few things that i've checked: 1 set the display shut-off to a few minutes and sat there and watched it shut off the display. Not a problem. 2 suspended it, unsuspended it, and it recovered. that was a shocker. suspend mode and linux have never worked for me. not ever. Regardless i have suspend mode time set to never and i just now changed the display shut-off time to never. Even though i watched it shut-off without a problem I'm still suspicious that it may be the problem (for example, maybe it has to stay in display shut off for a few minutes). A couple of things i would like to do. Is there a way to enable more detailed kernel tracing so i could look at a log file and see if can figure out if there's a particular activity preceding the problem ? One thing that occurs to me as i'm typing this is that I did not try to SSH in and see if things were working - it could simply be a video card driver problem (AMD video card). The odd thing is that it's running 100% reliably when i'm sitting at the computer Any other things I might try to narrow down the problem ? -- Brian
