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I have an Ubuntu desktop PC with an nVidia card connected via a DisplayPort cable to an HD screen. My power settings are set to blank the screen after 15 minutes. However, when the screen blanks, it doesn't blank properly. It just displays a black background, but there is still a signal present, and the mouse pointer is still visible. Hence, the monitor doesn't go into power-saving mode (unlike it does with my Windows PC). How can I get the "Blank Screen" setting to make the monitor go into power saving?

The same problem occurs when I type:

xset dpms force off

This problem appears to be the same as this abandoned question: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/5940/dpms-does-not-work-the-monitor-is-not-switched-off

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  • I wonder what the speific difference is between Blank Screen and Suspend? I alwasys set to suspend when connected to a TV for example because the blank screen seems to keep the TV active and it only really sleeps by it's own inbuilt contols. But when I suspend the PC or laptop the TV feed goes off (via HDMI).
    – darth_epoxy
    Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 22:27
  • @darth_epoxy suspend is entirely different from blank screen. Suspend stops all processing so if you are in the middle of time-consuming calculations, they pause until you resume. On the other hand, blank screen is supposed to just stop sending a video signal but everything else continues as normal, and the display resumes immediately as soon as you move the mouse.
    – Klitos Kyriacou
    Commented Nov 30, 2020 at 23:05
  • There must be some signal to the monitor that is missing and maybe even a compatability issue. I tried it with an old ASUS laptop running 20.04 going to a TV via HDMI and the "blank screen" appears to be working like it should. However on my mac mini running 20.04 the system definitely does the same as yours when set to "blank screen" as the external monitor is fully active/lit but is black. Hopefully someone has come across this before.
    – darth_epoxy
    Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 5:20

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I solved it after doing the following:

  1. In "Software & Updates" -> "Additional Drivers", selected "X.Org X Server - Nouveau display driver" (open source), and pressed "Apply Changes"
  2. Rebooted.
  3. In a terminal window, ran sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall. (This brings back the proprietary nvidia driver.)

Now the xset dpms force off command behaves properly.

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I hope you are having a great morning/day/night.

So basically you are looking for to lock or suspend the operating system instead of blanking the screen. What you can do is to try to replicate that manually first, to see if that will work. Locking shortcut will be "Super+L" and the Suspend shortcut will be "Alt+Power Off"

When you establish what works best for your use case (Automatic suspend, dim the screen after a while) you can set up the power options to do that behavior after 15minutes (or any amount of time you prefer). If you decide for an automatic lock screen after a while, you can enable that in the Privacy Settings (which can be found under activities the easiest) under Screen Lock options.

Hope you are having fun and enjoying Ubuntu at least as much as I do!

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  • Thanks, but I'm asking about getting the screen and only the screen to go into power-saving mode without having to suspend the PC or lock the screen. I know it's possible as I've seen this happen with other PCs.
    – Klitos Kyriacou
    Commented Dec 1, 2020 at 15:17
  • @KlitosKyriacou, sure I think you are looking for an answer from this thread: askubuntu.com/questions/948331/turn-off-screen-but-not-suspend Hope it helps, and enjoy! :)
    – laslozr
    Commented Dec 5, 2022 at 9:24

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