[SOLVED-ish] Can't get rid of Monitor powersaver

[kenboldt]

Summary Post:

My Desired Results
When my computer is idle, I want the screensaver to come on, and stay on until the computer is no longer idle, i.e. I move the mouse or press a key.  I do NOT want the screen to go blank at any time, or any sort of powersaving mode to be employed.

My Issue/Situation
I had a fresh install of PCLinuxOS 2010.11 (main KDE version), fully updated and both gnome and the LXDE desktop environments added from the repos.  I have tried all the possible solutions given in this thread (with the exception of doing anything with EDID as I don't know how to do that), but no matter what I tried, the results were: 

• In KDE, after some (seemingly variable) amount of time of the computer being idle and the screensaver engaged, the screen would blank, the power light on the monitor would change from green to orange, indicating a standby or powersaving mode.
• In gnome, the results were the same as for KDE
• In LXDE I was able to achieve my desired results with ease, however my preference would be to use KDE, or gnome, in that order

My Solution...  -ish
I took the suggestion of Taco.22 and thought I would give gnome a try, and by that I mean, the PCLinuxOS Gnome Edition, not just gnome added from the repos, so I downloaded PCLinuxOS Gnome Edition 2010.12, and did a fresh install last night.  Screensaver came on when the computer was idle, and STAYED ON!  WHOOO HOOOO!  Success, finally.  I am almost tempted to now add KDE from the repos, as it is my preferred DE, but I have resisted as I don't want to risk screwing up my success.

Long story short...
I didn't want my screen to powersave.  I installed Gnome Edition and now it doesn't powersave.  If anyone with more experience than me might be able to offer any thoughts on why that might be, I would be interested to read them.

Thanks to everyone who offered help, it was much appreciated, and again, I would still appreciate insight if anyone has any.

[Taco.22]

Hallelujah

[kenboldt]

Hallelujah

Tell me about it!

I still don't understand it, but thanks again Taco.22 for all the patience, and suggestions.

Cheers,
Ken

[Hootiegibbon]

Apologies for the late reply, and congratualtions.

For others that may have the same issue there are several things that can be tried

1> Via bootcode aka boot cheatcode

add EDID=off or noedid or edid=false to the end of the bootline (in grub/syslinux press the F? key that states kernel options then add the extra info to the end of the line)

2> via xorg.conf add the following to the options section following the Driver line  in xorg.conf (requires extreme care as you edit as root - disclaimer do this at your own risk as it may or may not work dependent on gfx driver)

Option "ignoreEDID" "true"

or

Option "noPM" "true"

there are other options (taken from man xorg.conf)

Option "BlankTime" "time"
sets the inactivity timeout for the blanking phase of the screensaver. time is in minutes. This is equivalent to the Xorg server's `-s' flag, and the value can be changed at run-time with xset(1x) . Default: 10 minutes.
Option "StandbyTime" "time"
sets the inactivity timeout for the "standby" phase of DPMS mode. time is in minutes, and the value can be changed at run-time with xset(1x) . Default: 20 minutes. This is only suitable for VESA DPMS compatible monitors, and may not be supported by all video drivers. It is only enabled for screens that have the "DPMS" option set (see the MONITOR section below).
Option "SuspendTime" "time"
sets the inactivity timeout for the "suspend" phase of DPMS mode. time is in minutes, and the value can be changed at run-time with xset(1x) . Default: 30 minutes. This is only suitable for VESA DPMS compatible monitors, and may not be supported by all video drivers. It is only enabled for screens that have the "DPMS" option set (see the MONITOR section below).
Option "OffTime" "time"
sets the inactivity timeout for the "off" phase of DPMS mode. time is in minutes, and the value can be changed at run-time with xset(1x) . Default: 40 minutes. This is only suitable for VESA DPMS compatible monitors, and may not be supported by all video drivers. It is only enabled for screens that have the "DPMS" option set (see the MONITOR section below).

For further detail read the xorg.conf manpage.

Jase