Ubuntu 20.04 on a laptop - is there any way toturn off the screen?

Question

I installed Ubuntu server 20.04 on old, damaged laptop. The problem is, that I can not close the cover - this is the "damaged" part of the problem.

Is there any way to turn off the screen via command line?

I found such solution: sudo vbetool dpms off, but it does not work and returns error:

mmap /dev/zero: Operation not permitted
Failed to initialise LRMI (Linux Real-Mode Interface)

How can I turn off the screen? Is it even possible with command line only?

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Jul 06 '21 at 15:43

I had the same issue on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server.

$ sudo vbetool dpms off
mmap /dev/zero: Operation not permitted
Failed to initialise LRMI (Linux Real-Mode Interface)

Finally I found the solution here.

You have to use 2 extra command.

In order:

sudo mount -o remount,exec /dev
sudo vbetool dpms off
sudo mount -o remount,noexec /dev

To turn on again the display:

sudo mount -o remount,exec /dev
sudo vbetool dpms on
sudo mount -o remount,noexec /dev

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