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I have a problem with my Dell monitor not going into standby mode when attached to my desktop running 24.10. I run background tasks overnight, so don't want Ubuntu's power settings to automatically suspend the machine when I'm not using it, but I do want the monitor to go into standby mode when I lock my screen. It does this when I use my laptop (also running 24.10) on that screen. My workaround is to switch my KVM over to my laptop so the monitor goes into standby, but that's just treating the symptom, not solving the cause.

Any ideas?

My box's specs

Update: Here's what currently happens - Ubuntu goes into "blank screen" mode which leaves the monitor's backlight on (it's black IRL - the phone camera adjusted it to blue):

My Dell monitor after locking Ubuntu - backlight stays on

Mark Smith
  • 736

1 Answers1

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Enabling screensaver or screen lock and turning on the power saving options in the same section should allow for turning off the monitor.

Alternatively, you can directly turn off the screen with xdpms. (This is actually exactly what the screen saver / screen lock does when the option is enabled.)

xset +dpms ; xset dpms force off

may turn off the monitor. Note that any mouse or keyboard activity (including mouse drift when not being touched) will cancel this, so you may want to put this on a shortcut with a 2-3 second delay in front of it.

There may be a similar alternative for wayland but there doesn't seem to be a CLI interface for it directly. Instead, you can tell your compositor to turn off the screen.

If you are using gnome:

busctl --user set-property org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig /org/gnome/Mutter/DisplayConfig org.gnome.Mutter.DisplayConfig PowerSaveMode i 1

which works in both X11 and wayland.

If you are using plasma / kde, this might work (untested):

kscreen-doctor --dpms off

There are other similar answers for wayland in this answer.

user10489
  • 5,533