HOWTO: Enable screen poweroff (instead of blanking)

[Claudia]

I just wanted to drop a note here before I forget. Out of the box, Qubes blanks the screen after a few minutes, but never powers off the screen, even though it's configured to do so in the XFCE Power Manager. I've had this problem on several machines, all the way back to R3.2, and I always blamed it on lack of hardware support.

Turns out, it's because Qubes comes with Xscreensaver enabled which overrides the XFCE Power Manager settings. Xscreensaver is only configured to blank the screen; I'm not sure if it even supports powering it off. To return control to XFCE, go to Menu > System Tools > Session and Startup > Application Autostart, and uncheck "Screensaver". Then you can logout, reboot, or go to Menu > System Tools > Screensaver > File > Kill Daemon. You may have to also open Menu > System Tools > Power Manager > Display, and switch "Display power management" to off and then on again.

Note this will disable the lockscreen. This is not recommended if you use a USB keyboard or mouse and a USB Qube, or if someone has physical access to your computer while it's on. Otherwise, I recommend enabling screen poweroff in order to conserve energy and lengthen the lifespan of your screen's backlight.

[Defiant]

I have also noticed this annoyance on several machines and different
linux distributions so it must be an Xfce problem, not a Qubes problem.

You're probably asking yourself why do we even need xscreensaver when we
can instead use a screen locker like lightlocker. I think I read on the
issues tracker that xscreensaver is the most secure screen "locker" for
X11 which is why it is used in Qubes, and if you would want to use
something stronger you'd have to go wayland.

I hear Qubes 4.1 will use the new Xfce 4.14 though I am unsure whether
this bug has been fixed in that version.


Kind regards!

[rec wins]

thanks for this, always wondered ....... had given up on any systemwide
changing things

[rec wins]

there Does seem to be another session&startup-> application autostart
item called Screensaver (Launch screensaver and locker program)(not
just xscreensaver) that is 'checked' to start , maybe I'll leave it
alone for now

[dhorf-hfre...@hashmail.org]

On Sun, Dec 22, 2019 at 02:45:34PM +0000, Claudia wrote:
> overrides the XFCE Power Manager settings. Xscreensaver is only
> configured to blank the screen; I'm not sure if it even supports
> powering it off. To return control to XFCE, go to Menu > System Tools

it does, and it works (for me).

check "grep dpms .xscreensaver" and edit.
or use "xscreensaver-demo" to adjust in a clicky way.

[Claudia]

Thanks for adding that. Personally I don't want or need the lockscreen so for me it made more sense just to disable Xscreensaver altogether. Good to know you can have lockscreen and blanking at the same time though :)

[Chris Laprise]

On 12/23/19 5:23 PM, Defiant wrote:
>
>
> On 22. 12. 19 15:45, Claudia wrote:
>>
>> I just wanted to drop a note here before I forget. Out of the box, Qubes blanks the screen after a few minutes, but never powers off the screen, even though it's configured to do so in the XFCE Power Manager. I've had this problem on several machines, all the way back to R3.2, and I always blamed it on lack of hardware support.
>>
>> Turns out, it's because Qubes comes with Xscreensaver enabled which overrides the XFCE Power Manager settings. Xscreensaver is only configured to blank the screen; I'm not sure if it even supports powering it off. To return control to XFCE, go to Menu > System Tools > Session and Startup > Application Autostart, and uncheck "Screensaver". Then you can logout, reboot, or go to Menu > System Tools > Screensaver > File > Kill Daemon. You may have to also open Menu > System Tools > Power Manager > Display, and switch "Display power management" to off and then on again.
>>
>> Note this will disable the lockscreen. This is not recommended if you use a USB keyboard or mouse and a USB Qube, or if someone has physical access to your computer while it's on. Otherwise, I recommend enabling screen poweroff in order to conserve energy and lengthen the lifespan of your screen's backlight.
>>
>>
>
> I have also noticed this annoyance on several machines and different
> linux distributions so it must be an Xfce problem, not a Qubes problem.

That is probably the case since this was one of the problems that got
solved when I switched to KDE.

--

Chris Laprise, tas...@posteo.net
https://github.com/tasket
https://twitter.com/ttaskett
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