Mageia forum

want to turn this to Turn screen off when inactive for "Never"
as I'm using it for CCTV…
or will it come back on if there is movement ?
Rather have it on all the time…
Thanks.

What DE and Mageia version are you using?

ah7013 wrote:What DE and Mageia version are you using?

Gnome + version 2

Are you using GNOME shell? Because if you are you could try this GNOME shell extension (haven't tried it myself to test though because I don't use GNOME) -
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/233/inhibit-applet/

The description says it can prevent the screensaver from activating.

How do I install this ?
Is this the only way to stop the screen timing out ?
Surely you can stop it another way ?

freetibet wrote:How do I install this ?

AFAIK on that website they have an install extension button which should install it for you.

freetibet wrote:Is this the only way to stop the screen timing out ?
Surely you can stop it another way ?

Possibly. First could you post the output of:

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gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled

If that returns true we may be able to set it to false with

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gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled false

oh thanks,
tried that…
should i su it ?

password:
[cctvadmin@dhcppc7 ~]$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled
true
[cctvadmin@dhcppc7 ~]$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled false

** (process:24785): WARNING **: Command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=90386580b0542eeb8f17514000000197 --binary-syntax --close-stderr' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.\n

** (process:24785): WARNING **: Command line `dbus-launch --autolaunch=90386580b0542eeb8f17514000000197 --binary-syntax --close-stderr' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.\n
[cctvadmin@dhcppc7 ~]$

No you shouldn't need to use su. Does running

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gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled

as the normal user still say true? I just created a test Mageia 2 virtual machine with GNOME and ran the commands to test and once I had set it, the value became "false". Didn't get any of those warning messages though.

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[user@localhost ~]$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled
true
[user@localhost ~]$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled false
[user@localhost ~]$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.screensaver idle-activation-enabled
false


If it still says true then maybe you could try setting it in dconf-editor by installing the dconf-editor package and running dconf-editor as the normal user (not root) and go to org -> gnome -> desktop -> screensaver and unticking the "idle-activation-enabled" checkbox.

thanks that did it.

Then please mark the thread as [SOLVED].

This didn't work it goes to sleep after about 5 minutes, I did not realise because I was not on site..
It doesn't lock now however which is a bonus.

What about simply using gnome-control-center or System Settings as it is called under Gnome3?
Brightness & Lock, as it should be called in english, offers what you want.

But don't ask me how to reach it from the menu, as it was easily accessible under gnome2.
Just fired gnome3 up for the first time, and didn't find it in the few minutes i could stand it.
Somebody then told me it's available from the user menu / right top bit of the screen ...

I have looked for ever not found yet…

doktor5000 wrote:What about simply using gnome-control-center or System Settings as it is called under Gnome3?
Brightness & Lock, as it should be called in english, offers what you want.

But don't ask me how to reach it from the menu, as it was easily accessible under gnome2.
Just fired gnome3 up for the first time, and didn't find it in the few minutes i could stand it.
Somebody then told me it's available from the user menu / right top bit of the screen ...

Actually I have found that but the highest it goes to is one hour…
I need "Never"

Can you try if

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xset -dpms

in a terminal is effective?

doktor5000 wrote:Can you try if

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xset -dpms

in a terminal is effective?

Thanks that did it…
But Why ?

What do you mean why? This disables DPMS (dynamic power management settings) which is the same basic mechanic which is used by GNOME or other programs to control the monitor standby or things like that. But it will only be effective for that session, and needs to be redone after a reboot. For this purpose you can also put that command in /etc/rc.d/rc.local

I mean "Why" because I want to understand how it works… which you have told me… Thanks…
So do I just put the line

xset -dpms

in

/etc/rc.d/rc.local

or is there any other code that is needed at all ?

freetibet wrote:So do I just put the line

xset -dpms

in

/etc/rc.d/rc.local

Yep, exactly. But it would be nice to have a "never" option as you originally requested. Seems *buntu has a patch for that one in their Gnome 3.5.3, or at least someone told me that. So you may want to report a bug/enhancement request for that: https://wiki.mageia.org/en/How_to_report_a_bug_properly

BTW: If you want explanations, you say so. Normally i'm just too busy to explain every information that is written by me per-se.
But i've got no problems and actually it's welcome if someone asks for an explanation what this does and why and some context informations ...

Thanks so now my rc.local looks like this…

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#!/bin/sh
#
### BEGIN INIT INFO
# Provides: rc.local
# X-Mandriva-Compat-Mode
# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5
# Short-Description: Local initialization script
# Description: This script will be executed at the end of the boot process.
#              You can put your own initialization stuff in here if you don't
#              want to do the full Sys V style init stuff.
### END INIT INFO

touch /var/lock/subsys/local
xset -dpms



Now getting this….

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[cctvadmin@localhost ~]$ xset -dpms
xset:  unable to open display ""
[cctvadmin@localhost ~]$

You are doing this inside an X session right? And why do you run it manually, when it is in rc.local? Can you please provide some details what you did in the meantime after your last post?

freetibet wrote:Now getting this….

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[cctvadmin@localhost ~]$ xset -dpms
xset:  unable to open display ""
[cctvadmin@localhost ~]$

you have to add the display's name.

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xset -display :0 -dpms

alf wrote:

freetibet wrote:you have to add the display's name.

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xset -display :0 -dpms

Which is normally already defined via DISPLAY env var, which gets set by the desktop session ...
The question is, why isn't this set in his installation?

When the command is executed in rc.local the Xserver is not yet running thus the display name must be specified. (try the command on a tty).