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fcgreg
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 Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:24 pm Post subject: Xorg DPMS (screen blanking) not working -- no APM |
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Good day to all,
I've been using my new AMD64 system on Gentoo for a while now and just loving it. For my day-to-day uses, almost everything is working perfectly. I'm posting back here to try and get DPMS working...
I've noticed that DPMS within Xorg isn't working. Xorg will only blank the screen... but cannot tell the bios to properly suspend or shut-off the monitor. I've noticed this in my Xorg log:
| Code: |
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
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It appears that Xorg needs this APM device to communicate with the BIOS. Is this correct?
I've checked my kernel config and everything appropriate is selected ("Power management" support, relevant ACPI options, etc.). However, I've noticed that only the ACPI tree exists within the config. I assume this has to do with an AMD64 patchset. Is this causing the missing device that Xorg wants?
Is there any way to fix this and get real DPMS working? TIA...
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Greg T. |
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evoweiss
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Joined: 07 Sep 2003
Posts: 1678
Location: Edinburgh, UK
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:31 pm Post subject: Re: Xorg DPMS (screen blanking) not working -- no APM |
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Hi,
| fcgreg wrote: |
I've been using my new AMD64 system on Gentoo for a while now and just loving it. For my day-to-day uses, almost everything is working perfectly. I'm posting back here to try and get DPMS working...
I've noticed that DPMS within Xorg isn't working. Xorg will only blank the screen... but cannot tell the bios to properly suspend or shut-off the monitor. I've noticed this in my Xorg log:
| Code: |
(WW) Open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (No such file or directory)
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It appears that Xorg needs this APM device to communicate with the BIOS. Is this correct? |
I don't think that's necessarily the case as I don't have APM in my kernel (compiled it without it) and can get the screen to blank just fine.
I've checked my kernel config and everything appropriate is selected ("Power management" support, relevant ACPI options, etc.). However, I've noticed that only the ACPI tree exists within the config. I assume this has to do with an AMD64 patchset. Is this causing the missing device that Xorg wants?
Is there any way to fix this and get real DPMS working? TIA...[/quote]
I'm not familiar with your system. In your xorg.conf file, do you have the following settings?
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Option "BlankTime" "30"
Option "Offtime" "30"
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and, in the monitor section:
Also, what windowing environment are you running?
Alex |
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Birtz
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Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 272
Location: Osijek / Croatia
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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APM is obsoleted by ACPI interface and will be abandoned in "near" future. But current Xorg do not support ACPI. So, if you don't use APM in your kernel, you can write;
| Code: | Section "ServerFlags"
Option "BlankTime" "0"
Option "StandbyTime" "15"
Option "SuspendTime" "16"
Option "OffTime" "17"
Option "NoPM"
EndSection
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To your /etc/X11/xorg.conf This will supress the warning and make your monitor go to standby after 15 minutes, suspend after 16 and off after 17 minutes. No need to use BlankTime since that has nothing to do with DPMS, it just blanks a screen to black 
To actually make use of your monitor DPMS capabilites you have to "tell" Xorg that you have DPMS capable monitor like this;
| Code: | Section "Monitor"
# .... other monitor stuff like
# Identifier "<MonitorIdentifier>"
# VendorName "<VendorName>"
# ModelName "<ModelName>"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection
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Take note that some graphic card drivers use dpms option too (e.g. Nvidia);
| Code: | Section "Device"
# .... other graphic card stuff stuff like
# Identifier "<CardIdentifier>"
# Driver "<CardDriver>"
# VendorName "<VendorName>"
# BoardName "<BoardName>"
# BusID "<BusID>"
Option "DPMS"
EndSection |
Cheers
_________________
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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Joined: 17 May 2003
Posts: 264
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:31 pm Post subject: Thanks for the info -- still not working |
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Thanks for all of the great info. I'm sorry now that I didn't add more information to my post. Sorry.
I do have DPMS enabled in the the config, in all the proper places. I should also note that all of this was working perfectly on my x86 Gentoo installation prior to my new hardware upgrade.
I had the server flags you mentioned in my xorg.conf already, but with the alternate syntax:
| Code: |
Option "standby time" "10"
Option "suspend time" "10"
Option "off time" "10"
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After your posts, I tried your suggestions:
| Code: |
Option "StandbyTime" "1"
Option "SuspendTime" "2"
Option "OffTime" "3"
Option "NoPM"
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That didn't work either. The monitor just goes blank after 1 minute, and stays that way indefinitely (until I "wake" it up).
Also, I'm not familiar with the "NoPM" option. Is that needed?
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Greg T. |
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Birtz
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Joined: 09 Feb 2005
Posts: 272
Location: Osijek / Croatia
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| Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2005 10:40 pm Post subject: |
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Option "NoPM" supresses warning about "missing /dev/apm_bios" in the log
could you try;
| Code: | | cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -A3 -B3 DPMS |
and post the result here?
_________________
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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Posts: 264
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 12:32 am Post subject: Xorg.0.log output |
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Thanks for the info (on "NoPM"). I figured as much.
Here you go:
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cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -A3 -B3 DPMS
(II) Loading extension XC-MISC
(II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
(II) Loading extension XFree86-Misc
(II) Loading extension DPMS
(II) Loading extension TOG-CUP
(II) Loading extension Extended-Visual-Information
(II) Loading extension XVideo
--
(==) NVIDIA(0): Backing store disabled
(==) NVIDIA(0): Silken mouse enabled
(**) Option "dpms"
(**) NVIDIA(0): DPMS enabled
(II) Loading extension NV-CONTROL
(==) RandR enabled
(II) Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
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Greg T. |
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Birtz
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| Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:43 am Post subject: |
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Your Xorg output suggests that DPMS extension is loading fine and that driver has enabled it. Well, I am pretty much lost here, your monitor should shut off or go in standby mode just fine ....
Let's try other approach, what window manager are you using? Do you have xscreensaver enabled?
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It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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Posts: 264
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:29 am Post subject: I'm using Enlightenment |
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| Birtz wrote: | ...
Let's try other approach, what window manager are you using? Do you have xscreensaver enabled? |
Yep, I'm with you... very strange indeed, especially since this same configuration worked for me prior to building my amd64 solution.
My window manager is Enlightenment (latest stable version). I don't use any screensaver ... if I need to lock the screen I use xtrlock.
Thanks again for the help poking around on this. I'm an experienced long-time Linux user but this one has me stumped. I appreciate the extra set of eyes you're giving.
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Greg T. |
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fcgreg
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| Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:45 am Post subject: Found something in dmesg |
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OK, I've done some more digging and found the following errors in my dmesg output:
| Code: |
psargs-0352: *** Error: Looking up [\_TZ_.THRM] in namespace, AE_NOT_FOUND
search_node 000001003ffe54b0 start_node 000001003ffe54b0 return_node 0000000000000000
psparse-1133: *** Error: Method execution failed [\_GPE._L0A] (Node 000001003ffe54b0), AE_NOT_FOUND
evgpe-0557: *** Error: AE_NOT_FOUND while evaluating method [_L0A] for GPE[ 0]
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These messages repeat over and over. If I'm correct, these are some kind of ACPI errors with my system. Do you agree?
I'm going to dig around a bit in my BIOS to look for anything off. Googling and searching in these forums so far hasn't produced a solid direction for me.
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Greg T. |
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Birtz
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Location: Osijek / Croatia
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| Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2005 11:33 am Post subject: |
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Well, I have never seen the ACPI warning/error messages you have posted anywhere (tried to google them also  ). I have few ideas, sorting them by time needed for completion;
1. Try running plain X (e.g. only "startx" from the console) and see if it works
2. Try booting gentoo with "noapic" and eventually with "noacpi"
3. Try installing ~amd64 nvidia-kernel and nvidia-glx (nvidia-kernel-1.0.6629-r4 and nvidia-glx-1.0.6629-r5)
4. Try installing ~amd64 kernel (2.6.11-r3 as of this writing) disabling IOMMU, enabling AGPGART
5. Try installing latest X (stable branch just get updated to 6.8.2-r1)
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It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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Posts: 264
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 7:25 am Post subject: Found part of the problem |
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Thanks again for your help. I've checked my BIOS settings to no avail -- everything seems correct and nothing is out of the ordinary. However, I did find at least part of the problem (see more info below)...
Regarding your suggestions:
I had already done most of these on my own, but just to be sure I went through each suggestion one-by-one trying to figure this out.
- I had already done #1 and #5 (I upgraded Xorg several days ago).
- Next I tried booting with the kernel option "noapic" and then with "noacpi" -- both to no avail.
- I have now installed the latest ~amd64 versions of nvidia-kernel (1.0.7167-r1) and nvidia-glx (1.0.7167-r1). Nothing changed after this, either.
However, your suggestions around the nvidia driver got me thinking... I edited my xorg.conf file and changed my video card driver from "nvidia" to the generic "nv" driver. Once I did this, the ACPI functions worked perfectly!
Therefore, my focus is now on the nvidia driver layer itself (or at least on a combination issue that includes this driver). I need to use this "official" driver for my 3D gaming support. I'll forgo the dpm support if necessary.
However, I haven't tried the ~amd64 kernel version yet. Maybe this is a combination issue with some configuration setting in there (and the nvidia driver)? What do you think?
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Greg T. |
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Birtz
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 9:51 am Post subject: |
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Well, at least we are getting somewhere
What kind of graphic hardware do you have? Since I have GeForce 6800 GT, I use "nvidia" driver in my Xorg also, can you check your driver settings and compare them to this;
| Code: | Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "GeForce 6800 GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "NoLogo" "true"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "CursorShadow" "true"
Option "DPMS" "true"
Option "FlatPanelProperties" "Scaling = native, Dithering = disabled"
EndSection
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_________________
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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Joined: 17 May 2003
Posts: 264
Location: California, USA
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 5:29 pm Post subject: Nothing added to card configuration |
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I have a nice video card (GeForce FX 5700), but my config for it is very simple:
| Code: |
Section "Device"
Identifier "GeForce FX 5700"
Driver "nvidia"
#Driver "nv"
Option "dpms"
EndSection
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In other words, my module settings for custom acceleration, etc. are all disabled. I checked this again last night just to be safe, now that nvidia may be the culprit.
One other thing to mention... I use the DVI interface between this card and monitor. That's the same configuration I've always run on this machine, but I wanted to mention it just in case that jogs someones memory.
Thanks again.
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Greg T. |
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fcgreg
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| Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 11:21 pm Post subject: Re: Nothing added to card configuration |
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| fcgreg wrote: | | One other thing to mention... I use the DVI interface between this card and monitor. That's the same configuration I've always run on this machine, but I wanted to mention it just in case that jogs someones memory. |
I did some further testing today and discovered a few things:
If I use "xset" to force a dpms mode, the only one that works correctly is "off". All of the others simply blank the screen but leave it running. For example:
| Code: |
xset dpms force suspend
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only causes the screen to go blank but not shutoff.
Using the following works perfectly:
| Code: |
xset dpms force off
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I'm wondering now if this has to do with my flatpanel and DVI combo. I used to run KDE instead of Enlightenment, so I wasn't using the global server flags within my Xorg.conf. KDE handles these timings and modes internally. However, I HAVE used these settings in the Xorg.conf before (and it works fine), but those systems all have CRT monitors.
Since flatpanels don't have a concept of "standby" or "suspend", I'm wondering if the following two statements are true:
- My flatpanel monitor doesn't support anything other than "off".
- Since the "nv" driver seemed to send my monitor to an "off" state, I wonder if it properly detects or maps the modes properly, while the nvidia driver doesn't?
One other thing I discovered:
I noticed that if I tell X to "standby" or "suspend" it will never go "off" -- almost like it is hanging. However, if I comment out the standby/suspend lines, it goes off perfectly fine.
Finally:
Since I can properly have it shut "off", and since that is the only mode that matters to my display, I'm just going to move forward with the other modes commented/disabled. I've spent SO MUCH TIME troubleshooting and testing this already that I'm not interested in digging any deeper -- it is now working for my configuration.
Thanks again for your time in assisting me though all of this! I appreciate it.
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Greg T. |
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Birtz
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Location: Osijek / Croatia
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:07 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Thanks again for your time in assisting me though all of this! I appreciate it. |
Not a problem, you're welcome
Since you have mentioned it ... I also have TFT monitor, and ...  ... it doesn't suspend itself nor standby
I never gave it much thought, I usually leave computer over the night doing ... well ... something and when I come in the morning, monitor is shut off, so I thought it is okay
Cheers
_________________
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
-- Rene Descartes
Don't have a childhood hero? How about Rob Hubbard http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/tcworh/profile.htm |
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fcgreg
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| Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 12:27 am Post subject: Something is still wrong, but oh well |
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I understand completely.
Something is still wrong with mine, in that merely enabling the "standby" or "suspend" modes is causing the subsequent "off" mode to never engage. Oh well -- I"ll just leave those two off altogether and let it turn "off" as needed.
Cheers!
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Greg T. |
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Gentoo on AMD64
