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I am running the Debian wheezy beta and using my Pi to display my geckoboard dashboards using midori, as a result I want to prevent the screen from going blank, which it does after 10 minutes (though it doesn't seem to turn off the backlight). I have searched through the menu options and can not find how to prevent this. I came across a post on raspberrypi.org suggesting that the following:

sudo sh -c "TERM=linux setterm -blank 0 >/dev/tty0"

would solve the problem, but it does not work. I have also tried changing BLANK_TIME to zero in /etc/kbd/config without success.

Steve Robillard
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5 Answers5

76

This is an X power-saving thing.

Firstly, you may need to install xset, a lightweight application that controls some X settings.

apt-get install x11-xserver-utils

Now open up your ~/.xinitrc file (if you don't have one then create it) and enter this:

xset s off         # don't activate screensaver
xset -dpms         # disable DPMS (Energy Star) features.
xset s noblank     # don't blank the video device

exec /etc/alternatives/x-session-manager      # start lxde

This file runs once every time X starts and should solve the problem. I copy and pasted it from my own .xinitrc and can confirm that my screen does not blank.

Jivings
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28

The other solutions here did not work for me (fresh Raspbian, boot to GUI). Instead, this worked:

  1. Open up /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf using your favorite text editor (I prefer nano).
  2. Look for the line #xserver-command=X. Change it to xserver-command=X -s 0 dpms
    • It should be at line 87 if things don't change.
  3. Save and reboot.

Source

Aloha
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14

I think @Jivings answer may be better, but I have it in my notes to do this:

  • Install apt-get install x11-xserver-utils

  • Edit /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

Append these lines: 

@xset s noblank
@xset s off
@xset -dpms

Possibly also comment out the line that says @xscreensaver -no-splash, so the complete file should look something like this:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE
# @xscreensaver -no-splash

@xset s noblank
@xset s off
@xset -dpms

Also edit /etc/kbd/config and make sure these values are set as follows (however I believe this is only for when the lightweight desktop (LXDE) is not running (i.e. the pi is still in text / terminal mode):

BLANK_TIME=0
BLANK_DPMS=off
POWERDOWN_TIME=0

I believe that the /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart may be the sort of system-wide version of ~/.xinitrc but someone else probably knows the nuances better.

cwd
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10

To prevent the screen from going blank try adding consoleblank=0 to the end of the first line of /boot/cmdline.txt

Source

Tim Penner
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4

What worked for me was editing ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart and commenting out the screensaver, all the other xset commands didn't seem to affect it when it is started here:

@lxpanel --profile LXDE-pi
@pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE-pi
#@xscreensaver -no-splash

You might also need to add one or both of these lines to disable the power management:

@xset dpms 0 0 0
@xset -dpms

On the version of Raspbian Jessie I got the utils were already installed.

Jason Goemaat
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