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Idea #1046: Cut power to the screen when laptop lid is closed.

bug This idea is a duplicate of Idea #81: Power Management.
Written by zdenik the 29 Feb 08 at 07:05. Category: System. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
On the power management preferences screen it would be nice if the "Blank screen" option actually put the screen to sleep (turn the back-light off).

When I close the lid on my laptop I see no reason for the back-light to stay on. And, for me, having the screen turn off when I close the lid is preferable to putting the laptop into standy or hybernate.

Tags: laptop power

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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #1046
Written by zdenik the 29 Feb 08 at 07:05.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #1046 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Comments
sketec wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 07:14
Some laptops, mine included, do turn off the display when the lid is shut.

weijie90 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 07:33
Test whether your screen can be shut off with the command:

xset dpms force off

zdenik wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 08:38
weiji90,

I already tested it by setting the "put display to sleep when inactive" to the lowest value and then waiting to see what happens. It does turn the back-light off (put the screen to sleep).

But thanks for the tip! Not only can I now setup a script or alias to power off my screen when needed... no, wait... My stupid laptop wakes the screen back up when I close the lid!

Maybe that's the problem. The "Blank screen" option IS putting the screen to sleep, but closing the lid on my Dell E1505 is doing something that's causing the screen to wake up again after the fact. AAARGH!

Maybe our most excellent and bodacious Ubuntu developers can make the OS smart enough to intercept whatever signal the laptop is sending and prevent it from waking up the screen? :)

Here's hoping!

Z

bigdufstuff wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 13:59
This is really what _SHOULD_ happen. If it doesn't happen on your set up it is a bug and should reported as such in launchpad.

danne wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 14:13
Already works like that for me.

webs05 wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 15:04
There is already a power management Ubuntu Idea that has 1000 more votes than this one...

Duplicate.

Lee wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 20:52
Some laptops need to shutdown when the screen is closed, as they overheat without the ventilation that happens through the keyboard. If implementing this idea, please consider that and properly research the issue.

rawsausage wrote on the 29 Feb 08 at 22:59
This is acpi event problem I guess.

softsaurus wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 17:34
Very good point,

Ubuntu often jams my laptop upon lid close.
I have tried the blacklisting method described on the Ubuntu Forum, but that's just some silly workaround if you'd ask me.
I hope this is fixed in the upcomming release, Gutsy gibbon is the only one since 4 generations Ubuntu that contains this bug. At least that's my experience ;).

Thanks!

jamessnell wrote on the 2 Mar 08 at 19:29
Most laptops I've run Ubuntu on turn the screen off upon lid close as expected. You're experiencing a bug for existing features. So I guess this post is really on improving power management support.

andrewfenn wrote on the 5 Mar 08 at 22:38
Mine has always done this.

yzarc wrote on the 12 Mar 08 at 00:20
I have a dell and when I shut the screen it gets the light off but if I press the media's keys or use the usb mouse the light turns on and stay so till it turns off by idle after at least 11 minutes :(

DarwinAwardWinner wrote on the 21 Mar 08 at 04:25
This should work if nothing else does, assuming your laptop lid sends proper ACPI events: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=358432

salmiak911 wrote on the 3 Apr 08 at 09:49
My ubuntu Freezes whatever option i have for the Laptop lid. Even when do nothing is selected...

Medieval Cow wrote on the 8 Apr 08 at 19:57
For what it's worth, I have a Dell E1505N. I had been running Kubuntu, and the backlight would turn off when I closed my laptop lid with the "blank screen" setting on. I recently switched to Ubuntu and GNOME, and have noticed the same behavior as the poster of this bug. The screen goes blank, but the backlight still stays on while the lid is closed.

mrjobson wrote on the 6 May 08 at 12:42
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/7846/

drinkypoo wrote on the 8 May 08 at 15:31
This is not a wish list item, this is a bug. Try disabling acpi, and installing apm.

Ubun2ideas wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 20:33
Maybe you could give a sleep command to delay the turning off of the backlighting. That might allow you to issue the command, close the laptop lid, and then the command will (hopefully) turn the screen off.

Try:
sleep 10; xset s activate
or
sleep 10; xset dpms force off

Sleep time is in seconds. You can test it out with different sleep values to see if it makes any difference.

Good luck.

Ubun2ideas wrote on the 1 Jul 08 at 20:44
Check out my related idea:

http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/10585/
Idea #10585: Give 'Lock Screen' applet option to 'Power Down Screen' -- useful for laptop


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