Bill Kearney

Blanking a linux console

This has bugged me for a while. I finally got around to figuring it out. On a linux box if you want to control how the text console blanks it's screen you can do it with the setterm command. Specifically:

setterm -powersave powerdown
setterm -powersave 5
setterm -blank 5

Now my text console understands that after 5 minutes of no activity it can power down the montor. This is independent of APM as the kernel doesn't even have it loaded.

If you want the changes remembered then use

setterm -store

I figure some poor soul is going to STFW for words like 'linux redhat console text blank screensaver timeout'. I hope this helps them.