Manage Linux console screen by commands?

How to manage Linux console screen by commands?

  • When the screen will be blanked?

  • Put the screen into powerdown mode or power off the screen?

2 tools are useful for managing the console screen on Linux:

setterm – set terminal attributes.
vbetool – run real-mode video BIOS code to alter hardware state.

When the screen will be blanked?

setterm -blank

-blank [0-60|force|poke] (virtual consoles only)

Sets the interval of inactivity, in minutes, after which the screen will be automatically blanked (using APM if available). Without an argument, gets the blank status (returns which vt was blanked or zero for unblanked vt). The force option keeps screen blank even if a key is pressed.

The poke option unblank the screen.

Put the screen into powerdown mode or power off the screen?

vbetool dpms off

dpms

vbetool will use the VESA 0x4f10 extensions to alter the power management state of your screen. “On”, “off”, “standby”, “suspend” and “reduced” are acceptable further options and determine which state will be activated.

Eric Ma

Eric is a systems guy. Eric is interested in building high-performance and scalable distributed systems and related technologies. The views or opinions expressed here are solely Eric's own and do not necessarily represent those of any third parties.

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