Random Thoughts

After upgrading my TV machine (the old one wasn’t powerful enough to play BluRay media), whenever xscreensaver runs, the TV would claim to have no inputs.

I know.

After trying various things, I started looking at the DPMS stuff, because that’s, like, power handling and seemed like something that might be relevant.  Perhaps Linux/xorg/whatever turns HDMI output off when we get into “power saving” mode?  And doesn’t know how to switch HDMI on again?  Intel Xorg things are often kinda funky:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200
 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

So DPMS seemed like a likely guess.  However, I already had the following in my .Xscreensaver file:

dpmsEnabled: False

So what could it be?  Reading through the documentation, it seems like xscreensaver has gotten a new option called dpmsQuickOff.  (Makes total sense that if you have DPMS disabled, then “quick DPMS” would still be enabled, right?)

I disabled that in my  ~/.xscreensaver file, which made older xscreensavers on the other machines start complaining about an unrecognized option.  (Yes, I use nfs.)

Instead I put the following in the .Xdefaults file on the TV machine:

xscreensaver.dpmsQuickOff: False

And everything works perfectly.

If somebody had written this on the Internet somewhere, I would have been spared minutes and minutes of work.  So here you are, Next Person With Obscure Linux Intel Xorg Xscreensaver Blank Screen/Disconnect Problem.