2.14 Laptop screen problem

[jareno]

I'm running Puppy 2.14 from a USB drive on a Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop, When i close the screen on it and open it back up to use it again the screen is blank, all black, i can't move the mouse, go to prompt, nothing to get the screen back up, the only way to see anything again is to restart the computer with the power button. Help PLEASE!!!

[richard.a]

Just to let you know a lot of us have read your post and I suspect none of us have a Dell Inspiron to trouble-shoot it on.

Please be patient, my friend.

Richard in Adelaide

[jonyo]

If it's any help, I'm not having that prob at all on a gateway lap m-520. I also have pup 2.13 live cd on 2 other laps, gateway mx 3410 & an Acer something that i've not used in awhile. Didn't have any screen probs on those either but'd have to try them out again to check out the specific scenario to be sure.

[bostonvaulter]

do you still have windows? In your dell configuration thing or windows try setting it so that it doesn't hibernate or go on standby when you close the lid.

I have a Dell Inspiron 9200 and I have a sneaking suspicion that some of the settings carry over. If I start my laptop without the power plugged in when i do modeprobe ndiswrapper my comp freezes completely.

Jason

[jonyo]

I still have winx. No freeze probs.

[richard.a]

jareno have you tried pressing the Esc key? or the Spacebar? Or the Enter button as a last resort?

Did you know that Ctrl-Alt-Backspace should log you out of a session and back to the Prompt?

[jonyo]

Yea..what's up with that?

Have you noticed editing is always needed for the inevitable typos that weren't there when you hit the "post" button?

[richard.a]

Yea..what's up with that?

Have you noticed editing is always needed for the inevitable typos that weren't there when you hit the "post" button?

Ummmm that's my signature duh lol

Richard

[ugm6hr]

@jareno:

I have the same problem with my Dell Inspiron 500m. It doesn't matter whether I use a full or frugal HD install, or run from live CD - it does the same thing. And no key combintions bring it back, even Ctrl-Alt-Backspace,Esc, Fn-Esc or the Backlight brightness function keys.

Judging from various other linux help sites, it is not particular to Puppy, but an issue with Dell. I did find the following (about Dell 600m rather than 500m), but unfortunately don't understand Linux well enough to use any of the information. In fact, I'm not even sure any of it applies in this scenario. Perhaps someone else might be able to help?

http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportfor ... ad.id=7051
http://lcpc05.ac.upc.edu/aramirez/doku.php?id=d600

[ugm6hr]

Found a reasonable solution to this problem, that I hope will help other Dell laptop users:

Make a backup of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (in case it all goes wrong!)

Edit the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf (just click on it from ROX):

At the end of the Section "Screen" (i.e. just above the line EndSection followng Section "Screen"), add the following lines:

Option "PM" # power management
# first blank the screen, then turn off backlight 1 min later
Option "BlankTime" "11" # doesn't turn off backlight
# Option "StandbyTime" "10" # doesn't turn off backlight
Option "OffTime" "12" # Turns off backlight

At the end of the Section "Monitor" (i.e. just above the line EndSection following Section "Monitor), add the following line:

Option "DPMS"

Save the file as xorg.conf

Create an executable script (create a new text file, right click from ROX -> Properties -> tick all the "Exec" boxes under "Permissions") with a single line:

xset dpms force off

Save the script as screen

Copy the script screen to the desktop (drag from wherever saved to desktop).

Whenever you need to close the laptop lid, just click on the script icon (which should turn off the screen), then close the lid. When you open the lid, any key press or mouse click should turn the screen back on. Hope it works for others.

If anyone knows how to run a script at the time when the screen is closed, that would help automate it further.

[Pizzasgood]

I have a Dell Latitude 640 (as of last week). I noticed that mine does the same thing. I also found out how to bring it back. I don't know about the Insperon, but on my Latitude I can press Fn + [CRT/LCD]. The [CRT/LCD] is on the F8 key on mine.

Hope that helps.

[ugm6hr]

@Pizzasgood:
Not sure if I'd tried that before, but it doesn't work with my Inspiron 500m. So still looking for a way to run the script at the time of clossing the screen.

[richard.a]

Actually, getting to understand the Xorg.conf file is quite important because you can fix up up a lot if you know how to change things in it.

Something I discovered in the early days of the PC-BSD version 1.0 beta program; by default it installed as 1024x768 and the only way to change it was the FreeBSD way of editing the file! Blooming geek stuff!!!!

Running a whizzbang video chip and a 19inch monitor you had to do something to avoid huge blotchy icons on the screen

Nowadays they have an auto detection thing similar to puppy's.

But seriously, have a look at the file's contents, its separate sections, and you can see how if you get a better monitor, by typing the vertical and horizontal frequencies (from the label that's usually on the back) you can change monitor resolution to take advantage of that newer hardware.

But please do what ugm6hr suggests...

Make a backup of /etc/X11/xorg.conf (in case it all goes wrong!)

I usually back up all original configuration files I'm editing as filename_orig - because there is minimal editing needed to restore (in text mode) if it falls on its face.

Richard

[cthisbear]

Topics that may help:

Try Rudy Puppys defaults by Debernardis
Great for some laptops and Dell.
From this topic..no need to read all...I was prattling on a bit....the last bit below states it all.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 12&t=16791

puppy acpi=strict
acpi=noirq
pci=biosirq
pci=nosort
irqpoll routeirq

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=13458

Also try Xvesa instead of Xorg....works on my sisters
Toshiba laptop..core duo 1,7 with 512 ram ???
Chris

[ugm6hr]

@cthisbear:
xvesa loses the touchpad functionality of xorg (with tap turned off or side-bar scrolling on).

I found this file:
/proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state

This seems to determine if the laptop lid is "open" or "closed". Does anyone know how to run a script if this is "closed"?

[Pizzasgood]

The simplest way would be to have a daemon in the background that checks the file every so often. In this example it checks every five seconds, and if it's closed the contents (#do stuff here) get executed:

Code: Select all

while true; do
	if [ "`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state`" = "closed" ]; then
		#do stuff here
	fi
	sleep 5
done

You might want some flags to prevent it from doing the same thing over and over. This second example would execute commands when it first realized the lid is closed, and execute other commands when it first realizes it's open. Again, it checks every five seconds.

Code: Select all

#initial state:
LIDSTATE="`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state`"
while true; do
	if [ "`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state`" = "closed" ] && [ "LIDSTATE" = "open" ]; then
		LIDSTATE="closed"
		#do stuff here when it's closed
	fi
	if [ "`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state`" = "open" ] && [ "LIDSTATE" = "closed" ]; then
		LIDSTATE="open"
		#do stuff here when it's opened
	fi
	sleep 5
done

If you made a script with that, and launched it (with an ampersand to run in the background) from /root/.xinitrc before it starts the windowmanager, it would continue in the background until you exit X.