<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Screensavers</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Linux Ecology-HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Reduction of Power Consumption" HREF="ecology-howto-power-consumption.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs" HREF="ecology-howto-monitor.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Virtual Servers" HREF="ecology-howto-virtualservers.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="sect1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Linux Ecology-HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="ecology-howto-monitor.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Chapter 1. Reduction of Power Consumption</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="ecology-howto-virtualservers.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect1" ><H1 CLASS="sect1" ><A NAME="ecology-howto-screensavers" ></A >1.4. Screensavers</H1 ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="ecology-howto-screensaver-progs" ></A >1.4.1. Screensaver Programs</H2 ><P > Do they only prevent the screen from being burned in or do they save power, too? </P ><P > Some recommendations from Wade W. Hampton: Screensavers usually display graphics, look for ETI, or perform other tasks. When using your screensaver in this manner, you may actually consume MORE power. For example a computer using XSETI as a screensaver might get far warmer (hence use more power) than when it was being used to edit a document or perform a compile. </P ><P > Some screen saver programs: <P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P > The purpose of <B CLASS="command" >xscreensaver</B > is to display pretty pictures on your screen when it is not in use, in keeping with the philosophy that unattended monitors should always be doing something interesting, just like they do in the movies. The benefit that this program has over the combination of the <B CLASS="command" >xlock</B > and <B CLASS="command" >xautolock</B > programs is the ease with which new graphics hacks can be installed: you don't need to recompile this program to add a new display mode, you just change some resource settings. Any program which can be invoked in such a way that it draws on the root window of the screen can now be used as a screensaver without modification. The programs that are being run as screensavers don't need to have any special knowledge about what it means to be a screensaver. </P ></LI ><LI ><P > <B CLASS="command" >LockVC</B > is a console-locking-program combined with a starfield screensaver. Executing LOCKVC on a virtual console brings up a starfield that starts to rotate around all three axes. </P ></LI ></UL > </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="sect2" ><H2 CLASS="sect2" ><A NAME="ecology-howto-display-power" ></A >1.4.2. Display Power Control</H2 ><P > To really save power, and if your X server plus monitor supports it, use the <B CLASS="command" >dpms</B > option of <B CLASS="command" >xset</B > (see the manual page for <B CLASS="command" >xset</B >). For example, to enable the DPMS (Energy Star) features of you X server: <B CLASS="command" >xset +dpms</B > </P ><P > You may also manually change the mode of your X display: </P ><TABLE BORDER="0" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="programlisting" > xset dpms force standby xset dpms force suspend xset dpms force off </PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P > Note that <B CLASS="command" >suspend</B > and <B CLASS="command" >off</B > usually save much more energy than just <B CLASS="command" >standby</B >, especially in CRT displays. </P ><P > According to manufacturers, switching off LCD displays more often doesn't reduce their lifetime. As user can easily notice, there is no significant penalty either between suspend and off modes in terms of switching on time. </P ><P > In modern graphical desktop environments (like Gnome and KDE), it is easy to configure automatic display switch off after a given inactivity timeout: </P ><P ></P ><UL ><LI ><P > KDE display power management: configure it in <B CLASS="command" >Control Center -> Peripherals -> Display -> Power Control</B >. </P ></LI ><LI ><P > Gnome display power management: configure it in <B CLASS="command" >Desktop -> Preferences -> Screensaver -> AdvancedControl Center -> Peripherals -> Display -> Power Control</B >. </P ></LI ></UL ><P > AFAIK a CRT consumes on the order of 25 percent more power when displaying a <B CLASS="command" >plain white</B > screen than displaying a <B CLASS="command" >plain black</B > screen. So, a screensaver that's mostly black can help save power, even if it doesn't actually use DPMS to power down the screen. Of course, one that's very bright and colourful, or that keeps the CPU running fast is not much help. </P ></DIV ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ecology-howto-monitor.html" ACCESSKEY="P" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ecology-howto-virtualservers.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Turn Monitor off, use Keyboard LEDs</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="ecology-howto-power-consumption.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Virtual Servers</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >