Having trouble with screen on and off? Here are some tips that could help

reviewsfornerds

@mumblebaj Thank you for this tutorial.

I have been able to modify the MMM-Remote-Control config to use these commands for monitor on and off, and the command “/usr/bin/wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --off” works in ssh terminal, however the log file shows the error “failed to connect to display” when running this as a cron job.

Would you have any insight as to what I could do? What would I need to provide in order for you to assist?

I am on Wayland desktop

mumblebaj

@reviewsfornerds Hi. Apologies for the late reply. Was away for the weekend.

Can you share your script that you are calling? Also the output of wlr-randr.

sdetweil

@reviewsfornerds said in Having trouble with screen on and off? Here are some tips that could help:

the log file shows the error “failed to connect to display”

yes, the command wants to know WHICH ‘display’ you want to control
and normally would get that from the environment variables of the terminal window you are running the command in

BUT

the module is running it in the background, with NO window, no env variable… oops…

IN addition, ‘specifying’ the window info may not work as the environment running the wlr_randr command was NOT started UNDER the window manager

how to fix THAT is beyond my knowledge… as each of these depends on different stuff…
(and you put it in cron, and cron runs as ROOT, not the local user you would be if you had a terminal window… even more fun)

captsi

Thank you for the tutorial, it solved my issues of sending the screen to sleep at night. For whatever reasons, I had to use wayland-0 and HDMI-A-2 on my installation.

mumblebaj

@captsi HDMI-A-2 is probably because you plugged into 2. Glad it helped you though.

sdetweil

@captsi said in Having trouble with screen on and off? Here are some tips that could help:

I had to use wayland-0 and HDMI-A-2

wayland is the software screen interface,
HDMI- is the hardware screen interface

langejos

@mumblebaj

Works great, but when the monitor switches back on, chromium does not start maximized and shows the infobar, both of which are managed in the [autostart] section of wayfire.ini. Is there a way to get the MM display back just as when the Pi launches fresh?

sdetweil

@langejos switch back to x11 in raspi-config

Gejakem

For me I needed to use wayland-0 on a RPI5 using the ribbon-display cable.
From the wlr-randr i got this

DSI-1 “(null) (null) (DSI-1)”
Physical size: 154x86 mm
Enabled: yes
Modes:
800x480 px, 60.028999 Hz (preferred, current)
Position: 368,332
Transform: 90
Scale: 1.000000

So I used DSI-1 instead of HDMI.
Also I removed the --mode information since i got something like “Mode 800x480 not recognized”, but apparently my display defaults to that.

BKeyport

@mumblebaj Course, I just switched back to X11 for now. 🙃

mumblebaj

@langejos I am assuming you ran wlr-randr prior to creating the scripts to obtain your mirrors current display settings and then using that as input in the mon.sh?

reviewsfornerds

Hello all and thank you for all the suggestions. I apologize as I never got followup notifications of your responses.

I ended up reverting back to the original desktop as I did not feel like fighting to change everything.

Again, thank you all for your time and help.

langejos

@sdetweil Yes, I did! I tried switching to x-11 and adjusting all parameters, but ended up switching back to wayland which works fine with a scheduled shut-down in the evening. Thank you once again for taking the time to lead me through this!

mumblebaj

For users who are having issues with monitor on and monitor off and looking for a cron job to start their wayland setup. See my original post with updates.

1a2a3a

@mumblebaj hey, do you know why my off job when i triggered it either manually or via the cron job, it turns the monitor off, but after a few seconds it turns it on immediately again…?

mumblebaj

Hi @1a2a3a . Honestly, no idea. I remember seeing a few posts from people having that exact same issue. Maybe if you search the forum for related content you may find something. I have not had the same issue myself.

1a2a3a

@mumblebaj I found this old thread of mine - https://forum.magicmirror.builders/topic/18318/mm-current-version-on-raspberry-pi-5-cannot-turn-off-monitor/32?page=4

Did you input the vc4 hot plug command?

mumblebaj

@1a2a3a I am a little confused. I am not having any issues after implementing my solution in this post. I thought you were having issues.

mumblebaj

@1a2a3a For the latest Wayland on off I use the new adjusted scripts.

mon.sh

#!/bin/bash
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
/usr/bin/wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --on --mode 1920x1080@60Hz --transform 270

mof.sh

#!/bin/bash
export WAYLAND_DISPLAY=wayland-0
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/run/user/1000
/usr/bin/wlr-randr --output HDMI-A-1 --off

This works pretty well for me. The screen eventually times out as there is no input and it turns off.

In addition to these I have these cron entries to call the scripts.

Turns the screen on at 6am and off at 9pm.

00 06 * * * /home/pi/mon.sh >> /home/pi/mon.log 2>&1
00 21 * * * /home/pi/mof.sh >> /home/pi/mof.log 2>&1