Nifty EEE trick: sidestepping standby when lid is closed

[dvandom]

Turns out there isn't a simple ctrl-alt-whatever keystroke trick to make the screen go to sleep, but I got the following code from the EEEuser forum to make it so that when you shut the EEE it just turns off the screen without going into standby (thereby preserving any network connections, but letting you save at least some battery life if you have stretches of dead time).

1.  Open a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+t) and type :
    sudo cp /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh.bak     

NOTE:  This makes a backup of the lid movement script (in case you goof – or
 don't like the changes you made)

NOTE:  All this is easier (less chance of error) if you copy/paste from here to
 the terminal.  Just remember that pasting in terminal is shift key+ins key

2.  Now type:
    sudo kwrite /etc/acpi/lidbtn.sh     

NOTE:  This will open a text editor so you can modify the lidbtn.sh file

3.  In the text editor you should see:
   
#!/bin/sh
LID_STATE=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk '{print $2 }'`

if [ $LID_STATE = "closed" ] ; then
          /etc/acpi/suspend2ram.sh
fi
exit 0

4.  Replace that with the following (copying and pasting is the easiest):

#!/bin/sh
LID_STATE=`cat /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state | awk '{print $2 }'`

if [ $LID_STATE = "closed" ] ; then
        # All the lines below must have the # in front to leave the computer on upon lid closure 
        # Delete the # before the line below to let the computer suspend to ram on lid closure     
        # /etc/acpi/suspend2ram.sh
        # Delete the # before the line below to let the computer shutdown on lid closure 
        # sudo /sbin/fastshutdown.sh
  su user -c "DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force suspend"
elif [ $LID_STATE = "open" ] ; then
  su user -c "DISPLAY=:0 xset dpms force on"
fi
exit 0

NOTE:   All the lines with # in front of them are automatically wordwrapped
 due to the size of this screen.  They are actually one complete line...

5.  Save your changes     (in the editor menu, select "File", then "save")
6.  Quit the text editor     (select "quit" from the menu)
7.  Exit terminal      (type "exit", then )
8.  Re-boot your PC

I'll have to give it a try when I get home, I decided not to bring the EEE along to work today because I'm gonna go see 10,000 BC right after work and don't want to leave it in the cold car all afternoon.

Comments

[grant-p.livejournal.com]

Or you could bring it along and use its webcam to make a MYSTing of the movie, then get arrested for copyright violation or something.

On that note, I think the EEE's OS is entirely open-source, but I could be wrong. Do you happen to know if it can be downloaded (legally) from somewhere? I still can't hope to buy one right now, but I'm thinking about setting up another virtual machine on my laptop to play with it. I want to see some of how it works!

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Xandros is semi-open, from what I hear. Try the EEEuser forum (http://forum.eeeuser.com) to see if anyone's got a pointer to DL'ing it.

BTW, just checked Rottentomatoes.com on 10,000 B.C. 10%, woot. The few critics who liked it were either CG fans or reveled in the cheese factor. Definite bot-fodder. Sadly, just making a one minute video with the EEE's webcam took something like ten minutes to process, trying to do a whole movie would kill it.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't see how that ... Oh, I see, it's telling the display what to do, whereas suspend2ram is the entire running environment.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Right. I'm told it rewrites the instructions for what to do when the lid closes, so instead of "lid close = standby" it's "lid close = screen goes black".

[sweh.livejournal.com]

Not sure why it'd need a reboot. This script should get called on lid open/close events and instead of calling suspend2ram.sh you're calling the relevant "xset dpms" command instead. Messy with "su" stuff, but in this limitted environment it should work just fine.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

Probably doesn't need a reboot, the person I got the code from admitted she was doing things as "dumb" as possible to make sure she didn't leave out anything important.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

It works.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

You got an EEE, or just tried it out on a different Linux laptop?

Anyway, just put it in on mine (wrote different commenting, though), and it works here too. Woot. No need to reboot.

[foomf.livejournal.com]

yes, after an unnecessary night waiting due to apt mgrs leaving at 5pm Weds, UPS arrived 5:10, I arrived 5:15, it was there when I got home Thurs. at 4:30pm.

So, I've currently won the Best Gadget hat at the office. Until the next Cool Thing.

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

And jarodrussell just turned another interesting shade of green. ;)