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

[dvandom.livejournal.com]

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