Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

7.7 - How do I blank my console? (wscons)
If you wish to blank your console after a period of inactivity without using X, you can alter the 
following 
wscons(4)
variables: 
●
display.vblank
set to 
on
will disable the vertical sync pulse, which will cause many 
monitors to go into an "energy saver" mode. This will require more time to bring the screen back 
on, but will reduce energy consumption and heat production of newer monitors. When set to 
off
, the display will blank, but the monitor will still be receiving the normal horizontal and 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq7.html (7 of 14)9/4/2011 10:02:08 AM

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7 - Keyboard and Display Controls
vertical sync pulses, so the unblanking will be almost instant. 
●
display.screen_off
determines the blanking time in thousandths of a second, i.e., 60000 
would set the timeout to one minute. 
●
display.kbdact
determines if keyboard activity will restore the blanked screen. Usually, this 
is desirable. 
●
display.outact
determines if screen output will restore the blanked screen. 
You can set these variables at the command line using the 
wsconsctl(8)
 command: 
# wsconsctl display.screen_off=60000
display.screen_off -> 60000
or set them permanently by editing 
/etc/wsconsctl.conf
 so these changes take place at next boot: 
display.vblank=on # enable vertical sync blank
display.screen_off=600000 # set screen blank timeout to 10 
minutes
display.kbdact=on # Restore screen on keyboard 
input
display.outact=off # Restore screen on display 
output
The blanker is activated when either 
display.kbdact
or 
display.outact
is set to "
on
".