Lcd Turns Off While Playing


john4p

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Feb 29, 2008
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When playing UAE4All sometimes the screen goes black. Maybe the LCD is turned off after a while not getting any keyboard- or mouse-inputs? You have to close the lid and reopen it to activate the LCD again.

It's happening while using dpad and actionbuttons to play - they're in "gamepad-mode".
Could it be the Pandora's powersave-mode doesn't treat gamepad-inputs as activity?

Where can the powersave-mode be disabled?
 
"xset" is the tool that should help you. With it you can set several X-settings.

"xset --help" shows all features

"xset q" shows you all current settings.

and finally with "xset s off" should turn off screenblanking (at least some s-related setting)

Unfortunately this is only being stored for the current session. Thus, if you want to make the change permanently, you have to execute that command on session-startup (xfce-start->settings->session and startup->application autostart | better use the full path "/usr/bin/xset" there).

!Warning! Some Pandorians had problems to launch X after adding the following lines, which means that your desktop will not show up anymore. Better do not try it if you do not know how to make your X start again without it. In the worst case you would have to reflash your Pandora. Click the spoiler to continue.

To make changes permanent I did edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following to the bottom of the file

Code:
Section "ServerFlags"
        Option "BlankTime"  "0"
EndSection
 
For a little more background and a superb cartoon relating to this issue see this thread on the official support forums.
 
Lomaxx said:
or do what i did and edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following to the bottom of the file

Section "ServerFlags"
Option "BlankTime" "0"
EndSection

Just a quick note for fellow Linux Noobs, to do this I had to type sudo mousepad /etc/X11/xorg.conf from the terminal.

Loading the file into mousepad from the GUI without the sudo would not allow me to save the changes.

Just rebooted the Pandora, all seems fine, now to see if it works.

EDIT : It works! :D
 
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It's really a problem with UAE4ALL, it's using the deprecated/undocumented/otherwise-unused/not-recommended-to-use "gamepad-mode", sooner or later it will be killed.
 
I just did this, copying it as it appears in this thread, and it left my Pandora unable to boot into X! It eventually dropped to a console (I'm not sure when, as I had to put it down to eat dinner after it hung), where I was able to remove the addition that I made to xorg.conf, by using nano (for those unfamiliar with it, this is a terminal-based text editor - it also happens to be my favourite such application :p ).

If this happens to you, log in with your normal username and password (the ones you set during first boot), and use this;

Code:
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Then you just need to remove the addition that was made, then press CTRL and O (to "Write Out" the file), enter to confirm that you want to save it, and CTRL and X to exit nano. Then type sudo shutdown -h now to shut the Pandora down. When it comes back up again, it will be able to boot into X normally.
 
Prometheus said:
I just did this, copying it as it appears in this thread, and it left my Pandora unable to boot into X! ...

How strange, I copied and pasted the text from this thread, the only thing I altered was the spacing so it was tabbed out like the other entries.

Have tried shutting down, restarting & logging on and off and it all seems to work fine. No more blanking in the middle of videos which is nice.

Am running HF4 final FWIW.

notaz said:
It's really a problem with UAE4ALL, it's using the deprecated/undocumented/otherwise-unused/not-recommended-to-use "gamepad-mode", sooner or later it will be killed.

Crikey, Notaz has joined the dark side and gone all Sony on us, my guess is the next firmware will prevent the running of unsigned code :p </joke>
 
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Mr Loon said:
How strange, I copied and pasted the text from this thread, the only thing I altered was the spacing so it was tabbed out like the other entries.
This is where I went wrong. I didn't think to add the tabbing.

You live and learn, eh? :)
 
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Mr Loon said:
Crikey, Notaz has joined the dark side and gone all Sony on us
You'd rather he go all Microsoft on us, leaving in bugs and inefficient undocumented code because some developers chose to rely on them instead of doing things the officially supported way? :p
 
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Prometheus said:
Mr Loon said:
How strange, I copied and pasted the text from this thread, the only thing I altered was the spacing so it was tabbed out like the other entries.
This is where I went wrong. I didn't think to add the tabbing.

You live and learn, eh? :)
I tabbed it, too, yet still had the same problem as you. Didn't think the console would show up so I did a reflash.

Now just added "xset s off" to UAE4All's runme.sh-script which does the trick (don't worry - I won't release this script with the next version).

Btw., killing the deprecated gamepad-mode doesn't sound like good news.
 
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Uh, people having problems? I will edit the post with a warning.
 
john4p said:
...
I tabbed it, too, yet still had the same problem as you. Didn't think the console would show up so I did a reflash.
...

Now this is really weird, can anyone think of a reason why this would work some for some but not others? Assuming we're running the same firmware version.

Also can anyone explain what might be preventing X from starting up when xorg.conf is changed in this way?
 
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john4p said:
Btw., killing the deprecated gamepad-mode doesn't sound like good news.
Dragging it would be major obstacle when migrating to new kernels. I really regret leaving it in release firmware.
 
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john4p said:
Btw., killing the deprecated gamepad-mode doesn't sound like good news.
It's not deprecated, it undocumented. It should never have been used in the first place, eh Notaz? ;)
Leaving in old, unused, possibly buggy code because some developers decided to do something they shouldn't have is a bad idea. That's what causes bloat.
 
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Mr Loon said:
Also can anyone explain what might be preventing X from starting up when xorg.conf is changed in this way?

If there is anything wrong in the syntax of xorg.conf, then X doesn't start. However i do not see why a missing or additional tab or space should break it. If you would for example only partially copy the code and leave out the S in the beginning ("ection "ServerFlags") then i am quite sure that X wouldn't start.
 
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