I use Gnome's gdm, but you might have xdm. The principles are the same.

The gdm X session manager does not have power saving enabled by default. Unless a user is logged in, the monitor never shuts off.

Here's the fix. Find the gdm configuration, either in /etc/X11/gdm/Init/Default or /etc/gdm/Init/Default, and insert something like this:

/usr/bin/X11/xset +dpms dpms 500 1000 1200

# only set the background if the xsri program is installed 
if [ -x /usr/bin/xsri ]; then /usr/bin/xsri -keep-aspect -scale \

/usr/local/share/Backgrounds/Lush_Garden.jpg fi

This also puts up a background I like.

-- PaulJohnson - 07 Feb 2003