Bug 130001

Version:            (using KDE KDE 3.5.2)
Installed from:    Ubuntu Packages
Compiler:           ubuntu dapper
OS:                Linux

X controls all of the "standby", "suspend", and "off" times for monitors. So does xset, and so does the kcontrol display module.  I suggest the kcontrol displayconfig module should as well.  The reason is simple; the three distinct times are part of the DPMS standard. 

There is a reason for these independent DPMS times.  For example, even for my oldest monitor there is a big distinction between suspend and (active) off.  Suspend mode reduces the power use to 10 per cent of original while active off reduces it to 7 per cent of original.  However, the former only takes 3 seconds to recover while the latter requires four times longer to recover (including a de-Gaussing phase).  So when I use the display module I turn off standby (since my monitor doesn't recognize that), and I set the suspend time to a relatively short duration (since it does save a factor of 10 in power while not requiring much time to recover) with the (active) off time set to a substantially longer duration.  This essential independent control of the various DPMS times is not currently available with the displayconf module (which only controls the off time which I normally avoid except for very long durations because of the extended recovery time associated with it for my particular monitor).

Because of this wishlist problem and the separate much more severe displayconfig problems detailed in bug 128696, bug 129717, and bug 129999, I currently do not use displayconfig at all (although I am willing to try it again once these 4 bugs are fixed).  Instead, I use the tried and true display module which is part of Kubuntu dapper, but which is not displayed in any of the menus by default.  The way to remove displayconfig from the menus and replace with display is to edit /usr/share/applications/kde/display.desktop and /usr/share/applications/kde/displayconfig.desktop.  Remove the last line (NoDisplay=true) from display.desktop and insert it in displayconfig.desktop instead.