An Acronym for Display Power Management System.

Allows a monitor to change its power usage state to Standby, Suspend, and Off.

If you have a new enough monitor, you can use the xset(1) command to change the default timeouts.

''Make sure you have the line

Option "DPMS" "1"

in your /etc/X11/XF86Config file, in the Monitor section''

$ xset q ... ... Bug Mode: compatibility mode is disabled

DPMS (Energy Star)

Standby: 7200 Suspend: 7200 Off: 14400 DPMS is Disabled

Font cache

hi-mark (KB): 1024 low-mark (KB): 768 balance (%): 70

$ xset +dpms $ xset dpms 300 600 900

"xset q" shows the current status. (It says disabled). "xset +dpms" enables dpms. The last command says "go into Standby mode after 300 seconds without user input, Suspend mode after 600 seconds, and Off after 900 seconds".

If you want your moniter to turn off right now (eg: You don't want it glowing at you while you're trying to sleep) try

xset dpms force off