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.

''Note - you might need to explicitly add the line

Option "DPMS" "1"

to 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".