Failing to power save the screen

[Michael Lueck]

For some time now (several kernel updates) power save of the screen on my desktop computer has been failing. The screensaver is left running / visible.

I loaded the system with Xubuntu 20.04.2 DVD image... it was the first release of 20.04.x that would boot on my new system.

It is based on a MSI MPG Z490 motherboard. It has an EVGA GeForce GT 1030 SC 2GB GDDR5 Low Profile Graphics Card 02G-P4-6332-KR video card in it. I run the NVIDIA Binary drivers, "Additional Drivers" shows I am using the nvidia-driver-470 package.

I use the Skyrocket screen saver that comes in the rss-glx package.

When it started acting up, then the screen saver would be left running visibly, the screen would not go to sleep / power save. An IPL (reboot) of the system would fix it and again power save would be entered successfully after the 20 minutes. Now even with a fresh IPL, first time the screen saver comes on, the system refuses to power save the screen. It will run all night in screensaver mode.

My system is now running kernel:
$ uname -a
Linux jaakob 5.15.0-41-generic #44~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jun 24 13:27:29 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

$ dpkg -l | grep linux-
ii binutils-x86-64-linux-gnu 2.34-6ubuntu1.3 amd64 GNU binary utilities, for x86-64-linux-gnu target
ii linux-base 4.5ubuntu3.7 all Linux image base package
ii linux-firmware 1.187.32 all Firmware for Linux kernel drivers
ii linux-generic-hwe-20.04 5.15.0.41.44~20.04.13 amd64 Complete Generic Linux kernel and headers
ii linux-headers-5.15.0-41-generic 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1 amd64 Linux kernel headers for version 5.15.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-headers-generic-hwe-20.04 5.15.0.41.44~20.04.13 amd64 Generic Linux kernel headers
ii linux-hwe-5.15-headers-5.15.0-41 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1 all Header files related to Linux kernel version 5.15.0
ii linux-image-5.15.0-41-generic 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1 amd64 Signed kernel image generic
ii linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04 5.15.0.41.44~20.04.13 amd64 Generic Linux kernel image
ii linux-libc-dev:amd64 5.4.0-122.138 amd64 Linux Kernel Headers for development
ii linux-modules-5.15.0-41-generic 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.15.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-modules-extra-5.15.0-41-generic 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1 amd64 Linux kernel extra modules for version 5.15.0 on 64 bit x86 SMP
ii linux-sound-base 1.0.25+dfsg-0ubuntu5 all base package for ALSA and OSS sound systems

Please advise what other diagnostics I may provide to investigate why the power management is failing to put my display into sleep mode after the configured time.
---
ProblemType: Bug
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.24
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CurrentDesktop: XFCE
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
InstallationDate: Installed on 2021-06-27 (384 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 20.04.2 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20210204)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
Package: xfce4-power-manager 1.6.6-1
PackageArchitecture: amd64
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.15.0-41.44~20.04.1-generic 5.15.39
Tags: focal
Uname: Linux 5.15.0-41-generic x86_64
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm cdrom dip lpadmin lxd plugdev sambashare sudo
_MarkForUpload: True

[lotuspsychje (lotuspsychje)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Please execute the following command only once, as it will automatically gather debugging information, in a terminal:
apport-collect 1981897

When reporting bugs in the future please use apport by using 'ubuntu-bug' and the name of the package affected. You can learn more about this functionality at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs.

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

apport information

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

apport information

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

apport information

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

Wondering.... are the NVidia binary video drivers preventing the screen power save?

I booted a laptop also loaded with 20.04 LTS, which has Intel graphics. That has the same screen saver / power settings. That machine did correctly put the screen to sleep mode... screen saver was not left visible and running.

[Michael Lueck (mlueck)]

Since Ubuntu updated the kernel package to:
5.15.0-46-generic #49~20.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 4 19:15:44 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

My screen has been power saving as it should. My uptime right now is 5 days... has not missed a power save in that time.

Are you aware of anything being corrected in this kernel package that would correlate with proper power save actions coming back?