regression: non-X VTs stopped using energy star after xenial

[gregrwm]

as of xenial, non-X VTs timed out and powered down even if nobody ever logged in. but that's no longer true in bionic and focal.

if a VT is running X at all, whether that's running sddm and never logged in, or sddm and logged-in, or not running sddm and simply logged-in and running X started with startx, that VT will timeout and powerdown, even on bionic and focal. no problem there.

but a VT that's either running getty, or logged in and just running bash, will stay powered up and blazing away forever, if it's ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04, server or lubuntu. or centos 8.

so probably RHEL 8 too, so probably most servers, aren't being good energy star citizens anymore. something happened since xenial.

the util-linux package is used by both centos 8 and ubuntu 20.04, and contains both getty and setterm.

probably getty would be the place, that either used to call, or should now call:

setterm -term=linux -powersave=powerdown -powerdown=15 -store>/dev/tty0</dev/tty0

after giving that command, a VT running getty, or logged in and running bash, will then timeout and powerdown. i wonder why it's not happening anymore?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: systemd 245.4-4ubuntu3.4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.4.0-62.70-generic 5.4.78
Uname: Linux 5.4.0-62-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27.14
Architecture: amd64
CasperMD5CheckResult: pass
Date: Tue Jan 19 05:13:35 2021
InstallationDate: Installed on 2020-12-28 (21 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 20.04.1 LTS "Focal Fossa" - Release amd64 (20200731)
MachineType: Hewlett-Packard HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=C.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/fs/boot/vmlinuz ro root=UUID=a671d866-a05f-4b83-8714-0b448b1eeac4 subroot=/fs init=/fs/etc/g/subroot
SourcePackage: systemd
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 07/15/2014
dmi.bios.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.bios.version: L01 v02.33
dmi.board.name: 1998
dmi.board.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.chassis.type: 4
dmi.chassis.vendor: Hewlett-Packard
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnHewlett-Packard:bvrL01v02.33:bd07/15/2014:svnHewlett-Packard:pnHPEliteDesk800G1SFF:pvr:rvnHewlett-Packard:rn1998:rvr:cvnHewlett-Packard:ct4:cvr:
dmi.product.family: 103C_53307F G=D
dmi.product.name: HP EliteDesk 800 G1 SFF
dmi.product.sku: J6D79UT#ABA
dmi.sys.vendor: Hewlett-Packard

[Dan Streetman (ddstreet)]

This doesn't appear to be a bug; if you are having trouble figuring out how to use Ubuntu, it would be better to go ask for help at https://askubuntu.com/

[gregrwm (gregrwm)]

no, i say it's a bug. We shouldn't have to "figure out how to use" energy star features! they should just work out of the box. Especially on a server console that hasn't even been logged into!