Path: utzoo!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!brtph3!brchh104!brchs1!bnr.ca!rice.edu!sun-spots-request
From: mayoff@cs.utexas.edu (Robert Mayoff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: screenblank/OpenWindows problem
Keywords: Miscellaneous
Message-ID: <1965@brchh104.bnr.ca>
Date: 18 Mar 91 17:28:00 GMT
Sender: news@brchh104.bnr.ca
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 25
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Original-Date: 4 Mar 91 23:25:12 GMT
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 57, message 21
X-Note: Submissions: sun-spots@rice.edu, Admin: sun-spots-request@rice.edu

I have six SPARCstations 2 and two SPARCstations 1+.  We run SunOS 4.1.1
and use OpenWindows 2.0 basically all the time.  The problem: screenblank
(I assume; OpenWindows doesn't appear to handle that function itself)
blanks the screen and goes to lunch.  I can tell that OpenWindows is still
running because by moving the mouse around and pressing keys I can tell
when then cursor is in a window - sometimes the machine beeps in response
to a keypress, indicating that the cursor is not in a window; sometimes
the computer does not beep, indicating that the cursor is in a window.
Killing screenblank remotely restores the screen.  I note that the
screenblank man page says

BUGS

     screenblank only checks /dev/console for activity;  it  does
     not  check  non-window  programs  from /dev/tty which bypass
     /dev/console . Consequently, screenblank will turn  off  the
     display  if  /dev/tty  programs  (for example, pixrect-based
     programs) are the only ones running.

I wonder if this is part of the problem.  Has anyone else noticed any
problems of this nature?  Right now I'm simply not running screenblank and
urging people to turn down the brightness on their monitors when they
leave (in vain - these people refuse to even log out when they're done
working), but it's not a very satisfactory solution.  Is there, perhaps,
another screenblank program available that I could use instead?