Berry Annoying

[Ed P]

Raspberry Pis really deserve their own subject area, but as they mainly use Rasbian Linux as their OS, maybe the Linux Forum is where they belong.

If you set up a Pi to be a media centre or mini Internet TV then you will soon have found out that the Pi will very annoyingly switch off the screen after 15 minutes or so then switch off entirely 15 minutes later. Even more annoying there is no apparent way of altering this default behaviour. Of course all good Pi users will then resort to an on-line search to uncover a whole slew of DIFFERENT cli commands that might address this issue.

I can however guarantee that NONE of them will work with the latest Raspbian Pixel as the Window Manager has changed again and the update will not redirect your arcane commands to the correct location. A further search will then uncover more arcane commands which also fail to work!

I have now given up on trying to fathom out where the various xset commands should be located as it looks like the developer has maliciously hidden the conf file somewhere else!

There is however a counter-intuitive solution — install the xserver-screensaver, run it and alter the settings to NEVER run the screen saver. This seems to work satisfactorily with Pixel. I leave it to others to figure out WHY on earth the Pi developers do not expose the power settings to normal users.

[RSB]

I can gladly add a Pi section if you like?

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Robin Long]

Might be worth having a Pi section.  I was thinking about a Pi, the other day, my daughter was showing interest in learning to code as one of her friends was given one for christmas, I was getting quizzed about a subject I know very little.

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[The Duke]

Yes ras pi, but also something for makers would be better. Actually ‘makers ‘ would be an ideal title , it could fit in ras pi and all its derivatives , plus ardino and all its clones etc..

[RSB]

Ill do it at some point today when I feel alive and alert enough to be trusted tampering with the software ?

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

A Makers Section sounds like a good idea.

Although Pis make fairly good Linux programming platforms, they are very horsepower limited, and the SD card is prone to turn into sintered silicon at the slightest provocation. However combining one into a make project becomes much more fun and potentially both useful and practical. My #1 son uses a Pi I bought him to act as an intermediary between his all-Apple setup and non-Apple Lightning and other home automation gear. When the kids give him time he plans to use Pis/Arduinos as home automation devices in their own right.

I guess you could add the MicroBitto the list as schools will soon be encouraging the 7+ kids to start programming them, (and it should be possible to tie Pis Arduinos and Microbits together in some projects. (Microbits have in-built stuff such as accelerometers and joystick interfaces.)

[RSB]

Ok well as I know jack about these devices, how many there is or what they are called please compile a list. So it will be main category and then sub categories. ?

Americans: Over Sexed, Over Payed and Over here, Wat Wat!

[Ed P]

The following are just some thoughts on how I mentally categorize my hobby, however there are probably two ways of broadly categorizing Maker Activity:

a) By subject (e.g. Media Centre, Security Cams, Home Automation etc)

b) By hardware (e.g. Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Micro Bit, – including all their many clones)

As the first way of categorizing gets big very quickly, I’d probably opt for the second way and add four broad subject areas. e.g.

Raspberry Pi

Arduino

Micro Bit

Education

Home Automation/Security

Programming/Code tips

How-To

I have no axe to grind on how these things are categorized, but I added Education because most kids are going to get thrown into this at 7 and most teachers know naff all about the subject so parents/grandparents will have to do their bit. Programming/Code tips were thrown in for the same reason

Home Automation covers all the pre-built stuff (Lighning etc), security cams etc

The last one I threw in as many people do not know the basics such as soldering, and where to start.

 

[The Duke]

the second way looks good , all as sub forums under the ‘makers’ or a better title if one can he thought off.

I only think they should be under a [incert title ] forum as the layout having one big list of forums on the home page I think would get to long.

[Les.]

Category title? How about “Mini-computers”

Les

[D-Dan]

I don’t have  pi, and so don’t know the file structure too well, but assuming that regular Linux structures are followed, try editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and adding in the “monitor” section:

Option       “DPMS”   “false”

And in ~/.bashrc

xset -dpms

(Why does this forum not support [code][/code] tags?)

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[JayCeeDee]

D-Dan wrote:

I don’t have pi, and so don’t know the file structure too well, but assuming that regular Linux structures are followed, try editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, and adding in the “monitor” section: Option “DPMS” “false” And in ~/.bashrc xset -dpms (Why does this forum not support [code][/code] tags?)

 

It does, if you click on the word quote, top right of each post, next to the post number, you can see the outcome.:)

[Ed P]

@Dan. If you check out the linked cli commands in the OP you will find that the Pi architecture is subtly different from standard Debian, probably due to its non-x86 cpu. Believe me if the solution was as trivial as modifying xorg then it would not have generated the pages of links you will find on the subject!

A trivial example of a major difference is that most monitor set-up commands such as overscan, hdmi, resolution etc are issued in /boot/config.txt

I thoroughly recommend the Pi to anyone who likes tinkering, or likes fighting an OS to bend it into shape. It can all be done without soldering, but a little soldering opens cheaper options.

[D-Dan]

@ John. I assumed that was for quoting the post. Duly noted for the future.

 

@Ed – Which is why I said the structure may be different, though I’m surprised something as fundamental and universally accepted as xorg.conf has been banished on the Pi. Maybe I should buy one.

Arch Linux, on a Ryzen 7 1800X, 32 GB, 5 (yes -5) HDs inc 5 SSDs, 4 RPi 3Bs + 1 RPi 4B - one as an NFS server with two more drives, PiHole (shut yours), Plex server, cloud server, and other random Pi stuff. Nice CoolerMaster case, 2 x NV GTX 1070 8GB, and a whopping 32" AOC 1440P monitor.

[JayCeeDee]

I thought that was what you were after. When you click the button, in the posting box below, it shows the quote and /quote , plus the words from the post, in [square brackets], – it just displays slightly differently from the MM forum.

If you click on the quote button you’ll see what I mean ( I hope:) )

[Author]

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