DPMS(4)

📦 version 15.1, in freebsd 14.5, freebsd 15.1, nixpkgs unstable

💖 DPMS(4) — the VESA BIOS DPMS driver bestie 💖

Okay so welcome to the dpms(4) manual page, bestie! ✨ This is from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, and it's literally all about the VESA BIOS DPMS driver. We're gonna get into it, no cap. 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

dpms — the VESA BIOS DPMS driver, periodt 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

device dpms

That's it, that's the whole vibe check. Simple, iconic, no notes. 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

Okay so here's the tea, bestie: the dpms driver uses the VESA BIOS to manage an external display during suspend and resume. Like, it's giving main character energy in the power-management department. 🔥

When the machine suspends, the dpms driver turns the external display off. Bye bestie, see you never (until resume). 😭

When the machine resumes, it restores the display to its state when the driver was first loaded. Not me being all nostalgic for the original state—it literally puts it back exactly how it found it. 💜 That's so thoughtful of it, honestly. Obsessed.

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

  • acpi_video(4) — go check out its bestie over here too, iykyk 👑✨

💀 BUGS 💀

Okay bestie, this is the part where we have to be real with each other. 🙈

The VESA BIOS DPMS calls do not provide any way to identify a particular display or adapter to manipulate. Like, they literally just don't tell you which screen you're talking to. Not me trying to figure out which display is which and failing. 💀

As a result, this driver may have unexpected results on systems with multiple displays and/or adapters. So if you've got a whole setup going on—multiple monitors, multiple adapters—just know that the vibe might get chaotic. Fr fr, proceed with caution. ⚠️

🎀 Sign-off 🎀

This iconic lil page is from Debian, dated August 23, 2008, and it's DPMS(4) in the Kernel Interfaces Manual. Slay, we ate that. 💖✨🦋🌸💅🫶👑🌈⭐💜

📦 where this page comes from