In vt.c, "blank_state" will be initialized to "blank_normal_wait" in con_init() if AND ONLY IF ("blankinterval" > 0). If "blankinterval" is 0, "blank_state" will be "blank_off" (== 0), and a call to do_blank_screen() will always abort. Even if a forced blanking is required from the user by calling TIOCL_BLANKSCREEN, the console won't be blanked.
After Linux 4.12, blankinterval is 0 by default, which caused an unexpected breakage of previously working "setterm -blank force". "blankinterval" should not act like a kill switch for TIOCL_BLANKSCREEN. My original proposal was adding a new "blank_normal_notimer" to indicate manual console blanking via ioctl, however, it has been pointed out that that fix was unnecessary, since do_blank_screen() is safe to reentry. To fix it, we simply remove the "blank_state != blank_off" check. See Ref for a detailed discussion. Suggested-by: Nicolas Pitre <nicolas.pi...@linaro.org> Fixes: a4199f5e ("tty: Disable default console blanking interval") Reference: https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/20190225164346.1359-1-to...@tomli.me Signed-off-by: Yifeng Li <to...@tomli.me> --- drivers/tty/vt/vt.c | 2 -- 1 file changed, 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/drivers/tty/vt/vt.c b/drivers/tty/vt/vt.c index 41ec8e5010f3..279f5b2ac44a 100644 --- a/drivers/tty/vt/vt.c +++ b/drivers/tty/vt/vt.c @@ -4168,8 +4168,6 @@ void do_blank_screen(int entering_gfx) return; } - if (blank_state != blank_normal_wait) - return; blank_state = blank_off; /* don't blank graphics */ -- 2.20.1