Turn off monitor using command line

I am runnning Ubuntu Server on my laptop. There is really no reason for the screen to be on. I have been trying to use this command to turn the screen off:

sleep 1 && xset dpms force off

The problem is I get the following error

unable to open display "".

Any idea what is going on / what is wrong? Any other suggestions for how to do this?

Solution 1:

To turn off monitor in console, the command is the following:

sudo vbetool dpms off

To regain control of the console on pressing Enter key, I suggest

sudo sh -c 'vbetool dpms off; read ans; vbetool dpms on'

Solution 2:

Try these commands...

To Turn Off:

xset -display :0.0 dpms force off 

To Turn On:

xset -display :0.0 dpms force on 

If your display turns off and then immediately back on then try the following which adds a delay of 1 second before turning the screen off. This give a chance for all events to be processed by the X server before turning the display off.

sleep 1 && xset -display :0.0 dpms force off