Unblanking a Linux Terminal Display I am running an Ubuntu Server that boots to the console. After a long wile, the screen goes blank and I cannot type or unblank the screen. Even the caps lock / num lock do not change states. I am however, able to SSH into the computer. Is there a way I can unblank the tty1 over SSH? Is it possible to do this from the keyboard + not logged in + blank screen?

I found a working answer on Server Fault from reddit.

Even though I did disable blanking, the screen still goes blank, but I can bring it back with a key press. I can live with that for now.

The trick was to install `console-tools` and configure it from `/etc/console-tools/config` to have


BLANK_TIME=0
POWERDOWN_TIME=0


Added on 2013-11-15: After an update, this broke down again! The display would blank and never unblank. This time I had to update the file in `/etc/kbd/config`. After fixing the file the computer remained on all night without blanking the display.