screenblank on color SS1 - v8 146

[Jeff Caplow]

This problem could be caused by your system having it's clock set
backward, or having once had it's time set to the future, whichever way
you want to see it.

Screenblank uses the accessed and modified times of the inodes for the
devices mouse, kbd, and console, to determine what action to take.

When screenblank compares the current time to the value of those times,
screenblank will refresh the screen if the current time is greater.

(Sun could fix this problem by changing the comparison to !=, as
Computervision has done for it's OS distributed on top of Sun'sOS which
goes on it's CADDStations).

The problem, thank god, is that the current time is not greater than the
future time.  The modified time for the inodes of the mouse and kbd
continue to have the value of the future time a system once had.
Additionally, when Suntools is exited the accessed time of the mouse and
kbd are set to their modified times.  Since the current time cannot be
greater than this future time screenblank will not reactivate the display
until the current time catches up to the future time.

Well, this can be worked around by executing (as root) /usr/5bin/touch on
the kbd and mouse devices with an arguement of the present time.

Jeff Caplow