This “trick” is now outdated and has been replaced by the much more reliable DSDT.aml file which automatically wakes the screen for you 100% of the time. The guide for it can be found here.
A lot of us on laptops using Intel’s onboard GMAX3100 are having to do something called the “sleep trick” to get our screens to display Mac OS X after you boot or reboot. The most common way to perform this trick is to set a hot corner (Expose) to “Sleep Display” and blindly move your mouse over to the spot, hoping it wakes the screen up and displays your new Mac. For most of us, this trick works well. For the power user (or those without Sleep), we’re constantly booting up and shutting down to save battery life.
The biggest issue is since Expose uses your user settings, you have to leave Automatic Login on for your user account to get access to that hot spot. This leaves our Hackbooks at risk for theives to just boot right up, and if they figure out how the fuck to turn on the screen, they’ve got access to all your data. Not anymore! By following my instructions below, you can have a more natural experience by forcing the display to sleep automatically during boot, BEFORE you reach the Login screen!
Download the SleepDisplay Hack
Drag SleepDisplay.app to your home directory. In Finder, this is the “place” that is shown with your username.
Open Terminal and type sudo su - then open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root), and at the top, add the following:
# Sleep display on boot
/Users/richard/SleepDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/sleepdisplay
Replace “richard” with your username, or the full path to the location of SleepDisplay.app plus the trailing path you see above. Save the file and type head -n 5 /etc/rc.common to make sure it’s in there. Good? OK. Now go to System Preferences, Accounts, Login Options and disable automatic login. Keep Expose set to the hot corner as a fail over in case an update wipes your rc.common changes. Now reboot. Need I say more? If you’re ever stuck with a blank screen, just touch your mouse and boom — it’s up. No hot corner bullshit. If for any reason this doesn’t work, the hot corner is still there so just pretend you’re looking at the Login screen, type your password and hit Enter, then move your mouse to the Expose corner.
Easy, huh?
April 17th, 2009 at 3:19 PM
i’ve only seen fleeting references to it… i’ve been meaning to research it, but WoW is pretty important… and it took forever to install it, and wouldn’t i need to go to 10.5.6 for it? i’m just not ready to do all this over again… if you can point me in the right direction, not involving reinstalling or being a computer engineer, i’d be interested. if i can’t keep what i got and do it, i’ll happily put the cursor in the lower left.
April 17th, 2009 at 7:11 AM
steve0suprem0- Instead of using this ancient trick, why don’t you just install a dsdt.aml on your system?
April 17th, 2009 at 4:32 AM
boy that was close. like others, this worked like magic… the first few times. luckily i was able to blindly log in and undo it. *whew!* great idea, i’m really pretty sad it didn’t turn out. awesome try, though. thanks.
March 20th, 2009 at 12:05 AM
The Chameleon DSDT.aml thing is great! Though this is still a viable alternative depending on your bootloader and how brave/knowledgeable you are. As the community releases newer, better stuff, we’ll continue to grow but this is still being used a lot even if your success is hit or miss.
March 19th, 2009 at 6:41 PM
I used to use this but it was very inconsistent. Now, you just need to do the dsdt.aml stuff and the screen wakes back up every time 100% guaranteed or your money back (for slow people out there, that was a joke; its a free patch)
March 13th, 2009 at 7:57 PM
Nathan, that’s how it works for the most part. It puts the computer to sleep — a mouse movement is still required (or should be required) to wake the computer up and the display to kick in.
There is now a fully functional display hack that doesn’t require any tricks. The monitor goes dark and 3 seconds later it comes back without touching any keys or the trackpad but you’ll need DSDT support through Chameleon or I believe PC_EFI V9. I had selected Chameleon during the installation of my XxX 10.5.6 (current), and the DSDT.aml fix file works flawless.
March 13th, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Thomas your right it did happen after login.
One thing i noticed though is when i did on rc.local when it got to blue screen then black and i left it it would stay black but if i moved the mouse at the blue screen the login screen will come up. Weird Eh?
March 8th, 2009 at 11:51 PM
This just does not work consistantly for me on my Dell D630, maybe one of every 5 or 6 power off and ons does it boot up to the login screen, the hot corners does not work for me but perhaps that is because I have auto logon turned off? Is there a way to make this work consistently? I have the entries in both rc.common and rc.local, I tried one then the other and both and the results are the same for me.
March 8th, 2009 at 9:32 AM
@Nathan – Login items do not start until you actually login so what you were seeing was that rc.local kicking back into gear. It works very on-and-off so you saw it working this time, not the sleepdisplay.app. Also, after you logged in, did your screen go black again?
March 7th, 2009 at 11:16 PM
Sorry for posting again,
I got it working fine now.
I leave it in rc.local and i also add it to login items in system Prefrences/Accounts/Login items.
it works every time just goes black for 1 second then the login screen comes up.
Nathan =)
March 7th, 2009 at 10:51 PM
Wth???
This time it went black had to type my password with nothing then do sleep trick omg.
Why does this happen is there solution to this?
Nathan
March 7th, 2009 at 10:26 PM
Thanks mate.
Got it working fine YEAHHHH IM SO HAPPY NOW.
I used rc.local because when i did with rc.common ages ago it wouldnt work.
Nathan
February 24th, 2009 at 2:30 AM
i dont understand this SleepDisplay.What must i do? please post screenshots. and another problem..dont work switch monitor fn+f8 to single monitor.It switch to single externe or laptop monitor but with no picture or some lines in monitor.thanks
February 19th, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Anybody have ideas on how to wake back up after changing resolution? While changing resolutions in games the screen stays blank with no hot button and no way to exit other than holding the power button.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:06 PM
I think you might be a little confused. The alternative to sleep trick is not to install the wireless driver, it is so that you do not have to move the mouse to the corner of the screen after every reboot.
January 27th, 2009 at 3:28 PM
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=51725&hl=1525
i used this and the files there and they worked llke a charm thanks
January 27th, 2009 at 2:48 PM
Thanks tom… the wireless script dont run…i dont know if i am doing something wrong…maybe a screenshot of this would help…i follow the steps and it shows no sign of runnig it just shows root on the left…
January 27th, 2009 at 6:49 AM
The instruction as very self explanatory. You do not need to aknow anything about the terminal to do this either. If you have ever used a keyboard before then this should be easy. Just follow these directions exactly:
Open a terminal window
Then type “sudo su” w/o quotes
Then type your password and hit enter
Then type “pico /etc/rc.common” w/o quotes
Then copy and paste the following or type it in if you cannot do so:
“# Sleep display on boot”
” ”
“/Users/richard/SleepDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/sleepdisplay”
You should have all three of those lines at the very top all w/o quotes. If you still cannot understand these instruction then I will post screenshots.
January 26th, 2009 at 10:33 PM
i dont know anything about terminal and i want to do this stuff…is there a video or something that can help??
January 21st, 2009 at 6:28 AM
I was just thinking about your sleep issue and I believe that there is a fix for it in the Dell Post Installer.
January 11th, 2009 at 11:32 AM
THANKS Thomas will take a look at this and will get back on this.
I also upgraded my Gigabyte mobo to 10.5.5 and was for a long time on 10.5.2 and also all there is working with no bugs.
The only thing still worries me is the reboot after the sleep…
January 10th, 2009 at 3:22 PM
I wrote a guide to updating to 10.5.6 you should use that to help guide you in the update process. The instructions can be found at the bottom of the 10.5.6 blog.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:23 PM
Thomas thanks a lot my DELL started the first time without the hotcorner!
You are the MAN :)
S7O NOW I’m going to backup as ALL is working fine after that I am going to read the topic about 10.5.6
Again Richard and Thomas thanks a lot for all you hard work!!!
January 5th, 2009 at 6:44 AM
rc.local is a hidden file so you wouldn’t just be able to search for it and find it. You would need to enable hidden files to do this. To place the text in rc.local, just open terminal, type “sudo su” w.o quotes, put in your password and hit enter. Then type “pico /etc/rc.local” w/o quotes. The file might have stuff in it but if it is blank, that it ok too. Just copy and paste” # Sleep display on boot
/Users/richard/SleepDisplay.app/Contents/MacOS/sleepdisplay” without quotes onto the first line. Then hit either ctrl + X or windows key + x ( i gorget which combination) You will see a little message on the bottom of the window when you type the right one. Just hit the y key on your keyboard and then hit enter. Lastly, type exit twice and reboot and you are done.
January 5th, 2009 at 2:05 AM
I dont seem to understand this. I cant seem to find rc.local or when i try to create it with text editor it dosnt seem to exist. Can someone please help me I’m kinda lost on this
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:41 AM
I may be asking for a little too much here, but is there anyway I can set it so the screen comes to life without me having to move the mouse because right now, after the screen goes black I have to wait a few seconds and move the mouse. Thanks!
December 16th, 2008 at 10:56 AM
I’ve found that you might want to put it in two locations, the original one (/etc/rc.common) and pasting it in a new file called /etc/rc.local. It does put it to sleep twice so to speak, but it’s barely noticeable and survives Software Update 110%. It has yet to fail me.
December 16th, 2008 at 7:44 AM
Actually, it’s totally random ! Sometimes it works, sometimes i gotta login without the users’ screen ! And it really bores me ! Like you have NO IDEA ! xD
But it doesn’t matter… on the other hand, the computer crashes sometimes… I can move the mouse, but everything else is motionless ! =(
PLEASE, if you can help me, I would be REALLY HAPPY !
Thank’s again for the tutorials ! It’s really helpful ! I’m gonna donate ! (how can i do that btw ?)
December 13th, 2008 at 6:53 PM
Same problem as Alun James and Thomas Piccirello here !
It worked the first time, then I have to login with the black screen and wake it up with the hot corner, I used common AND local. Common didn’t work, so I added Local, and it worked once. I was happy I thought it was gonna last… but I was just dreaming… too bad !
If you have something to help us with Richard, tell us, I’ll give it a try !
December 12th, 2008 at 8:24 AM
I know this sounds stupid, but how can i remove this, I tried to make this work but never can. Please help me Richard. I placed the file in Rc.Common first, Didn’t work, then, Rc.Local, Again didn’t work. it stays on a blank screen and i have to type in my password and then move to the hot cornet after logging in.
Thanks in Advance,
Josh
December 6th, 2008 at 11:28 AM
I followed the above steps editing rc.local and it works great. Thanks Richard!
November 29th, 2008 at 7:40 AM
Hi ! Does this hack work with OS X 10.5.5 ?
Thank’s a lot Richard !
November 29th, 2008 at 12:38 AM
Works absolutely great Richard, thanks so much. i was getting annoyed of the whole hot corner thing and the fact that there was only auto login, so this is really a great alternative
November 24th, 2008 at 10:06 AM
If anyone here has had success with this one let me know! I’m staying away from it for now because the Sleep Trick is almost a “standard” these days and breaking the graphics isn’t something I want to do right now on a production HackBook.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:56 AM
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=135184
November 9th, 2008 at 6:14 PM
The hack isn’t working with local or common for me. Like a previous poster had stated, it worked for me the first reboot, then on the next even the hot corner for sleep wouldn’t work. Used rc.local for this attempt.
Reinstalled and got to the original point, tried with rc.common first. SleepDisplay app didn’t run and the hot key ended up working so I was able to get back in, now I tired it with rc.local again, this time the hot key wouldn’t work so I had to blindly login and sleep the PC to be able to display everything again.
Pretty lost with this one, seems like SleepDisplay hasn’t be much of a trouble to others not sure why its one for me :(
Other than that dude great tutorial.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:51 PM
This tricked worked great for me. Thanks so much Richard.
October 24th, 2008 at 9:58 AM
spoke too soon! it worked great once, now I get black login screen and I have to login “blind” and do the hot corner standby trick.
October 24th, 2008 at 7:46 AM
I didnt have rc.local either, but just creatd it by opening it with text editor, pasting in the command and saving.
sudo su
pico /etc/rc.local
(paste in command)
(press ctrl+x to exit, press Y to save, then hit enter)
I also had to do
chmod +x /etc/rc.local
Now when I boot the screen goes black as before, but instantly comes back on without having to move the house!! :)
September 21st, 2008 at 11:29 AM
I can’t seems to find rc.local on my system… any ideas?
September 6th, 2008 at 10:18 AM
No problem! This also fixes the strange abnormalities with using the sleep trick after you’re logged in since you sleep and wake before you log into a user account. Secure and less of a pain in the ass :)
September 6th, 2008 at 10:14 AM
Just did this, putting it in rc.local, and it seems to work great.
This is a huge help, because I use this laptop a lot at school and it was really not secure with that auto-login junk. Thanks again, Richard.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:10 AM
Once you edit the file, save it by holding Ctrl and pressing X, then press Y to save.and hit Enter when prompted for a file name.
September 6th, 2008 at 10:06 AM
Once you’re in root, type pico /etc/rc.common.
This will open it up as a text file in the terminal, and you can edit it.
September 5th, 2008 at 2:39 PM
What do you mean with this:
open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root)
where can I find the folder etc??
August 31st, 2008 at 8:35 AM
“Open Terminal and type sudo su – then open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root), and at the top, add the following:”
I typed sudo su – now how do I open rc.common?
August 31st, 2008 at 5:16 AM
Got the answer. ;)
August 31st, 2008 at 3:48 AM
What do you mean with this:
open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root)
where can I find the folder etc??
August 25th, 2008 at 3:51 PM
Hm, I can’t seem to get sleep working, I just get a black screen when i press Fn+F3, it works, but i cant get back in lol.
July 26th, 2008 at 3:12 PM
“MacGirl” over at the InsanelyMac Forums let me in on something you guys might want to try. While I haven’t tested it myself, it appears that contrary to what the documentation says that Leopard has depreciated /etc/rc.local — it should still work! You guys might want to try placing my auto sleep trick in /etc/rc.local instead of /etc/rc.common because if it does indeed work, it *SHOULDN’T* be deleted or overwritten with upgrades. That’d be neato. Give it a try and let me know!