Can't turn off display using vbetool dpms off

For about a year now I was able to use the following command to turn off the display on my laptop from the console (UI/Gnome fully disabled):

sudo vbetool dpms off

I had this in a cron job and it worked fine, but recently I noticed it had stopped working. When I run it manually, I get the following message:

Real mode call failed

I also tried xrandr but I get the following message:

Can't open display

Any idea what is going on? I couldn’t find any useful info by searching online.

I’m also open to any other command to turn off the display. This laptop is basically a headless server so I want to keep the display turned off at all times.

EDIT: Output of inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width:

System:
  Kernel: 5.10.117-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.10-x86_64
    root=UUID=f137a55a-3150-4781-9f00-46044bfcfe2f rw quiet splash apparmor=1
    security=apparmor resume=UUID=b9c6be8d-177b-469c-9ed3-1bce98a9bd1a
    udev.log_priority=3
  Console: pty pts/1 DM: GDM v: 42.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: HP product: HP Pavilion Gaming Notebook
    v: Type1ProductConfigId serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: HP model: 80A9 v: 91.1C serial: <superuser required> UEFI: Insyde
    v: F.77 date: 12/18/2015
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 0% condition: 17.5/17.5 Wh (100.0%) volts: 11.8 min: 15.2
    model: Hewlett-Packard Primary type: Li-ion serial: N/A status: N/A
Memory:
  RAM: total: 7.61 GiB used: 1.17 GiB (15.3%)
  RAM Report:
    permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required.
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-6700HQ bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S
    family: 6 model-id: 0x5E (94) stepping: 3 microcode: 0xF0
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
    L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 969 high: 1000 min/max: 800/3500 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 900 2: 911 3: 941 4: 1000
    5: 1000 6: 1000 7: 1000 8: 1000 bogomips: 41621
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 bmi1 bmi2 bts clflush clflushopt
    cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16 cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts
    epb erms est f16c flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fxsr hle ht hwp
    hwp_act_window hwp_epp hwp_notify ibpb ibrs ida intel_pt invpcid
    invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe mpx msr mtrr
    nonstop_tsc nopl nx pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm pdpe1gb pebs pge pln
    pni popcnt pse pse36 pti pts rdrand rdseed rdtscp rep_good rtm sdbg sep
    smap smep ss ssbd sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tsc
    tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer vme x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt
    xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: spec_store_bypass
    mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1
    mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
    STIBP: conditional, RSB filling
  Type: srbds mitigation: Microcode
  Type: tsx_async_abort mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: i915
    v: kernel ports: active: eDP-1 empty: HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0
    chip-ID: 8086:191b class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: NVIDIA GM107M [GeForce GTX 950M] vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: nvidia v: 510.73.05 alternate: nouveau,nvidia_drm non-free: 515.xx+
    status: current (as of 2022-05) arch: Maxwell pcie: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s
    lanes: 8 link-max: lanes: 16 bus-ID: 01:00.0 chip-ID: 10de:139a
    class-ID: 0302
  Device-3: Chicony HP Truevision HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo
    bus-ID: 1-3:3 chip-ID: 04f2:b50c class-ID: 0e02
  Display: server: X.org v: 1.21.1.3 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.1
    compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: modesetting,nvidia
    alternate: fbdev,nouveau,nv,vesa gpu: i915 tty: 103x31
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Samsung 0x5844 built: 2015 res: 1920x1080 dpi: 142
    gamma: 1.2 size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9
    modes: 1920x1080
  Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 100 Series/C230 Series Family HD Audio
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a170 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.10.117-1-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 15.0 running: yes
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.51 running: no
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless 3165 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel pcie: gen: 1
    speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 08:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:3165 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlo1 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Realtek RTL810xE PCI Express Fast Ethernet
    vendor: Hewlett-Packard driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s
    lanes: 1 port: 3000 bus-ID: 09:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8136 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> scope: global broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic mngtmpaddr noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 1-7:5 chip-ID: 8087:0a2a class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Supported mdraid levels: raid1
  Device-1: md127 maj-min: 9:127 type: mdraid level: mirror status: active
    size: 1.82 TiB
  Info: report: 2/2 UU blocks: 1953381440 chunk-size: N/A super-blocks: 1.2
  Components: Online:
  0: sdb1 maj-min: 8:17 size: 1.82 TiB
  1: sdd1 maj-min: 8:49 size: 1.82 TiB
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: raw: 10.01 TiB usable: 8.19 TiB used: 1.31 TiB (16.0%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM014-1EJ164-SSHD
    size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s
    type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter> rev: HKR1 scheme: GPT
  ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: Seagate
    model: ST2000DM001-1CH164 size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: Western Digital
    model: WD60EZRZ-00RWYB1 size: 5.46 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 4096 B type: HDD rpm: 5700 serial: <filter> rev: 1065 scheme: MBR
  ID-4: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 type: USB vendor: Seagate
    model: ST2000DM001-1CH164 size: 1.82 TiB block-size: physical: 4096 B
    logical: 512 B type: HDD rpm: 7200 serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
  ID-5: /dev/sde maj-min: 8:64 type: USB vendor: Garmin model: FR235
    size: 11.8 MiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B type: N/A
    serial: <filter> rev: 1.00
  Optical-1: /dev/sr0 vendor: hp model: DVDRW DU8A6SH rev: DH61
    dev-links: cdrom
  Features: speed: 24 multisession: yes audio: yes dvd: yes
    rw: cd-r,cd-rw,dvd-r,dvd-ram state: running
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 922.42 GiB size: 906.86 GiB (98.31%)
    used: 117.65 GiB (13.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2 maj-min: 8:2 label: N/A
    uuid: f137a55a-3150-4781-9f00-46044bfcfe2f
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%)
    used: 288 KiB (0.1%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: B65A-BE5F
  ID-3: /mnt/bigdrive raw-size: 5.46 TiB size: 5.46 TiB (100.00%)
    used: 1.08 TiB (19.8%) fs: ntfs dev: /dev/sdc1 maj-min: 8:33 label: My Book
    uuid: F4CAFC8BCAFC4B7E
  ID-4: /mnt/raid1 raw-size: 1.82 TiB size: 1.79 TiB (98.37%)
    used: 115.08 GiB (6.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/md127 maj-min: 9:127 label: N/A
    uuid: ddf5fb4a-dc87-4a8a-afe1-0c4f1cb26ca3
  ID-5: /run/media/mango/GARMIN raw-size: 11.8 MiB size: 11.8 MiB (99.71%)
    used: 1.2 MiB (10.2%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/sde maj-min: 8:64 label: GARMIN
    uuid: N/A
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 60 (default) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 8.8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2
    dev: /dev/sda3 maj-min: 8:3 label: N/A
    uuid: b9c6be8d-177b-469c-9ed3-1bce98a9bd1a
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 16 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-1:7 info: Garmin Forerunner 235 type: Mass Storage
    driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 091e:097f class-ID: 0806
  Device-2: 1-2:2 info: Western Digital My Book (WDBFJK) type: Mass Storage
    driver: usb-storage interfaces: 1 rev: 2.1 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 26mA
    chip-ID: 1058:1230 class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-3: 1-3:3 info: Chicony HP Truevision HD type: Video
    driver: uvcvideo interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s power: 500mA
    chip-ID: 04f2:b50c class-ID: 0e02
  Hub-2: 1-6:4 info: Other World USB2.0 Hub ports: 4 rev: 2.1
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1e91:a4ae class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 1-7:5 info: Intel Bluetooth wireless interface type: Bluetooth
    driver: btusb interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 8087:0a2a class-ID: e001
  Hub-3: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 8 rev: 3.0 speed: 5 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-4: 2-2:2 info: Other World USB-C Dual Drive Dock ports: 4 rev: 3.1
    speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1e91:a4ae class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 2-2.1:3 info: Other World Dual Drive Dock 2 type: Mass Storage
    driver: uas interfaces: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1e91:a4ae
    class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 2-2.3:4 info: Other World Dual Drive Dock 1 type: Mass Storage
    driver: uas interfaces: 1 rev: 3.1 speed: 5 Gb/s chip-ID: 1e91:a4ae
    class-ID: 0806 serial: <filter>
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 39.0 C pch: 43.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: nvidia
    temp: 42 C
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 264 Uptime: 15h 42m wakeups: 1 Init: systemd v: 250
  tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.1.0 clang: 13.0.1 Packages: pacman: 1572
  lib: 382 flatpak: 0 Shell: Zsh v: 5.9 running-in: pty pts/1 (SSH)
  inxi: 3.3.16
  1. Please read this:
    [HowTo] Provide System Information
    and press the three dots below your post and press the :pencil2: to give us more information so we can see what’s really going on.
    Now we know the symptom of the disease, but we need some more probing to know where the origin lies… :grin:
  2. An inxi --admin --verbosity=7 --filter --no-host --width would be the minimum required information for us to be able to help you. (Personally Identifiable Information like serial numbers and MAC addresses will be filtered out by the above command)
    Also, please copy-paste that output in-between 3 backticks ``` at the beginning and end of the code/text.

Apologies - I’ve added the hardware info, thanks for sharing the command.

I just noticed that it started working today. Maybe a recent kernel update or something fixed the issue.