Alternative To “Sleep Trick” On Intel GMAX3100

July 24th, 2008

Apple / Mac

This “trick” is now outdated and has been replaced by the much more reliable DSDT.aml file which automatically wakes the screen for you 100% of the time.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?

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About Richard

Richard is a professional web developer and business consultant. He opened his first web hosting company at the age of 13 out of his bedroom on an ISDN connection and hasn't looked back since. Richard currently resides in sunny Florida.

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68 Responses to “Alternative To “Sleep Trick” On Intel GMAX3100”

  1. Alexander Brown

    Thomas – I found out what the error was. There were 2 x 200 MB partitions that were left over from Windows 7. I reformatted the drive using GParted, and it all works well now. Thanks for your help anyway.

  2. Alexander Brown

    Thomas – after trying again and failing (this is my 3rd install today), I must note that it worked fine until the hard drive went belly up and I got a new (250GB) one. Now it simply won’t work. I was on 10.5.2, and the dsdt.aml worked fine. Is there any way to use the dsdt.aml WITHOUT updating to chameleon 2.0?

    • Thomas

      There unfortunately is no way to use the dsdt.aml without Chameleon 2. When following this guide for installing Chameleon, make sure you follow all steps exactly, and that you include an “r” in front of your disk identifier in the second line of code ins sep 5

  3. Alexander Brown

    Thomas – I am not going to risk a good install to find out what the code is, but I do remember 4 lines of numbers.

  4. Alexander Brown

    If you guys don’t care about auto login, just add the app to your auto login items from the downloads folder!

    When I try to do the dsdt.aml, and i install chameleon, the system won’t boot. Why?

  5. diego

    This work great for my… all was very easy… thanks again.-

  6. Thomas

    Shelby- This is quite an old hack and a newer one can be found at https://dailyblogged.com/post/adding-a-dsdtaml-to-older-installs/. In the meantime, you can try placing a Dsdt.aml in the root of your OS X partition and see if it boots fine (this is if you have the newest version of Chameleon).

  7. Shelby

    I did this but at the same time I also installed 10.5.7 and now i cant get the screen on. i have tried to blindly log on and use the hot corner but it seems to be gone. I don’t know what to do.

  8. Thomas

    FRauANtje- Virtually any computer can be “hackintoshed.” The only problem is if there will be support for this hardware (which there most likely already is). So short answer, yes.

  9. FRauANtje

    Though Dell discontinued the Inspiron 1525 there are some new 1525s available with an “nVidia GeForce GB 8600M GT” instead of GMA X3100.

    Any ideas, if those Dells can be “hackintoshed”?

    Thank you,

    Frank

  10. Thomas

    Haha yes this would be a bad time to do so. Download iPC 10.5.6 Universal PPF5 and then use the previously posted options and this will then give you a dsdt.aml

  11. steve0suprem0

    well, i did that, but i couldn’t find any optional bootloaders section. would this be a bad time to say i’m using the ideneb 1.3 dvd?
    when i selected my partition, it had an options button below, but was not selectable.

  12. Thomas

    steve0suprem0- To install a dsdt.aml boot from the OS X Install DVD. Then select your current OS X partition and uncheck everything but “DSDT Patcher” which can be found under the “Optional Bootloaders” section. Restart your computer again and upon booting into OS X your screen should display the login window and you will no longer need the sleep trick. Let me know how this works for you.

  13. steve0suprem0

    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.

  14. Thomas

    steve0suprem0- Instead of using this ancient trick, why don’t you just install a dsdt.aml on your system?

  15. steve0suprem0

    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.

  16. Richard

    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.

  17. Thomas

    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)

  18. Richard

    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.

  19. Nathan

    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?

  20. Ashman

    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.

  21. Thomas Piccirello

    @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?

  22. Nathan

    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 =)

  23. Nathan

    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

  24. Nathan

    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

  25. eos9

    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

  26. kiasta

    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.

  27. Thomas Piccirello

    macnoobhttp://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=51725&hl=1525
    i used this and the files there and they worked llke a charm thanks

    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.

  28. macnoob

    http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=51725&hl=1525
    i used this and the files there and they worked llke a charm thanks

  29. macnoob

    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…

  30. Thomas Piccirello

    macnoobi dont know anything about terminal and i want to do this stuff…is there a video or something that can help??

    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.

  31. macnoob

    i dont know anything about terminal and i want to do this stuff…is there a video or something that can help??

  32. Thomas Piccirello

    Peter JohnTHANKS 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…

    I was just thinking about your sleep issue and I believe that there is a fix for it in the Dell Post Installer.

  33. Peter John

    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…

  34. Thomas Piccirello

    Peter JohnThomas 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!!!

    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.

  35. Peter John

    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!!!

  36. Thomas Piccirello

    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.

  37. Shelby

    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

  38. Thomas Piccirello

    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!

  39. Richard

    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.

  40. Montasser Drissi

    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 ?)

  41. Montasser Drissi

    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 !

  42. Josh

    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

  43. Cristian

    I followed the above steps editing rc.local and it works great. Thanks Richard!

  44. Montasser Drissi

    Hi ! Does this hack work with OS X 10.5.5 ?
    Thank’s a lot Richard !

  45. Thomas Piccirello

    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

  46. Richard

    Sl
    http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=135184

    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.

  47. Jared

    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.

  48. Thomas Piccirello

    This tricked worked great for me. Thanks so much Richard.

  49. Alun James

    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.

  50. Alun James

    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!! :)

  51. Anthony

    I can’t seems to find rc.local on my system… any ideas?

  52. Richard

    Andrew
    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.

    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 :)

  53. Andrew

    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.

  54. Richard

    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.

  55. Andrew

    justinWhat do you mean with this:

    open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root)

    where can I find the folder etc??

    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.

  56. justin

    What do you mean with this:

    open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root)

    where can I find the folder etc??

  57. Benjamin

    “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?

  58. Jesper

    Got the answer. ;)

  59. Jesper

    What do you mean with this:

    open /etc/rc.common with your favorite text editor (as root)

    where can I find the folder etc??

  60. Danny

    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.

  61. Richard

    “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!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

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    […] UPDATE! Want this sleep trick to happen automatically and be able to see the Login screen? Click here! […]

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    […] UPDATE! Want this sleep trick to happen automatically and be able to see the Login screen? Click here! […]