Enable and disable the HDMI port on the Raspberry Pi: `rpi-hdmi on` to turn on, `rpi-hdmi off` to turn off. X is properly reinitialized when re-enabling.

rpi-hdmi.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Enable and disable HDMI output on the Raspberry Pi

is_off ()
{
	tvservice -s | grep "TV is off" >/dev/null
}

case $1 in
	off)
		tvservice -o
	;;
	on)
		if is_off
		then
			tvservice -p
			curr_vt=`fgconsole`
			if [ "$curr_vt" = "1" ]
			then
				chvt 2
				chvt 1
			else
				chvt 1
				chvt "$curr_vt"
			fi
		fi
	;;
	status)
		if is_off
		then
			echo off
		else
			echo on
		fi
	;;
	*)
		echo "Usage: $0 on|off|status" >&2
		exit 2
	;;
esac

exit 0

I have a standard console on VT1 and X11 on VT2. When I ran your script initially, it wasn't working. I poked around a bit and it seems that the VT numbers were getting mixed up for some reason. I added some sleeps in between the chvt commands and that seems to have fixed things. I let it burn in for a few hours running:

while true; do sudo ./rpi-hdmi off; sleep 10; sudo ./rpi-hdmi on; sleep 60; done

...and it seems to be working consistently now. Thanks for your help with this solution!

Just a note to other users, the fgconsole command must be called with sudo privileges or you will get an error:

Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console

@Chalta - are you saying you modified the line from:
curr_vt=`fgconsole`
to be:
curr_vt=sudo `fgconsole`

Hello
Is there a way to switch between hdmi and composite video without rebooting?

@IBKDan I found some comments suggesting vcgencmd instead of tvservice (info here). I forked this and used vcgencmd instead. So far no issues, and no need for sudo.

Hi all. I am trying to use this script to turn my raspberry pi on/off at different times depending if its a work day or a weekend.
I know how to setup the weekday AND weekend requests separate from one another. 

My requirements: 
M-F: (turn it off all day, only back on when we get home after work)
Every day during the week I want the HDMI port on at 7AM, and off at 9AM. I want it back on when we get home at work from 5:00 PM and to turn off for the day at 11PM.

Sat-Sun: (leave it on all day)
On at 7AM, Off at 11PM.

So since I have a global on and off time of 7AM and 11PM every day we could say:
00 7 * * * * /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh on
00 23 * * * * /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh off

Then for the weekdays:
00 9 * * 1–5 /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh off (off at 9AM)
00 17 * * 1–5 /home/pi/rpi-hdmi.sh on (on at 5PM)

My question to you is one of order — how do I know if these will be executed in this order? Is there a better way to write this?
Thanks!

@leemcarthur: Did you ever figure out a solution to that?

@leemcarthur: Did you ever figure out a solution?

Here's the solution. I think you will have problem each on/off for each day. See http://ediy.com.my/index.php/tutorials/item/106-raspberry-pi-schedule-turn-off-on-display

@Chalta if you add sudo to all of the commands, that should fix teh Couldn't get a file descriptor referring to the console error,

#!/bin/sh

Enable and disable HDMI output on the Raspberry Pi

is_off ()
{
sudo tvservice -s | grep "TV is off" >/dev/null
}

case $1 in
off)
sudo tvservice -o
;;
on)
if is_off
then
sudo tvservice -p
curr_vt=sudo fgconsole
if [ "$curr_vt" = "1" ]
then
sudo chvt 2
sudo chvt 1
else
sudo chvt 1
sudo chvt "$curr_vt"
fi
fi
;;
status)
if is_off
then
echo off
else
echo on
fi
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 on|off|status" >&2
exit 2
;;

Hi, never done any coding whatsoever before, but thought I’d try my hand with dakboard. I’ve loaded it up and working on my monitor through raspberry pi, and followed the script above but I’m getting lost with how to complete the rest of it. Is there an idiots guide to getting this to work?
Thanks in advance

@usafle & @wmcollins - yes I did figure it out. I wrote out the syntax here after much trial and error:

I have a whole other issue with crontab not running at all, or rather, running two processes right now:

ps -eaf | grep cron

Output is:

root 360 1 0 20:58 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/cron -f
pi 1303 1294 0 20:59 pts/0 00:00:00 grep --color=auto cron

So its running as the pi user as well as root? Could this be the issue why my rpi-hdmi.sh script isn't running?

@leemcarthur - not sure if you got your answer, but the second cron you see is actually capturing that the second part of your command (grep cron) is running.

Couldn't make this script work right on Pi3's.. screen would go off, then never go back on, error message was "failed to set"

Searched and found:

tvservice is not the best to turn off and on the screen. Much better way to do this (found after a day of searching) is using vcgencmd command (more on this here).
vcgencmd display_power 0 turns off the screen
vcgencmd display_power 1 turns on the screen
(From Here : https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/52042/turning-tvservice-on-and-off-leaves-screen-blank )

works perfectly.