I am using Awesome WM, and I use xscreensaver to lock the screen if I'm away for a certain amount of time. I also enabled screen power management in the xscreensaver configuration to turn off the monitor after some time. I want to implement a "persentation mode", which disables these. I can disable screen locking by calling xscreensaver-command -deactivate periodically. However, it doesn't stop the screen from going idle. I tried blocking idle in systemd-inhibit, but that doesn't help either.
Is there any way to temporarily disable screen power management in xscreensaver? Or, alternatively, is there any alternative screen locker / power management tool that allows locking the screen, turning off the screen, and temporarily disabling itself from command line?
It's hard to tell what exactly turns off your screen. You can give xset a try. You can control the screensaver (screen going black after some while) with it. For example xset s off.
From man xset:
For screen-saver control:
s [timeout [cycle]] s default s on
s blank s noblank s off
s expose s noexpose
s activate s reset
For screen locking I love to use slock.
EDIT: Slock doen't have a auto lock capability. You need a tool (for example xautolock) which watches your X and calls slock.
xautolock -time 2 -locker slock