Laptop’s screen blank after detaching from a docking station

On Linux Mint 18.3 64-bit with MATE 1.18 running on Lenovo ThinkPad L470 laptop I’m experiencing the blank screen after detaching the laptop from a docking station. Usually the scenario is like that:

1. laptop is sitting on a docking station and after longer time the screen goes blank according to power saving rules
2. I’m detaching the laptop from a docking station while the screen is blank or I’m closing the lid and then detaching
3. the laptop’s screen stays blank and looks like frozen or like it cannot wake up from sleep mode

I’ve got a monitor connected to the docking station and I’m using 2 screens when laptop is docked. And sometimes I’m experiencing an other variant of the problem:

1. after undocking the Linux Mint is behaving like still having 2 screens thus I only see windows that were on laptop’s built-in screen before undocking

Solution

In both described scenarios this single solution helps:

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+F1
2. Wait for the text console login prompt to appear
3. Press Alt+F7

That’s all 🙂