No, the xset force off does not turn the monitor off, but it does blank the screen as if it were in perhaps suspend mode. The card is an ATI X600 card with the ATI drivers installed. It also has an ATI Mach 64 card in it that has the same behavior. The cable is OK, as is the monitor since it works on other machines that support energy savings modes.
As for the libs, I was just surprised that a lib as common as termcap did not get put in from the CD's as part of the base installation. Not a big deal, but it sure makes compiling things tough when it can't find them and you assume all the common libs are installed. I'm not sure if this is the first time or 2nd time that has happened since I did the original install on one drive, the replaced it with a larger drive. Either way, just thought I'd ask and let somebody know that perhaps its not being picked up on initial install