[Solved] Debian, XFCE - Disable suspension/sleep permanently even when laptop lid is closed

[20006kiaoptima]

Hey all, I just installed Debian 12.5.0 + XFCE on an old Acer Aspire E 15 that I had laying around. The goal is to put it somewhere with the lid closed to act as a small home server.


I followed this guide and did the following:
- Masked sleep, suspend, hibernate and hybrid sleep via: 'sudo systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target'
- Edited /etc/systemd/logind.conf to set all "HandleLidSwitch..."-related settings to "ignore"
- Ran 'systemctl restart systemd-login.service'
- Ran 'export DISPLAY=:0', 'xset q' and 'xset dpms 0 0 0 && xset s noblank && xset s off'

This wasn't in the guide, but I also disabled XFCE's display power management in this menu:


I then logged out and closed the lid. Things worked fine for that whole night, but overnight at some point while I was asleep the system went into, I presume, hibernation and I was unable to SSH in. When I opened the lid of the laptop, I was also unable to wake it from sleep and had to power cycle it.

I'm still very new to Linux, so if anybody knows what I could be missing that's causing it to still sleep, I would really appreciate it!

[peter_irich]

Try comment out relevant strings in /etc/default/grub and enter as root

Code: Select all

grub update

or

Code: Select all

grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

and reboot.
edit:
not comment out but write false instead true.

[Augie77]

If I understand correctly, you want to close the lid of your laptop and have it continue to operate, no sleep, no suspend? The 4.19 release of Xfce4-power-manager has this in the change log...

Change Log

4.19.0 (2023-04-18)
======
.
.
- configure.ac: not check X11/extensions/scrnsaver.h
- build: autogen.sh cleanup
- build: Use XDT_CHECK_PACKAGE_BINARY and replace XDT_CHECK_LIBX11
- build: Use XDT_VERSION_INIT and get rid of configure.ac.in
- build: Switch from intltool to gettext
- Fix Xfconf memory management
- Add "Do nothing" option for lid closed action
- build: Fix untranslated policykit file
.
.

You are probably on 4.18.1.1-1. You can read about this at xfce4-power-manager . You will need to download the tar and build/install it. Before attempting any build, be certain to do a Timeshift prior to any build activity.

As well, you could get an account at the Xfce forum Xfce Forum and explain the situation and see if someone can advise you on any pre-requirement for build a new power manager.

[Augie77]

.
.
.
This wasn't in the guide, but I also disabled XFCE's display power management in this menu:
.
.
I then logged out and closed the lid. Things worked fine for that whole night, but overnight at some point while I was asleep the system went into, I presume, hibernation and I was unable to SSH in. When I opened the lid of the laptop, I was also unable to wake it from sleep and had to power cycle it.

I'm still very new to Linux, so if anybody knows what I could be missing that's causing it to still sleep, I would really appreciate it!

I have had poor results doing the same, but on a desktop. You could do some testing and go into Session and Startup and deselect Power Manager as start up under the 'Application Autostart'. Also keep in mind that your BIOS has 'S' states for sleep, suspend, power, etc. and you should take a look at those. Sometimes the BIOS setting and OS settings will clash. That has been my experience anyway.

[20006kiaoptima]

So I finally figured it out. I ended up just logging in as root (I had been logging in as another user), changing the display timeouts all to "Never", and changing the lid close action to "Turn off display". I did the same on the other user just in case. I then closed the lid and it's been running since, about a day and a half now.