Desktop unable to Suspend when Inactive

[TJ]

On Ubuntu 16.04 and later versions (Xfce/Xubuntu) the power-manager is unable to suspend the system when the user is inactive. A PK user-agent dialog is presented for the user to authenticate first - and as this action occurs specifically when the user is idle and away the PC can end up having an unplanned loss of power when the battery is exhausted.

/var/log/auth.log shows:

polkitd(authority=local): Operator of unix-session:c2 FAILED to authenticate to gain authorization for action org.freedesktop.login1.suspend for system-bus-name::1.47 [xfce4-power-manager --restart --sm-client-id 2992705d4-6fa2-4fba-966c-f7631ecd0b46] (owned by unix-user:tj)

The problem seems to be "com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla" is missing an entry to allow Suspend. Currently it only has an entry for hibernate.

Adding the following stanza solves the issue:

[Enable suspend by default in logind]
Identity=unix-user:*
Action=org.freedesktop.login1.suspend;org.freedesktop.login1.inhibit-handle-suspend-key;org.freedesktop.login1;org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-multiple-sessions;org.freedesktop.login1.suspend-ignore-inhibit
ResultActive=yes
ResultInactive=yes

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

Your workaround worked for me too. I'm running Xubuntu 18.04. Now I can suspend the machine.

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

No change in Disco. Still missing the entry at "com.ubuntu.desktop.pkla".

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

The solution is right here, so simple to apply. Why is this ignored? No one else suspends their machines? Merge the necessary polkit rule, please.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

It's not ignored but the bug is about a 3 years old version of Ubuntu and it got only one report in that time with 2 affect users, that makes it a pretty low priority issue.

Also suspend on idle does work under Unity so maybe the issue is not the with the permission but with the action xfce is using?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

it's also weird because /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.login1.policy has

        <action id="org.freedesktop.login1.suspend">
...
                <defaults>
                        <allow_any>auth_admin_keep</allow_any>
                        <allow_inactive>auth_admin_keep</allow_inactive>
                        <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
                </defaults>

Which means the active session should be allowed

Is you user an admin one?

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

Thanks for the response. Sorry for the delay, I didn't get a notification about this.

If by admin you mean one that has sudo privileges or a member of group `adm`, then yes. It's the default user created by the installer.

I could reproduce this on Arch Linux and other distros IIRC. The workaround works on them too.

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

I can also reproduce this on both of my computers running Xubuntu 19.04, a desktop and a laptop.

Just to be extra clear on what the issue is:

If the computer is left idle for 10 minutes, the screen locks. When 15 minutes have passed, it should suspend, but it never does. I unlock the screen to investigate why, and find that there is a prompt window asking my password in order to allow the system to suspend.

What usually happens as a consequence:

I fall asleep with the laptop still running, and on the next day the thing is powered off with only 1% of battery power. It stayed ON all night.

[Ryan C. Underwood (nemesis-icequake)]

Still a major laptop usability problem in eoan.

[Douglas Silva (o-alquimista)]

I think I can't reproduce this anymore on Xubuntu 20.04. I left the laptop idle and after 30 minutes it was suspended as expected, without making any fixes (clean install).