Configure auto lock, auto screen blanking, and auto sleep settings

In some cases, you might need your computer always to be awake. For example, you might need to download a large file, run a long-running task, or keep your computer awake for a presentation. In this guide, we will show you how to avoid system sleep, keep screen awake, and avoid auto lock.

Default settings

Default settings for AnduinOS:

• Auto dim after inactivity: 15 minutes
• Lock screen right after screen is blanked
• Auto sleep after inactivity: 20 minutes (Battery)
• Auto sleep after inactivity: 30 minutes (AC Power)
• Power button action: Suspend(sleep)
• Lid close action: Suspend(sleep)

Tune CPU power settings

You can tune the CPU power settings to save power or boost performance. To do this, you can use the cpupower command. The cpupower command is a tool to set and display CPU power settings. You can use the cpupower frequency-info command to display the current CPU power settings. You can use the cpupower frequency-set command to set the CPU power settings.

• Performance: Maximum performance, always boost the CPU frequency to the maximum. (Not recommended)
• Powersave: Dynamic frequency scaling. (Recommended)

sudo apt install -y linux-tools-common linux-tools-$(uname -r)
sudo cpupower frequency-info
sudo cpupower frequency-set -g powersave

Configure auto lock settings

To configure auto lock settings, you can follow these steps:

1. Open the Settings app.
2. Click on Privacy.
3. Click on Screen.
4. Set the Automatic Screen Lock toggle to ON or OFF.

To configure the time before the screen locks, you can set the Automatic Screen Lock Delay to the desired time.

To setup auto lock in the terminal, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled true
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay <time-in-seconds-after-screen-blanking>

Avoid screen blanking using the terminal

To avoid screen blanking using the terminal, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0

This command will prevent the screen from blanking when the computer is inactive.

To revert the changes, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 300

This command will allow the screen to blank after 5 minutes of inactivity. You can change the value to any number you want.

Avoid system sleep using the terminal

To avoid system sleep using the terminal, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'nothing'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'nothing'

To enable it system wide:

sudo systemctl mask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target

This command will prevent the system from sleeping when the computer is inactive while connected to AC power.

To revert the changes, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type 'suspend'
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type 'suspend'
sudo systemctl unmask sleep.target suspend.target hibernate.target hybrid-sleep.target

This command will allow the system to sleep when the computer is inactive while connected to AC power.

Also, you can set how long the system should wait before going to sleep when the computer is inactive while connected to AC power. To set the time, you can run the following command:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout <time-in-seconds>
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-timeout <time-in-seconds>

References

To get the value of a setting, you can run the following command:

gsettings get <settings-path> <settings-key>

To set the value of a setting, you can run the following command:

gsettings set <settings-path> <settings-key> <value>