Manually block sleep and screen locking from commandline or a shortcut

Installation

1. Clone/Download the project
2. Copy pause-auto-sleep to /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin/pause-auto-sleep

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin/ && cp pause-auto-sleep ~/.local/bin/pause-auto-sleep

3. Make pause-auto-sleep executable

chmod u+x ~/.local/bin/pause-auto-sleep

Usage:

1. With application_name + reason_for_inhibit:

pause-auto-sleep "application_name or desktop.entry.name" "reason for inhibit"

To show the app icon and name in the Plasma's Battery and Brightness widget "application_name" should be set to the program name or desktop entry name. To get a program desktop entry name use the following command:

ls /usr/share/applications .local/share/applications/ | grep -i YOUR_PROGRAM_NAME

Example:

pause-auto-sleep org.kde.konsole "SSH session"

2. Without arguments (Toggle mode):

When running without arguments:

• application willl be set as "User"
• reason will be set as "Manually enabled"

If the script is run a second time, it will look for existing inhibitor process and stop it, ending the inhibition

Example:

pause-auto-sleep & # run in background

3. As a shortcut:

In KDE Plasma

1. Go to System Settings > Shortcuts
2. Click + Add command...
3. Enter /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin/pause-auto-sleep in the command text box (replace YOUR_USERNAME with yours)
4. Click + Add
5. Click + Add custom shortcut in the next view and type your shortcut
6. Hit Apply
7. Test your shortcut while looking at the Batter and Brightness or Display Configuration widget

Note: If you're using a version of KDE Plasma older/newer than 2.27.5 those steps may be different

In GNOME

1. Go to Settings > Keyboard
2. Click View and Customize Shortcuts under Keyboard Shortcuts
3. Click Custom Shortcuts > Add Shortcut
4. Set a descriptive name
5. Enter /home/YOUR_USERNAME/.local/bin/pause-auto-sleep in the command text box (replace YOUR_USERNAME with yours)
6. Click Set Shortcut... and type your shortcut
7. Click on Add
8. Test your shortcut, this was tested and working in GNOME 43.0, I don't know if there is a visual indicator for this, it there isn't you can test by waiting for your screen to blank (not to blank in this case)

Note: If you're using a version of GNOME older/newer than 43.0 those steps may be different

Demo

demo.mp4

Credits & Resources

• Docs

  • Idle Inhibition Service Draft
    • org.freedesktop.ScreenSaver — The Idle Inhibition Service manages the inhibition requests.

• gnome-inhibit by @fxthomas