Authentication is required to suspend.

[MartinLockheed]

This appears to be a common problem with XFCE installs across many different distros.

I've done bit of research on it for the past few hours, including this forum, and most of the solutions either point here (see bottom posts):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1605189

Or here:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/543921/ ... re-suspend

I'm currently on Mint 20.1 and none of these are working. I have the OS installed on two different machines (a custom-built PC and a Dell netbook), and both are experiencing issues with automatic suspend.

As a side note, I'm just really curious why, after all these years, the suspend issue still hasn't been resolved in XFCE specifically? All the other DE's I've used have either addressed it mostly or eliminated it entirely (see KDE). I understand development of XFCE is turtle-paced these days, which is great since I don't want a DE that's constantly changing. But for something as core to the OS as being able to suspend when I leave the laptop running or when I close the lid... that just seems like a pretty big deal and I'm wondering why it's taking so long to find a single, clean solution that doesn't require me to edit/create polkit files, etc on a fresh install.

[MrEen]

Hi MartinLockheed, and welcome to the forum.

If the lock screen is turned off, does this still happen? I'm only asking because there aren't a heck of a lot of complaints about this here, so I'm wondering if most are settling for that.

Alternatively, does setting a larger timeout at Menu > Settings > Power Manager > Security tab stop this from happening?

[MartinLockheed]

Hello MrEen, and thank you!

I also noticed no complaints about it, so I just assumed most folks simply didn't care about suspend in XFCE anymore. Or like you mention, they might have just disabled the lockscreen and moved on with their lives.

I'm going to try both options, then edit this post later with some updates. Thanks!

[ajgringo619]

I didn't pay attention as I haven't had any suspend problems in a long time; never on LM 20.x. What happens if you try to suspend from the terminal:

Code: Select all

xfce4-session-logout --suspend

[MartinLockheed]

Sorry for the long delay in responding. I've since tried to suspend Mint XFCE automatically on the same machines in my OP, but still no success. I'm able to manually suspend them (Edit: scratch that, no I'm not), but unlike other DE's, XFCE simply can't be bothered to suspend on its own. Very strange, again, since this is such a basic last-gen issue that I'd think a stable, battle-tested DE like this wouldn't have. I've since migrated to Lubuntu 20.04 on my main machine (no problems there), but I'm always willing to keep trying in the meantime.

EDIT:

Well look here. After a bit more research, I've unearthed this post from the Debian folks themselves: https://wiki.debian.org/Xfce-power-mana ... leshooting

I'll be giving this a shot and reporting back for anyone else who has this issue.

EDIT 2:
Nope, the solution above didn't work at all. =( The computer pretends it is going to suspend for about 5 seconds, then comes right back on with the lock screen. XFCE... my friend... what have you become? Your days are truly numbered it seems. LXQT, MATE, and even KDE Plasma are all coming for your spot. Not to mention, you work very strangely with external monitors now for some reason, and you're not even that much lighter than Cinnamon these days.

[Mikibits]

Hello,

I'm having exactly the same problem with an older ASUS K54L laptop. So far I can't find a working solution either. I'm running the latest distro after using Cinnamon with no problems, thinking it would speed things up. I really like XFCE for that, but the suspend thing is a pain.

[herbie643]

This may or may not be of help, but I am running Debian SID and suspend works great.
I checked everything that might be related to you problem and here are my results:
xfce4 session 4.16.0.-1
power -manager and power-manager-data 4.16.0-1
upower 0.99213-1
This is just an idea that maybe SID has a newer version and ...

[rodenti]

Has anyone figured this out? I am running Mint 20.3 XFCE on an old HP G61 laptop and getting the same problem.

Has anyone tried upgrading to Mint 21 to see if it fixes this?

EDIT: updated to Mint 21 and it is still looking for authentication to suspend.