Ubuntu 9.10 Welcome Screen

The log in screen in Ubuntu 9.10 no longer has keyboard shortcuts to suspend and hibernate. I was unable to find out how to make them work, but I did find a suitable workaround. GDM does support hibernating on lid close:

  • Log out of your X session
  • Go to a TTY session with Ctrl+Alt+F1
  • log in
  • export DISPLAY=:0
  • sudo -u gdm gnome-control-center
  • Select Power Management
  • Select the On Battery Power tab
  • Change When laptop lid is closed to Hibernate

The UI geek in me likes this because it takes fewer actions to close down the computer: Just log out and close the lid, which I’d do anyway. The only downside is there is no indication to the user that this is what will happen. In any event, the mouse can still be used to press the power icon on the GDM screen.