GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 659045
Please add back lid action configuration
Last modified: 2013-03-28 16:41:36 UTC
Created attachment 196492 [details] power: Add configuration for lid action Originally reported at https://launchpad.net/bugs/792636 Please consider adding back an UI for configuring the lid action. While having a default of "suspend" makes sense, a lot of users got used to not doing anything there, if they just want to carry their laptop to the next room; others got really angry because they can't tell it to not suspend when the computer is on AC (i. e. there is no danger of putting it into a bag). I'm aware that you pretty much slaughtered all the other options there, but as lid wasn't removed, but simply never was in c-c 3.0 at all, here's a small hope that we can get at least this back (compared to c-c 2.x).
Language like 'you' and 'slaughtered' is inflammatory. Please stick to the issues. There's information available on the power panel design if you want some insight into the decisions that have been made [1]. If you still think a setting is missing, please file a bug. I hope you realise that fast and seamless suspend/resume is an important goal for the user experience. If someone wants to shut their laptop lid temporarily, suspend/resume should support that. [1] https://live.gnome.org/Design/SystemSettings/Power/
I apologize for the "slaughtered", sorry. "removed" would have been neutral. > If you still think a setting is missing, please file a bug. Well, this very one :-) The patch is not complete yet, as it should only display the new option if there actually is a lid (upower tells us). But I first wanted to ask whether you'd accept it in the first place before I spend more time on it. Thanks, Martin
(In reply to comment #2) > I apologize for the "slaughtered", sorry. "removed" would have been neutral. No offence taken... > > If you still think a setting is missing, please file a bug. > > Well, this very one :-) Any other slaughter victims, I mean. ;) > The patch is not complete yet, as it should only display the new option if > there actually is a lid (upower tells us). But I first wanted to ask whether > you'd accept it in the first place before I spend more time on it. As ever, I'm personally open to discussing the issue. I'm pretty convinced that the very best user experience is one where people don't have to worry about suspend not working for some reason, though.
(I'm not the maintainer, of course!)
Suspend is generally working, but if you just carry your laptop to the next room, it's generally too intrusive/heavy to do so. You lose all your network connections, some people want to continue to play music when they have it in their living room, all sorts of reasons. This isn't for working around bugs, but for how you want to use your laptop.
(In reply to comment #5) > Suspend is generally working, but if you just carry your laptop to the next > room, it's generally too intrusive/heavy to do so. You lose all your network > connections, some people want to continue to play music when they have it in > their living room, all sorts of reasons. This isn't for working around bugs, > but for how you want to use your laptop. That was the single reason why people wanted to change the configuration (working around broken kernels is another, but it's not our problem). And I still think that it could be achieved in a different way, because having to go in the control-center to move your laptop from the meeting room to your desk is bad UI anyway.
(In reply to comment #5) > Suspend is generally working, but if you just carry your laptop to the next > room, it's generally too intrusive/heavy to do so. You lose all your network > connections This is kinda the point though: suspend on lid close is *great* behaviour and is the default for that reason, but it's only going to deliver a good experience if it's fast and the networking part of the deal works really well. It might be a bit painful right now but it's already the default anyway (so it *should* work!), and not having the setting means we're driving the user experience in the right direction. > some people want to continue to play music when they have it in > their living room, ... Is closing a laptop lid essential there? That seems like an odd case to me.
(In reply to comment #7) > > some people want to continue to play music when they have it in > > their living room, > ... > > Is closing a laptop lid essential there? That seems like an odd case to me. I'm looking at Power panel with this patch applied in Oneiric. I'm sure the behavoir on lid close is something you change once and then forget, but I think this patch is really good in order to check what's the actual and current system behavior. Without it, the only ways to know what's the system configuration are dconf-editor and gsettings, not so friendly tools.
(In reply to comment #8) > I think > this patch is really good in order to check what's the actual and current > system behavior. Without it, the only ways to know what's the system > configuration are dconf-editor and gsettings, not so friendly tools. That's the job of docs and marketing. Not settings.
(In reply to comment #9) > > That's the job of docs and marketing. Not settings. GNOME document and marketing team can access to my own computer and tell me the current settings status?? I'm very upset, this is a serius privacy issue :D
Given the single use case, I wrote a small utility called Office Runner to handle that problem: http://www.hadess.net/2011/09/omg-i-haz-designed-bug-fix.html See the blog post for justification behind not adding the preference to the Power panel.
Created attachment 197570 [details] [review] power: Add configuration for lid action Just for the record, in case someone else has any use of this: that's the current version of the patch which hides the lid configuration if there is no lid.
Marking this as WONTFIX is a mistake. This configuration figure is essential for many laptop users--even casual ones. As an illustrative anecdote, casual, business users of Macs will frequently develop a behavioral trait to work around a design decision of their laptops: they will awkwardly cradle their portable computers while walking from location to location, for fear that closing the lid will drop them off IM, corporate VPN, stop syncing their email, and suspend any upcoming notifications or VOIP calls. By contrast, PC users in the same offices will easily hold their closed computers under their arms, unburdened by a behavioral trait they have developed to work around this limitation of their computers. Users running GNOME are likely to be using non-Mac laptops...laptops that are fully capable of running with the lid closed without overheating. GNOME developers that believe users _prefer_ to adapt a behavioral handicap simply because they're used to it on other computers is a surprisingly backwards way of looking at this issue. This perspective alone is not what strikes me as the most egregious and hubristic opinion behind this issue, however; what's most shocking is that the GNOME developers actually believe that to remove the configuration option from the user who is going _out of his way_ to look for it is actually what's BEST for the user experience! Many users land at the dialog box in question by having a configuration task related to closing the lid. By removing it, you are causing them to fail in their attempt to change the computer to suit their desired usage. This is not a hard problem. Fix the bug.
(In reply to comment #13) > This is not a hard problem. Fix the bug. See http://www.hadess.net/2011/09/omg-i-haz-designed-bug-fix.html
I've always set the "on lid close" action to "do nothing". My laptop is my only PC, i use it in my room and lots of time i want it to stay turned on in the night (eg. to update the system, to download things, to compile, to play music while getting to sleep etc. basically, to "do things") while of course i close the lid not to have light in the room (and turn down the ac-adapter's light). When i want to suspend the system my laptop (as nearly every one) has a shortcut for that (on my EeePc Fn + F1) which really comes in handy. Good for me I use Ubuntu, but what's the GNOME3 answer to my user case? To pretend that even MacOS or Windows do so it's, as always, a no point and, still, I remember seeing an option to customize the "lid close" action on my mother's windows-7-powered laptop.
I can't believe regular users like us have to defend such a trivial feature like this. At least Ubuntu realised not having it was a mistake, and fixed it downstream.
>See http://www.hadess.net/2011/09/omg-i-haz-designed-bug-fix.html That's a workaround. Not a fix. I reject the notion that opening an app and temporarily overriding GNOME's behavior every time I want to close the lid of my laptop without suspending it is somehow a better user experience than the simple, two-step alternative: 1. Closing the lid of my computer only shuts off the display (saving battery life). 2. If I want to suspend my computer, I push the suspend button, or click a suspend shortcut. Or press the power button (another configuration option). By the way, this configuration is the way that I want to use my computer. It is a custom configuration that I go out of my way to look for. It is something that, if I don't find it in the configuration options, I consider an omission. It's something my laptops have supported since 1990. It's also something Windows has completely correct. Hit the start button and type "Change what closing the lid does." How can GNOME withhold this option from a user who is going out of his way to look for this, and then claim it's an improved user experience?
*** Bug 660463 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
What about the default behaviour including a timer? You shut the lid, a timer starts counting, after X (perhaps 5 minutes?) suspend is initiated. Tune X to the presented use cases (how much time to move tables in a coffee shop? Or run between meetings or lectures etc.?) Both camps happy.