@greenjeans: At this point we've hijacked this thread Nevertheless, I think I can help with your issue because I'm also a keyboard guy...

I have a ton of custom keybindings and they're essential to how I use my computer. I use xbindkeys instead of MATE's builtin "Keyboard Shortcuts" because I like to keep my keybindings in alphabetical order in a text file that I can easily edit (namely ~/.xbindkeysrc). With xbindkeys all my keybindings work in Devuan MATE, even if desktop is empty. I never have to click anywhere.

Just install xbindkeys, make sure that it autostarts (it should automatically take care of this for you--take a peek in Startup Applications after installing xbindkeys), and create ~/.xbindkeysrc with your keybindings. Here's a snippet from my ~/.xbindkeysrc to give you the idea (Mod4 is my GNU key, formerly known as Windows key):

"mate-terminal"
  Mod4+t

"thunderbird"
  Control+Alt+t

Any time you update the file, xbindkeys needs to be restarted in order for changes to take effect. Enjoy!

Thanks for that! Will keep in mind as that looks like a very sane and simple way of doing keybindings.

Figured out the Mate issue though, always something simple....I had forgotten to check and re-do the conky settings when I migrated the build from openbox to mate, conky will work almost universally regardless of how you set it, but working-without-conflicting with Mate takes some specific settings. Need to set it to draw it's own window, and the own_window_type needs to be "override".

I have a ton of custom keybindings and they're essential to how I use my computer. I use xbindkeys instead of MATE's builtin "Keyboard Shortcuts" because I like to keep my keybindings in alphabetical order in a text file that I can easily edit (namely ~/.xbindkeysrc). With xbindkeys all my keybindings work in Devuan MATE, even if desktop is empty. I never have to click anywhere.

Just install xbindkeys, make sure that it autostarts (it should automatically take care of this for you--take a peek in Startup Applications after installing xbindkeys), and create ~/.xbindkeysrc with your keybindings. Here's a snippet from my ~/.xbindkeysrc to give you the idea (Mod4 is my GNU key, formerly known as Windows key):

"mate-terminal"
  Mod4+t

"thunderbird"
  Control+Alt+t

Any time you update the file, xbindkeys needs to be restarted in order for changes to take effect. Enjoy!

I have set a bunch of custom keybindings in the new mate build as I mentioned above, and they work fine, as long as you left-click the mouse on the empty desktop in between trying to use them.

It's not like that on my other mate install, so i know it's not mate that's broken. It's not like that on the openbox Vuu-do build that I used as a base for this build either.

If you have any windows open at all, the keyboard shortcuts all work fine no matter how many times you use the keypress-combos, but as soon as you close all windows, you will again need to left-click on the desktop before you can use one, and in between every attempt at using them.

Some package or such i'm missing maybe, as I built this mate a piece at a time with just base packages, no meta-packages or tasks.

Seems like it won't re-focus on the desktop after you use and close a keyboard-shortcut or a window.

arrgh, literally the last thing I have to fix before running what should be a nice Vuu-do-mate edition alpha iso, but it's been all day and part of last night and i'm still stuck.

starting to see options for configuration and such go bye-bye

I've also noticed that trend, with things being more dumbed-down and less configurable in MATE as time passes. I also took a peek at the latest MATE versions, which have migrated to gtk3, and was upset that text previews in caja's icons no longer seem to work, for instance.

MATE is still my go-to DE for the time being, however, as I find it to be the most usable out of the box. XFCE is a close second but, after getting used to MATE, XFCE feels a bit rough (e.g., several custom patches required in xfdesktop and thunar in order to get basic features that caja provides by default).

Change for change's sake is bad enough. Change for change's sake plus lost functionality is even worse. But I'll stop my rambling before we get too off-topic.

@afuerst: Haha, I know what you mean. My wife is still on Debian Jessie MATE and has the same expectation (lid closed = "off").

Since I prefer nothing to happen when my lid is closed, I didn't even realize that this option is currently missing from Devuan+MATE. Indeed, in mate-power-preferences I cannot find the option to suspend when lid is closed.

See i'm the same way when it comes to suspend and hibernate, have never used either one in my life, so wasn't aware of the options disappearing in mate-power-manager and the shutdown dialog.

I do remember seeing issues with both going back a long time ago.

As i'm watching Mate develop (or not) i'm starting to see options for configuration and such go bye-bye just like they did in gnome 2 the last couple years as they were destroying it to make way for that gnome 3 junk.

Not real stoked going forward like that, doesn't seem in keeping with 'nix philosophy. I took a peak at 1.16. in ascii and options for custom colors for a given theme via the gui is gone apparently. You can still edit the theme itself directly I guess, but that seems like a crappy thing to do to new users who like to experiment with colors, it was a good feature.

I assume this is an option to initiate the suspend? More beautiful than sending the dbus-command, but still this would need a regularly running cronjob (which I would prefer to avoid).

I should have been clearer, this doesn't address the laptop-close-lid issue in xfce4-power-manager.

It's just an option for adding simple quick suspend/hibernate/reboot/shutdown (on-demand) options via keyboard shortcuts, and the conky display which I use anyway is just a good place to have them visible for easy reference.

Since I prefer nothing to happen when my lid is closed, I didn't even realize that this option is currently missing from Devuan+MATE. Indeed, in mate-power-preferences I cannot find the option to suspend when lid is closed.

Your cronjob idea would work. This would be the job to run every few seconds:

grep closed /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID/state && pm-suspend

Obsession works pretty good for this, I added some custom keyboard-shortcuts and added them to the conky display on my system so they are always handy.

I assume this is an option to initiate the suspend? More beautiful than sending the dbus-command, but still this would need a regularly running cronjob (which I would prefer to avoid).

Thanks, this looks also nice - but the main issue is the "lid-is-closed". My family will never initiate suspend manually - they even don't know what it is . For them it's as simple as "lid closed = off", "lid open = on".

Also, if I press Alt + F4 and there are no windows left to close, I like the shutdown dialog to show up (I guess this is a leftover expectation from my Windows days). I was able to solve all problems by installing yad, xdotool, and wmctrl and "rolling my own" with these two scripts:

#!/bin/bash
# Put this script somewhere in your path. Name it altF4
activename_id="`xdotool getactivewindow getwindowname`_`xdotool getactivewindow`"
if [[ "$activename_id" = x-caja-desktop* || "$activename_id" = "_" ]]; then
	my-power-dialog
	while true; do # waiting for dialog to exist before activating it
		shutdowndialogid=$(wmctrl -lx | fgrep 'Power options' | awk '{print $1}')
		[ -n "$shutdowndialogid" ] && break
	done
	xdotool windowactivate $shutdowndialogid
else
	wmctrl -c :ACTIVE:
fi

#!/bin/bash
# Put this script somewhere in your PATH. Name it my-shutdown-dialog
yad --width 100 --height 50 --title "Power options" --on-top --center \
    --button=Shutdown:1 \
    --button=Restart:2 \
    --button=Suspend:3 \
    --button=Cancel:0 

case $? in
    1)	sudo shutdown -h now ;;
    2) 	sudo shutdown -r now ;;
    3) 	sudo pm-suspend ;;
    0)	exit 0 ;;
esac

Once the scripts are in one's PATH and executable, just map the Alt + F4 keyboard shortcut to the altF4 script. BTW, the yad package is not in Devuan stable's repo, but I use the one from Debian testing without any issues (https://packages.debian.org/search?keyw … ection=all).

Hope some of this is useful.

P.S. Instead of having the stock shutdown button on my MATE panel, I have a "Custom Application Launcher" that runs my-shutdown-dialog.

/usr/bin/obsession-exit -s  (suspend)
                                  -H  (hibernate)
                                  -r   (reboot)
                                  -p  (power-off/shutdown)

I'm actually working on that right now, as i'm building a mate mini at the moment.

Thanks for the great news. I followed the instructions (if someone else tries to follow: the package is named "xfce4-power-manager") and I have the XFCE Power Manager in my Preferences Menu available. As you have mentioned: the "close lid" stuff is unresolved (I already thought about a cron job checking the lid status every minute and sending the dbus if it is closed )

golinux wrote:

The showstopper is Mate not Devuan. 

I don't want to fingerpoint anyone (you could also argument Debian is the showstopper because of making systemd the default init system) - I just need a solution so I can migrate the main laptop to Devuan. AFAIK I have to switch to Devuan as long as I am using jessie, there won't be a migration path from stretch (and I have a feeling why this would be too much effort).

I'm actually working on that right now, as i'm building a mate mini at the moment.

First part of workaround: Uninstall mate-power-manager and mate-power-manager-common.  Install xfce4-power-manager and it's dependencies, make sure you have libupower-glib3 installed before you try to install xfce-power-manager, it's a dependency but for some reason may not be tagged as such.

Everything works in xfce power manager for me except for : options when I close lid of laptop

Other than that, everything else works, suspend, hibernate, what to do when power button is pushed etc.

For the second part i'm trying to figure out how to substitute a command in the main mate menu, the package "obsession" normally used for Openbox shutdown, also works in mate and offers suspend and hibernate and all other shutdown options you'd expect. I can click the obsession-logout file in /usr/bin/ and it pops up the shutdown menu just fine, just need to make it work in the main mate menu. (Obviously you can stick a .desktop file in the menu somewhere or in the panel and use it in the meantime, I just want to integrate it in to a mate install fully).

The showstopper is Mate not Devuan. 

I don't want to fingerpoint anyone (you could also argument Debian is the showstopper because of making systemd the default init system) - I just need a solution so I can migrate the main laptop to Devuan. AFAIK I have to switch to Devuan as long as I am using jessie, there won't be a migration path from stretch (and I have a feeling why this would be too much effort).

just my opinion but is not showstopper, and the bug came from upower