Mapping the Power Key

On my laptop, the default behaviour of pressing the power key is shutting down the device. It isn't very nice when I have to set up the desktop from scratch when I accidentally power the laptop off, or when my younger siblings do it on purpose, so I've decided to put a stop to it.

On my machine, two programs handle the "sleep" state: acpi and elogind. Modifying /etc/acpi/handler.sh to do nothing when the power button is pressed didn't work, but updating the elogind config worked.

Adding any .conf file under /etc/elogind/logind.conf.d/ should work. I updated mine to suspend when the power key is pressed and only power off on a long press.

[Login]
HandlePowerKey=suspend
HandlePowerKeyLongPress=poweroff

/etc/elogind/logind.conf.d/logind.conf

No more getting trolled :)