eeepc power button does nothing

Changed affects for the simple reason that I see the default settings are ok, but not sure what is exactly the culprit.

In XFCE Power Manager if I change the setting for the power button to shutdown then the system shuts down when I press it.
If however I change the setting to ask then pressing the power button does nothing.
Am running lubuntu 12.04 and have all the latest updates.

ACPI is able to pickup on the keypress:
kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ acpi_listen
button/power PWRF 00000080 0000001c

~/.config/openbox/lubuntu-rc.xml contains this:
    <!-- Launch logout when push on the shutdown button -->
    <keybind key="XF86PowerOff">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>lubuntu-logout</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>

If I use an openbox session instead of a lubuntu session then pressing the power button causes the machine to shutdown. So looks like an lxde/xfce4 power manager issue.

kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ cat ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-power-manager.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="xfce4-power-manager" version="1.0">
  <property name="xfce4-power-manager" type="empty">
    <property name="power-button-action" type="uint" value="3"/>
    <property name="spin-down-on-battery" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="inactivity-on-battery" type="uint" value="15"/>
    <property name="lid-action-on-battery" type="uint" value="1"/>
    <property name="critical-power-action" type="uint" value="1"/>
    <property name="brightness-on-ac" type="uint" value="9"/>
    <property name="hibernate-button-action" type="uint" value="3"/>
    <property name="sleep-button-action" type="uint" value="1"/>
  </property>
</channel>

Curiously enough if I kill the xfce4-powermanager process then it works:

kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ ps -ef | grep xfce4
kenneth 2636 1 1 23:47 ? 00:00:00 xfce4-power-manager
kenneth 2639 1 0 23:47 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
kenneth 2831 2761 0 23:48 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto xfce4
kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ #Power button does nothing
kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ kill -KILL 2636
kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ ps -ef | grep xfce4
kenneth 2639 1 0 23:47 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd
kenneth 2843 2761 0 23:48 pts/1 00:00:00 grep --color=auto xfce4
kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ #Power button brings up dialogue

After a reboot I retested, the behaviour was similar except that instead of the dialgoue box, the system shutdown.

I then killed the daemon and did the following:

kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ xfce4-power-manager --no-daemon --debug
TRACE[xfpm-main.c:203] xfpm_start(): Starting the power manager

(xfce4-power-manager:1967): GLib-WARNING **: (/build/buildd/glib2.0-2.32.1/./glib/gerror.c:390):g_error_new_valist: runtime check failed: (domain != 0)

(xfce4-power-manager:1967): xfce4-power-manager-WARNING **: Unable to connect to session managet : Failed to connect to the session manager: SESSION_MANAGER environment variable not defined
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for general-notification
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for lock-screen-suspend-hibernate
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for power-save-on-battery
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for enable-cpu-freq-control
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for critical-power-level
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for show-brightness-popup
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for change-brightness-on-key-events
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for show-tray-icon
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for lid-action-on-ac
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for brightness-level-on-ac
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for brightness-level-on-battery
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-enabled
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-on-ac-sleep
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-on-ac-off
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-on-battery-sleep
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-on-battery-off
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for dpms-sleep-mode
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for inactivity-on-ac
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for inactivity-sleep-mode
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for brightness-on-battery
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for spin-down-on-ac
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for spin-down-on-ac-timeout
TRACE[xfpm-xfconf.c:156] xfpm_xfconf_load(): Using default configuration for spin-down-on-battery-timeout
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:1055] xfpm_power_get_power_devices(): Power device detected at : /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC0
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:1002] xfpm_power_add_device(): device added: ((XfpmDeviceType) XFPM_DEVICE_TYPE_LINE_POWER)
TRACE[xfpm-power.c:1055] xfpm_power_get_power_devices(): Powe...

kenneth@kennetheeepc:~$ sudo evtest
No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:
/dev/input/event0: Lid Switch
/dev/input/event1: Sleep Button
/dev/input/event10: HDA Intel Headphone
/dev/input/event2: Power Button
/dev/input/event3: Power Button
/dev/input/event4: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard
/dev/input/event5: Asus EeePC extra buttons
/dev/input/event6: Video Bus
/dev/input/event7: UVC Camera (eb1a:2761)
/dev/input/event8: SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad
/dev/input/event9: HDA Intel Mic
Select the device event number [0-10]: 3
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x19 vendor 0x0 product 0x1 version 0x0
Input device name: "Power Button"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 116 (KEY_POWER)
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)
Event: time 1339108039.366288, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 116 (KEY_POWER), value 1
Event: time 1339108039.366292, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------
Event: time 1339108039.366319, type 1 (EV_KEY), code 116 (KEY_POWER), value 0
Event: time 1339108039.366321, -------------- SYN_REPORT ------------

Comment in irc:
thats because the xfce4-power-manager is meant for xfce4-session and not lxsession so it cannot call the dialog https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=94516

Hi.

May this help to link to my friend (who has no LP id yet) workaround :

http://rzr.online.fr/q/xfce

Same problem here on 12.04, EeePC 901 Lubuntu.

The workaround above solves the problem, but it's rather messy...

Would be nice to see this fixed soon, it's been a problem for a couple of years now!!! Bug #783551 is an (unfixed) duplicate.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.