mjhjmtu

In Linux Mint 17 I have Suspend when inactive for under Power Management set to 10 minutes.

The problem is that the system suspends even when I'm listening to music using Spotify.

Is there any way to prevent this?

I found this article which suggests a couple of ways to stop the screensaver from activating. I have not tested this but since they presumably issue events to stop the activation (the second does at least), that should also count as activity for the inactivity monitor. You'll have to test this though, I'm not sure it will work.

1. 
   

   Install caffeine. This can be done by adding a ppa to your system and then installing it like any other package. As long as you're using the normal Mint, this should also work for you.

   
   
   

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:caffeine-developers/ppa
   sudo apt-get update
   sudo apt-get install caffeine
   

   
   
   

   Then, launch caffeine and its icon should appear in your system tray. You can choose which programs should cancel suspending.

   
   
   

   Note: As of the 2.7 release of caffeine, the program no longer has a GUI and works only as a daemon. When running, it will prevent the screensaver from activating so long as the active window is full screen.

   
   


2. 
   

   The LightsOn script. It won't check spotify by default but it is easy enough to modify it to do so. Just add spotify to the delay_progs array at the beginging of the script:

   
   
   

   delay_progs=("spotify")
   

   
   
   

   Then, add the script to your startup programs so it runs in the background. and it should stop you from suspending if spotify is running. Note that this does not check whether any music is playing, just whether the program is running.

   
   

Let me know if these don't work for the suspension and I'll try and hack something together using xdotool or similar programs.

I just posted an answer for a similar question:
Linux Mint: How to Avoid Suspending While Music is Playing

I have written a script to set the suspend timeout to "Never" while pactl detects a running audio source, then reverts the setting when no audio sources are detected.

Here is a copy of the latest answer and script:

I have done a little more work on the above script and it should now work in Cinnamon, Mate and Ubuntu running Gnome. I have tried it out on Live USB versions of Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon and Mate as well as Ubuntu 18.04 - Gnome.

#!/bin/sh

# Audiocaffeine

# Works in Linux Mint 19 - Cinnamon, Linux Mint 19 - Mate, Ubuntu 18.04 - Gnome

# Script to temporarily set suspend timout for AC and battery to "Never"
# while audio is playing. It then reverts the settings when audio is no longer detected.

# Determine if a valid desktop environment is running and exit if it doesn't.
echo "Reported desktop environment: ""$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP"
if [ "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "X-Cinnamon" ]; then
 actimeoutid="org.cinnamon.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout"
 batttimeoutid="org.cinnamon.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-timeout"
 disablevalue=0
elif [ "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "MATE" ]; then
 actimeoutid="org.mate.power-manager sleep-computer-ac"
 batttimeoutid="org.mate.power-manager sleep-computer-battery"
 disablevalue=0
elif [ "$XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP" = "ubuntu:GNOME" ]; then
 actimeoutid="org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type"
 batttimeoutid="org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type"
 disablevalue="nothing"
else
 echo "No valid desktop environment is running"
 exit 1
fi

# Create .config directory to store settings if it doesn't exist.
if [ ! -d ~/.config ]; then
 echo ".config directory not found!"
 echo "Creating ~/.config"
 mkdir ~/.config
fi

# Create audiocaffeine directory to store settings if it doesn't exist.
if [ ! -d ~/.config/audiocaffeine ]; then
 echo "Configuration directory not found!"
 echo "Creating ~/.config/audiocaffeine"
 mkdir ~/.config/audiocaffeine
fi

# Restore previous value for AC suspend timeout if script
# was interrupted.
if [ -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend ]; then
 echo "Restoring previous AC suspend timeout."
 read acsuspendtime < ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend
 gsettings set $actimeoutid $acsuspendtime
 echo "Removing temporary file ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend"
 rm ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend
fi

# Restore previous value for battery suspend timeout if script
# was interrupted.
if [ -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend ]; then
 echo "Restoring previous battery suspend timeout."
 read battsuspendtime < ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend
 gsettings set $batttimeoutid $battsuspendtime
 echo "Removing temporary file ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend"
 rm ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend
fi

# Start main loop to check if audio is playing

while true; do

 # Use pactl to detect if there are any running audio sources.
 if pactl list | grep -q "State: RUNNING"; then

 echo "Audio detected."

 # If AC timeout was not previously saved, then save it.
 if [ ! -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend ]; then
 echo "Saving current AC suspend timeout."
 gsettings get $actimeoutid > ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend
 fi

 # If battery timeout was not previously saved, then save it.
 if [ ! -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend ]; then
 echo "Saving current battery suspend timeout."
 gsettings get $batttimeoutid > ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend
 fi

 # Set the suspend timouts to Never using gsettings.
 echo "Changing suspend timeouts."
 gsettings set $actimeoutid $disablevalue
 gsettings set $batttimeoutid $disablevalue

 else
 echo "No audio detected."

 # Restore previous value for AC suspend timeout and delete the
 # temporary file storing it.
 if [ -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend ]; then
 echo "Restoring previous AC suspend timeout."
 read acsuspendtime < ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend
 gsettings set $actimeoutid $acsuspendtime
 echo "Removing temporary file ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend"
 rm ~/.config/audiocaffeine/acsuspend
 fi

 # Restore previous value for battery suspend timeout and delete the
 # temporary file storing it.
 if [ -f ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend ]; then
 echo "Restoring previous battery suspend timeout."
 read battsuspendtime < ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend
 gsettings set $batttimeoutid $battsuspendtime
 echo "Removing temporary file ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend"
 rm ~/.config/audiocaffeine/battsuspend
 fi

 fi

 # Pause the script for 60 seconds before doing the loop again.
 sleep 60s

done