Inactivity Sleep/logout grace period

[pandoman]

After a time of inactivity, the system will go to sleep, etc. so that you have to log in again to use the system. In the Windows world, I appreciated that there was some kind of grace period from the time the screen closed up shop to the time you would actually have to log in again. Most times, I'm sitting at the computer, but looking at something else when the system decides to go to sleep. By the time I see it's going to sleep, it's too late to do anything about it in my Linux system, while in Windows, I could quickly interrupt the process by hitting a key on the keyboard. I don't know if this is there in newer versions. I'm on Mint 22

[mtwebster]

You didn't specify which edition you're using (Cinnamon, MATE or Xfce), but in Cinnamon there is

• the 'screensaver' (computer is locked but still on, active)
• monitor powersave (usually set to some period of time after the screensaver is activated) - again, the computer is still on, but monitor is not, and the screen is also locked.
• sleep/suspend - usually disabled by default on desktop PCs, enabled on laptops only when on battery power.

For the screensaver activation, there is a delay setting - "Delay before locking"

You can set that to something other than 'lock immediately', and when the screensaver starts, you'll have that much time to bump the mouse or press a key to deactivate it, before a password will be required to do so.

You can configure how long it takes before the screensaver even activates there also, and can do the same for the other powersave items in 'Power' settings.