Toggle to keep the laptop running with the lid closed (KVM / clamshell)

[Ojisan1]

Omarchy already handles clamshell display well: lid-close disables the internal panel once an external monitor is active, and the monitor watcher recovers it. Lid-close power is a separate path, and that is the gap for KVM use.

The gap

systemd-logind still owns suspend on lid close (HandleLidSwitch=suspend, HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore). “Docked” means a docking station or more than one display connected. That works when the external display is already live before the lid closes.

It fails for a typical KVM:

• Close the lid, then switch/connect the KVM (no display yet → logind suspends).
• The KVM does not assert HPD/EDID until that port is selected.
• The KVM is switched away and the display drops while the lid is still closed.

The coffee cup (StayAwake / omarchy toggle idle) only skips idle screensaver and idle lock. It does not take a handle-lid-switch inhibitor, so it does not keep the machine running across a lid close. That split is useful: at a KVM you often still want idle lock on the external screen.

Suggested UX

A second bar indicator, independent of the coffee cup:

• On: take systemd-inhibit --what=handle-lid-switch --mode=block. Lid close does not suspend. Existing Hyprland lid binds still run omarchy-system-lid-close / omarchy-hyprland-monitor-clamshell, so the internal panel turns off once the external display is live. Idle lock/screensaver stay as they are.
• Off: current behavior. Closing the lid in a bag suspends.

Click it before docking; click it off before packing the laptop. Persist the on state across reboot so a desk machine comes back already in dock mode.

Do not set HandleLidSwitch=ignore globally. The session inhibitor is enough, needs no root, and drops when the toggle is off.

Why not fold this into the coffee cup

Coffee cup = “don’t lock on idle.” Dock mode = “don’t sleep on lid close.” Mixing them means a docked KVM would not idle-lock unless you also turn stay-awake off (which would re-enable lid-suspend), and a closed lid in a bag would not sleep while the cup is on.

Prototype

I have this running as a user plugin on Omarchy 4.0.1 (Dell XPS 14, KVM + external display): a bar icon plus a systemd user unit that holds the handle-lid-switch block inhibitor. Happy to turn it into a first-party indicator next to StayAwake, with omarchy toggle …, if this UX is wanted.

Happy to adjust the design (auto-on when an external display appears, different icon placement, etc.) if you would rather not add a second indicator.