Well, I finally hit the right set of keywords to feed to Google and turned up a hint - what I want is still possible via the gconf settings. In case anyone else looking for a way to disable the Sleep key, the following command did the trick:
gconftool -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/buttons/suspend --type string "nothing" -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Desktop Bugs, which is subscribed to gnome-power-manager in ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/712650 Title: "Do nothing" option is missing for "When the suspend button is pressed:" -- desktop-bugs mailing list desktop-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/desktop-bugs
