Admittedly, the default Gnome panel setup on Ubuntu Lucid is rather sleek and utilitarian, alas there are some who would like to suspend to RAM in one click not two. The screen will be locked upon resuming, better safe than sorry right?
1. Create a file named suspend.sh with the following content:
#!/bin/bash
gnome-screensaver-command --lock
dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.UPower /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend
chmod 755 suspend.sh
3. Right-click Gnome top panel and 'Add to panel...'
4. Create a new launcher.
5. Select the following launcher properties:
Type: Application in Terminal
Name: Suspend
Command: /point/to/suspend.sh
6. Choose an appropriate icon like e.g. /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/gdu-hba.png , yeah I know that's not what an off-button looks like. It's close, give me that.