13

In 17.10 I've looked in Settings->Privacy, Screen Lock is off. In Power Blank Screen is off. Yet after some minutes of inactivity the screen just doesn't turn off, a lock screen appears that needs the mouse to pull up.

This is a PC in my house, I'm really not concerned that one of the dogs could wander by and see my screen. Is there a way to really turn off this lock screen? Turning the display off after some minutes would be fine.

Ali Razmdideh
  • 5,758
LarryM
  • 540
  • The same problem with my home media server on 17.10. Furthermore looks like Ubuntu do log out when i turn off TV. – rukeba Nov 11 '17 at 19:23
  • possibly related: https://askubuntu.com/a/1011952/17060 . But if the problem is not related to the gnome3 screen curtain and instead related to turning off the display, then it's probably unrelated. – michael Mar 05 '18 at 03:26

5 Answers5

1

Post #10 here https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=171226 fixed it for me. I think I finally found a way to disable the inactivity curtain in gnome 3.10. Launch dconf-editor then drill down org > gnome > desktop> session. Find the key for idle-delay and change it's value to 0 .

Or you can do it in once step by running the command:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0

You'd think it would be easy to get rid of that annoying stuff...

Michael Kielhauser
  • 11
  • Welll... this completely disables screen blanking, not just the curtain. I wouldn't mind the screen going blank and a mouse wiggle waking it up. But this is better than the curtain, so thanks!! – LarryM Mar 03 '18 at 16:24
  • +1 for the idea of changing settings in dconf-editor. The settings I changed were different ones e.g. /org/gnome/desktop/screensaver/lock-enabled, /org/gnome/desktop/screensaver/ubuntu-lock-on-suspend and /org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/disable-lock-screen (I am a bit confused by the double-negative here, but I decided to set it to 'on') – craq Jun 19 '18 at 00:15
1

Same problem in 18.04. So, I tested a bit. Despite disabling all settings of screensaver and lock screen, the lock screen was still active. But there is a solution. Turns out, the "gnome-screensaver" is still active in the background. Removing it (apt-get remove gnome-screensaver) does the trick. Now you can even enable the screensaver again and it won't lock the screen anymore ;)

Neobie
  • 151
  • Hmm, I tried to remove it and got the message: Package 'gnome-screensaver' is not installed, so not removed

    I am also on 18.04 now.

     – LarryM May 16 '18 at 16:06
  • 1
    Interesting. Ok, seems you are having intense difficulty with this particular problem. So, let me go deeper on what I did. First of all, are you using Ubuntu? Secondly, which GUI/WM are you using? I'm using Mate. This started with the problem of not being able to login at the lock screen. So, first thing I did, was disable the lock screen (control center, screensaver). But since the 18.04 upgrade it just ignored that setting. So, first of all I went down to 1 minute for the screensaver setting for testing. Next I disabled the screensaver. Didn't help. – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:13
  • 1
    Next I went to the startup applications and did the same. Also rebooting the PC. Now guess what. The lock screen was still there. Blue screen, black panel on top. Here is something interesting: it came after the minute for the screensaver. So, some online pages suggested the privacy settings. Which I couldn't find in Mate. So, here is a trick, newer users don't seem to know. Do NOT disable the lock screen, once it's there. Instead, switch to a text mode login. And it seems, this is fairly unknown among new users. Just hit crtl+alt+2 (3,4,5 or 6. 7 will get you back to the GUI). – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:14
  • 1
    What you should see now, is a black screen with a login in white. Log in with your user. And now you can check for running processes. I would suggest particular strings like "screen" and "lock". So, ps -e | grep -i "screen" and/or ps -e | grep -i "lock". This way I've been able to find the problem on my end. After that, removing was just a shot. But that did it for me. Log out, go back to the GUI and reactivate the screensaver. And maybe go up from one minute. That's what I did. I suggest you try the same. Instead of just trying this and that, try to find the cause of the problem. – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:14
  • And as mentioned, I would suggest the process list to find it. – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:14
  • EDIT: sorry ... it's crtl+alt+f2 (f3, ...)! – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:38
  • BTW: for those who just had trouble logging in and are still in need of a reliable lock screen they can control, I suggest i3lock, which is usually used for the i3 window manager, but does work for other too. You can just create an application starter in a panel or on your desktop and use that to start it. Might be helpful. Particularly for mobile devices ;) – Neobie May 18 '18 at 01:43
  • Well, interestingly, I tried the apt-get remove gnome-screensaver on my (freshly installed) 17.10 laptop - the remove was successful - but sadly the lock screen still appears. In the startup app, there is a kerneloops app - could that be it? – LarryM May 18 '18 at 12:57
  • p.s. - I'm using straight out of the box Ubuntu on both boxes. – LarryM May 18 '18 at 12:57
  • Well, the PCs I'm responsible for had it on them since versions 14 and 15. Also going by your comment I'm assuming you are using default with Unity. Not Mate. I actually went from Unity to Mate because Mate gave me less trouble. Especially with the mouse cursor that was missing with Unity on some devices. "kerneloops" ... doesn't sound likely to me. Again: did you disable the one in the screensaver settings too? The two seem to be 2 different locking mechanisms. The one in the screensaver settings has always been there and I've disabled it way back. – Neobie May 18 '18 at 14:18
  • The gnome-screensaver came with the 18.04 upgrade and hasn't been there before. And again, I would suggest searching for some "screen" or "lock" process while the lock screen is active. "kerneloops" doesn't include either of these terms. – Neobie May 18 '18 at 14:18
1

In 17.10, I finally found that the entering Settings (top-right corner, then click the wrench in the drop-down), then changing Power -> Dim screen when inactive to OFF as well as Blank screen to Never worked.

I can't imagine what kind of thought process went into hiding these settings so far away in unintuitive locations would be a good idea, but that's what we're stuck with as a terrible default.

Jesse
  • 11
0

In my 17.04, there seems to be two places that involve lock:

Settings - Privacy

Settings - Brightness & Lock

That what you have in 17.10? If so, check that Brightness & Lock show Lock being OFF.

jpezz
  • 1,120
  • 1
    No, the settings screens are different between 17.04 and 17.10. There is no "Brightness & Lock" to turn off. – LarryM Nov 06 '17 at 21:48
  • 2
    In 17.10: Settings > Power > Blank Screen > "Never" ... this and Setting > Privacy > Screen Lock > "Off" avoids the "pull me up I don't make any sense" screen – Rocjoe Dec 06 '17 at 18:18
  • @Rocjoe That didn't work for me – user5389726598465 Jan 18 '18 at 19:13
  • Yes turning the "blank screen" off works. But when I leave the computer for 15 mins, I want the monitor to go dark. –  Mar 07 '18 at 18:20
0

Get rid of the annoying "pull me up I don't make any sense" screen shield in GNOME 3

https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/672/disable-screen-shield/