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gnome-screensaver has been vastly simplified for major version 3 and no longer supplies the preferences dialog. It is now only useful for locking the screen and providing an unlock dialog.

I use 12.04 LTS at the moment and am able to install gnome-screensaver version 3.4.1-0ubuntu1 and add it to the XFCE session's application autostart list. gnome-screensaver then works when I select Lock Screen from the panel.

I am, however, unable to configure gnome-screensaver to auto-lock the screen. There is no obvious configuration file or dialog where I can set the timeout.

Right now I use xscreensaver to achieve auto-locking but I don't really care about screensavers, I prefer auto-lock and display suspend via DPMS. Right now xscreensaver doesn't really play well with lightdm on my system - user switching requires the password to be entered twice:

  • user a lock-screen: press New Login
  • lightdm: enter user b password
  • user b xscreensaver lock-screen: enter password again

I should mention that this system was installed as Ubuntu years ago and I've been installing various xubuntu-desktop meta-packages to try out various desktop environments.

Can anyone help me set up gnome-screensaver auto-lock?

bartmanus
  • 71

1 Answers1

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Rather than using a configuration front-end to gnome-screensaver that does not exist, use the xfce4-power-manager via the xfce4-power-manager-settings to lock the screen. Specify a timeout to your liking.

If this does not work for you, install the package dconf-tools, run dconf-editor and edit the items under org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power to your liking.

aquaherd
  • 6,345