64

I need to remove the annoying new "locking" screen that shows a giant clock: I can't remove it with just moving the mouse (as with any other desktop environment), the animation is slow, and it isn't asking me for a password!

I managed to disable it, just to discover that now I can't lock my screen on purpose, so I can't go away from the computer.

Just to clarify, I want to:

  • After some time the screen could go black, but if I move the mouse or press any key then I can use it directly (like a normal screensaver).
  • If I press super-L then it is locked, and I must type the password to unlock (like a normal lock screen).

I found several "solutions", but none seems to work:

estebarb
  • 981

6 Answers6

12

Actual solution depends on exact requirements, but these may provide work-arounds (specifically, talking about the gnome 3 screen curtain, illustrated here ):

  • if you desire to have a normal basic screen lock enabled, yet don't want the "swipe-up screen curtain", then you may actually just type your password on the curtain screen without clicking/scrolling/mousing/etc, and it will work to unlock the screen. (Note: this assumes that only one account is configured to appear on the login greeter screen.)
  • it seems the screen curtain itself can't be disabled (a couple gnome-shell extensions have mixed reports of either no longer working (ubuntu 17+), or not working consistently), so it appears we're stuck with it for now. But given that you can type your password into it, it's mostly just an (unintuitive) aesthetic issue.
  • also, Esc will "swipe up" (and down), so you don't have to actually use the mouse.
  • there's always KDE (given gnome's usability trajectory, you might give this serious consideration)
michael
  • 2,109
12

Open Ubuntu Software and install the GNOME Shell Extension called:

Disable Screen Shield

This works for Ubuntu 18.04

Source: Disable Screen Shield Disable Screen Shield

Gordon Gary
  • 434
9

Like estebarb previously stated, using lightdm fixes the issue for me on 18.04 LTS and 18.10. However switching to KDE isn't necessary. GDM just needs to be disabled/replaced with lightdm

Just open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install lightdm

select lightdm, then press ok

display manager selection screenshot You should be able to see your changes by logging out. Then press Ctrl+Alt+F1 (tty1) and login there. then run:

sudo service gdm3 stop

then start lightdm with:

sudo service lightdm start

if it does jump right into lightdm you might have to press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to move back to tty7.

Axios
  • 101
8

The "issue" is with GDM. After switching to KDE I changed to Lightdm, and I noted that in Gnome the lock screen was changed as well :D .

So, the solution is not using GDM, for example:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm # For previous Ubuntu default
dessert
  • 40,956
estebarb
  • 981
5

This was bugging me when setting up Ubuntu 18.04 VMs in Hyper-V under Windows 10.

I finally found

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

seems to disable the curtain, after disabling the screen lock through the GUI or a separate gsettings command.

user2444815
  • 51
1

There is a recent gnome extension for this:

This is compatible with 3.26 through 3.34 at the time of this writing.

CoreyOConnor
  • 111