Xfce Forum

chaser

Member

Registered: 2021-08-10

Posts: 4

How to properly replace the default screen lock?

I have the lightdm screen locker on Debian, it is the default that came with Debian + XFCE (4.16).

I want to change it to physlock so that it will be used instead of lightdm whenever the screen is locked (key shortcut, suspend, hibernation, screensaver locking automatically, etc).

What are the steps to do that properly?

Edit: I was able to change it by editing /usr/bin/xflock4, placing physlock at the top of the first list in that file, but this changes the screen lock only in the case when the screen is locked by a key shortcut (Ctrl + Alt + L). When the screen is locked by the screensaver or the computer returns from Suspend or Hibernation, lightdm still appears.

Last edited by chaser (2021-08-14 19:44:05)

jarnos

Member

From: Finland

Registered: 2009-03-22

Posts: 50

Website

Re: How to properly replace the default screen lock?

Lightdm is not a proper screen locker. I guess you have light-locker installed and running. It might not be possible to make a screensaver use physlock, unless you use a configurable screensaver such as xautolock. And, due to an issue automatic locking with suspend might not use xflock4 for locking;  you might have to terminate and uninstall screensavers and/or light-locker that have a higher priority.

You do not need to change xflock4 to be able to use physlock. You can set up a respective xfconf variable by

xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /general/LockCommand -s 'physlock -dm' --create -t string

Alternatively you could use Settings Editor as GUI method.

BTW you could also test my improved version of xflock4, see this post.

Last edited by jarnos (2022-02-28 14:07:32)