Lets replace the lock-screen - a proposal

A while back I raised this topic How do I replace the lock screen?

I’ve tidied this up with a proposal that I would like your feedback with. This replaces the current lock-screen with slick-greeter i.e. consistent login and lock screens.

To try this out (20.04 only)

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntubudgie-dev/light-locker
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt purge gnome-screensaver
sudo apt autoremove

logout and login. Try locking the screen via the panel options/Super + L, suspend/resume, closing the laptop lid. There is a new light-locker settings menu option for controlling how the lock-screen works.

To reverse after testing is a bit more involved - so please follow the advice below exactly

sudo apt remove budgie-core
sudo ppa-purge ppa:ubuntubudgie-dev/light-locker
sudo apt install budgie-desktop-environment
sudo apt autoremove

Logout and login.

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Is it ok that this removed gnome-power-manager?

The following packages will be REMOVED:
  gnome-power-manager

It looks really good though! I love that it is like the login screen and shows the wallpaper.

Its a recommendation of gnome-screensaver - so is autoremoved when gnome-screensaver is removed. We can always install it via the UB seeds.

I tried out the new lock screen and it looks great. I tried it on two different laptops, and love that the lock screen is now the same as the login screen.

However, I am having a couple of issues on both computers. (Both are clean installs of 20.04). First, if I use light-locker-settings, the default seems to be to Blank Screen After 10 minutes. However, no matter what I change it to, when I log out and back in, it reverts to 10 minutes.

The second issue I have is that when I have light-locker-settings set to blank screen after 10 minutes and wait 10 minutes, it works properly the first time. However, after entering my password to unlock, if I wait another 10 minutes, the computer does not lock itself again. Instead, if I look in the light-locker-settings after the 10 minutes has elapsed, “Blank Screen After” has set itself to “never.”

This is consistent on both my computers. I didn’t know if I was alone in this. Aside from this, I absolutely love the change.

Thx for the feedback.

What this is proving is that replacing the lock screen is a very difficult business!!!

Ok, the only other distros that I am aware of that use light-locker is elementary and xubuntu.

So will need to have a look more closely what they are doing. First up is test installing xfce’s power-manager package to see if it’s that area that needs more investigation.

Ok. My conclusion on this is that light-locker is broken against the latest systemd

In addition, since the frequency on commits to light-locker is few and infrequent and that the last stable release is a few years ago, using light locker is not a viable solution.

Those projects using light locker are going to have to reevaluate their way forward.

I am closing this topic since the proposal hasn’t got a viable way forward due to upstream issues.

That’s too bad, as it felt like the experience was a little tighter with it matching. I’ll purge the PPA.

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