Ubuntu – How to reduce delay before locking after pressing lock button

17.04lock-screen

On my freshly installed Ubuntu 17.04 lock screen appears about 5-10 seconds after I press Win+L or "lock" button in the upper right corner. During these 5-10 seconds nothing is happening. As if I didn't press the button.

How do I reduce this lag? I want it to lock immediately.

"Lock screen after" is set to "screen turns off":

Update 10.05.2017

journalctl -f shows me these messages:

май 10 13:16:26 marko-ubuntu compiz[6140]: WARN  2017-05-10 13:16:26 unity.glib.dbus.proxy GLibDBusProxy.cpp:487 Calling method "EmitEvent" on object path: "/com/ubuntu/Upstart" failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name com.canonical.Unity.Test.Upstart was not provided by any .service files
май 10 13:16:26 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Starting Backing Service for the Unity Panel in Lockscreen mode...
май 10 13:16:26 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Started Backing Service for the Unity Panel in Lockscreen mode.
май 10 13:16:26 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Reached target A target that, when running, represents the screen being locked.
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu compiz[6140]: gkr-pam: unlocked login keyring
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu repowerd[1051]: LogindSystemPowerControl: change_manager_properties(), BlockInhibited=shutdown:sleep:handle-power-key:handle-suspend-key:handle-hibernate-key:handle-lid-switch
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu unity-panel-ser[6150]: menus_destroyed: assertion 'IS_WINDOW_MENU(wm)' failed
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu unity-panel-ser[6150]: menus_destroyed: assertion 'IS_WINDOW_MENU(wm)' failed
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Stopped target A target that, when running, represents the screen being locked.
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Stopping Backing Service for the Unity Panel in Lockscreen mode...
май 10 13:16:40 marko-ubuntu compiz[6140]: WARN  2017-05-10 13:16:40 unity.glib.dbus.proxy GLibDBusProxy.cpp:487 Calling method "EmitEvent" on object path: "/com/ubuntu/Upstart" failed: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name com.canonical.Unity.Test.Upstart was not provided by any .service files
май 10 13:16:41 marko-ubuntu unity-panel-ser[9016]: Source ID 4294967295 was not found when attempting to remove it
май 10 13:16:41 marko-ubuntu systemd[5720]: Stopped Backing Service for the Unity Panel in Lockscreen mode.

I've pressed "Lock" button at second 20. Screen transitioned into locked mode at second 26. So there was a 6 second lag. At second 40 I've logged back in.

Update 18.05.2017

It happens with two monitors only. It does not happen with one monitor.

Best Answer

I searched a lot to find anything (configuration) that may be related to this lag but to luck. It seems that there was a known bug [old]. anyway we still can use other tools to achieve what we want unless that bug is effecting you which you can use the above link instruction to get rid of it..

First use these commands to lock your screen, see which one of them is work better for you and which one you prefer to use.

$ dm-tool lock
$ gnome-screensaver-command -a  # starts screen saver

Now open system settings go to keyboard section and shortcuts tabs.

Now you can select custom shortcuts and asign something Ctrl+Alt+l to a command like dm-tool lock; Cause by default we can't use Super+l.

However if you insist to use Super+l to run your preferred command, set it as your key-binding and follow along to make it work.

To disable unity's Super+l key-binding, run:

dconf write /org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/unityshell/lock-screen "''"

To restore default behavior:

dconf reset /org/compiz/profiles/unity/plugins/unityshell/lock-screen

or install compiz setting manager:

$ sudo apt install compizconfig-settings-manager

then run it:

$ ccsm

Go to ubuntu unity plugin section. on line two, Key to lock the screen, click on the button <Super>l, uncheck the Enabled check-box click on ok.

Related Solutions

How to Prevent the Sleep Button from Locking the Screen

You can remap the key using ~/.Xmodmap. Use xev (in a terminal) to find the offending keycode, then assign a different keysym, e.g. XF86WakeUp. Append this line to ~/.Xmodmap (create that file if it does not yet exist):

keycode 150 = XF86WakeUp

After logging out and logging in again your key should be mapped. If you don't want to log out, you can also use xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap to reload the key mappings.

Using xev to actually find the keycode of the key that you want to remap might be not so easy: if the key is already bound to an action (e.g. in the Gnome keyboard properties), xev does not show the keycode. As an example, this is the kind of xev output that you want to see:

KeyPress event, serial 41, synthetic NO, window 0x5800001,
    root 0xb3, subw 0x0, time 312883, (737,182), root:(946,647),
    state 0x0, keycode 180 (keysym 0x1008ff18, XF86HomePage), same_screen YES,
    XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XmbLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
    XFilterEvent returns: False

You can see the keycode (180) in the third line after the word "keycode". If you don't get such a block that starts with "KeyPress event", your key probably is already bound. You can try to use a non-Gnome desktop like LXDE or KDE and use xev there.

Ubuntu – Unlock screen from command line

Go to TTY and run the command:

sleep 5; xdotool type <yourpassword>; xdotool key Return

and then go back to the login screen and click in the password box. Wait ~5 secs and your password will be typed and enter will have been pressed.

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