Fedora – Locking the screen when laptop lid is shut (Gnome 3.8, Fedora 19)

fedoragnomegnome3screensaver

I cannot figure out how to configure the screensaver to be run (which in turn causes the screen to be locked) every time I shut the lid of my laptop. I have xscreensaver installed and on Xfce it allowed me to configure an action when the lid is shut. Well, not on Gnome 3 🙁 Any ideas?

Edit: I do not want the computer to suspend/hibernate when I shut the lid; simply blank the screen.

Best Answer

From this answer: https://superuser.com/questions/748482/how-to-suspend-from-lockscreen-in-gnome-3 , in your /etc/systemd/logind.conf change the line to:

HandleLidSwitch=lock

and then sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind to restart the service.

Background

There are 2 solutions that were determined for this particular problem. The 1st involved launching xscreensaver, and disabling it so that no screensaver is configured.

The 2nd method involved completely disabling the screensaver in X altogether, through the use of the xset command.

Solution #1

A solution with a narrow scope (by cipricus) is that of adding a fourth step to those included in the answer.

Install xscreensaver
Remove gnome-screensaver
Set Xscreensaver NOT to use any screensaver ('Disable screensaver')
Add xscreensaver in the startup programs list. The command to add is:
```
xscreensaver -no-splash
```

This solution was suggested by the fact that this message appeared when starting xscreensaver before adding the fourth step:

enter image description here

Further instructions came from this source.

NOTE: To add a program to startup list in eOS, go to System Settings > Stertup Applications > Add

Solution #2

A solution with a wider scope by slm:

xset

Check to see what the xset setting is for screen blanking as well. You can check using this command:

$ xset q

We're specifically interested in this section of the output from the above command:

$ xset q
...
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  600    cycle:  600
...

Disabling screensaver

You can change these settings like this:

$ xset s off
$ xset s noblank

Confirm by running xset q again:

$ xset q
...
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  no    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  0    cycle:  600
...

DPMS

You might also need to disable power management as well, that's the DPMS settings in the xset q output:

$ xset q
...
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 0    Suspend: 0    Off: 0
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
...

Disable it like so:

$ xset -dpms

Confirm:

$ xset q
...
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 0    Suspend: 0    Off: 0
  DPMS is Disabled
...

Re-enabling features

You can re-enable these features at any time with these commands

$ xset s blank       # blanking screensaver
$ xset s 600 600     # five minute interval
$ xset +dpms         # enable power management

Confirming changes:

$ xset q
...
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  600    cycle:  600
...
...
DPMS (Energy Star):
  Standby: 0    Suspend: 0    Off: 0
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On
...

Fedora – Can not suspend when lid closed, even if external display is connected

Assuming the laptop's also plugged into external power; you'd also need to explicitly add the following to /etc/systemd/logind.conf:

HandleLidSwitchExternalPower=suspend

Per man logind.conf

HandleLidSwitchExternalPower= is completely ignored by default (for backwards compatibility) — an explicit value must be set before it will be used to determine behaviour.

If the system is inserted in a docking station, or if more than one display is connected, the action specified by HandleLidSwitchDocked= occurs; if the system is on external power the action (if any) specified by HandleLidSwitchExternalPower= occurs; otherwise the HandleLidSwitch= action occurs.