xfce – xscreensaver: How to run a script on unlock?

screen-lockxfcexubuntu

I'd like to run a screen if the XFCE session is locked and unlocked. Is there a way that I can intercept this and perform certain actions when the desktop is locked or unlocked?

I see that it is possible in Ubuntu; but I'd like to achieve this in Xubuntu.

I can't seem to find any events triggered by xscreensaver when it quits…

Best Answer

xscreensaver has a -watch option:

-watch Prints a line each time the screensaver changes state: when the screen blanks, locks, unblanks, or when the running hack is changed. This option never returns; it is intended for use by shell scripts that want to react to the screensaver in some way.¹

The UNBLANK state is what you are looking for. The manual includes an example script using these options.

^{1. http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/man3.html}

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Ubuntu – Light Locker – Run script on screen lock/unlock

The previous answer helped me write this fragment of bash script that handles Lock and Unlock session events for the current session. I use it to suspend browser processes when the session is locked and to resume them when it unlocks. Tested under Debian unstable (Xfce 4.12) Enjoy!

session=/org/freedesktop/login1/session/$XDG_SESSION_ID
iface=org.freedesktop.login1.Session
dbus-monitor --system "type=signal,path=$session,interface=$iface" 2>/dev/null |
 while read signal stamp sender arrow dest rest; do
  case "$rest" in
    *Lock)
      echo   LOCKED at $stamp
      pause $@
;;
    *Unlock)
      echo UNLOCKED at $stamp
      resume $@
;;  #unknown Session signal received
    *)
#      echo $signal $stamp $sender $arrow $dest $rest
  esac
done

Linux – Have certain keys pass through lockscreen

I figured something out: listening for raw keypresses is possible even when the keyboard focus is grabbed away by a screen locker. The downside is that with raw keypresses, you have to manually track the state of the modifier keys, but that seems to work pretty well.

I built a small hotkey daemon based on this idea which allows to execute commands even while the screen is locked. If anyone is interested, you can find it here: https://github.com/tinloaf/lhkd

Best Answer

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Linux – Have certain keys pass through lockscreen

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