By default plasma login and sddm show the background without input fields for the user and password. Hitting a key (start typing) shows the fields. Hitting escape however causes the monitor to go black and fall asleep (orange led). It takes several seconds for the monitor to wake up and show the login screen again when pressing a key to wake the system up. Pressing escape once wakes it up, escape again puts it back to sleep.
This behavior is so counter intuitive for me and it annoys the hell out of me. Every time I see the background without input fields, I hit escape without thinking to show the input fields, but it actually turns off the monitor. Any other system, GDM, Windows, you name it works more intuitively for me.
In SDDM I remember I managed to turn it off, although I don’t quite remember how. I’ve been searching for a way to change this behavior in plasma login but I can’t find it.
Any ideas, beyond switchging back to sddm and figure that out (again), or using another login manager alltogether?
I understand I could switch login managers, but it would loose some integration with plasma settings and make things less cohesive, so to speak. I would prefer to change the behavior than to switch.
I believe this is configured per theme, but I have not done it.
How about for the first character of your password you use a character that requires Shift or Ctrl to type it? Then you can simply start typing your password whether the prompt is changed to a text field or not.
Only if you leave it for a while or if it was asleep.
See I’m the opposite. On the few occasions I use windows, having to hit a key before I start typing is annoying and counter-intuitive however I still remember to hit space (because it’s a convenient key to use).
I’m not sure you can turn it off yet, if you can you might have to delve into PLM itself, or completely disable Esc.
Why don’t you try to get used to just typing your password without hitting anything else first? It works even if you’ve already put the monitor to sleep (it wakes up again and whatever you’ve typed is there).
Alternatively try using a modifier key instead.
No need, unlike windows it doesn’t eat the first key press.
I had never noticed the ESC function at that point because I hit the SHIFT key when I want to type. Not hold it, just tap it. And that keyboard signal is all it takes to wake SDDM for me. Hitting ESC never occurred to me before, and does not seem intuitive. At that point you want not to escape, but to wake it up.
The idea is to allow people to manually switch off the monitor without having to use the physical button/switch on the monitor itself, or having to wait for the timeout set in the system to expire.
And by the way, you don’t have to press a key. You can just move the mouse (or touch the touchpad if you’re on a laptop) — it does the same thing.
Drop your Windows habits. They’re not going to help you get more familiar with the system.
GNU/Linux is not a Windows-like system; it’s a UNIX system.
That was probably through a keyboard configuration option in X11, but Plasma 6 defaults to Wayland, and while X11 is still supported in 6.6 and 6.7, it will be dropped completely in Plasma 6.8.
If its currently not possible, that’s an answer too. Let’s not make this about my habits and changing something that has worked for me for decades across dozens of different systems, and still works for all of them that I use today.
Its not that I don’t want to change habits and I appreciate the suggestions given. But considering the effort thats going to take after more than 3 decades of training muscle memory, only for plasmalogin on a single system is really not worth discussing.
Wow very mature. Respectfully that was a dick comment. Especially considering that you’re a moderator. And guess what? You pushed my buttons! Congratulations! Preach mode is now enabled.
You expect people to be respectful then be respectful to others. That goes to whoever clicked the heart too - you think it was funny? It shows no understanding for the person on the other side. We are all different people. Maybe changing a habit comes easy for you, maybe you’re not 55 years old. Maybe you haven’t worked with computers from the day keyboards were invented. Maybe you have and its still easy for you - good for you! I got news. I’m not you.
The question is in the title: Disable escape key function on plasma login
The question was not: Help a 55 year old boomer change 30+ year old habits that work for 90% of the systems he uses.
If the question can’t be answered a simple comment like “mate Im sorry its not possible, would you like me to close your thread?” would have sufficed. That would have been an honest, helpful and respectful question.
And the question can be answered; I solved it last night for both the login screen and kscreenlocker. I suppose you would like me to share the solution for the community? Maybe I’m not so inclined right now. Is that mature? I guess not. Give me a few hours, maybe a day. I’ll come around. Or ask nicely. That helps. Usually.
This must be related to your monitor. On my laptop, the screen goes black when hitting escape but it shows the login screen again when hitting escape (or another key) almost immediately.
For me personally “hit any key” has always meant “hit spacebar” Although in that case it would be Wrong i guess. Obviously in this case the intended options are maybe shift, mouse movement or blindly typing.
I would like to here the solution for customization though. And an important part of it will be the information are you using x11 or wayland.
You should bring this up in the KDE Forum, as I agree that (despite nobody caring) this is bad UX design.
Please try to avoid suggesting that AGE has got anything to do with ignorance, we usually refer that card to play against YOUNG upstarts who think everything should change to suit them.
## /usr/local/bin/pamac
#!/bin/bash
if [[ $(ps -o comm= $PPID) == "sudo" ]]; then
echo "⚠️ YOU MORON! You're running 'sudo pamac' again because you confused it with 'pacman'."
echo " pamac does NOT need sudo – forcing it will BREAK permissions on your system."
echo " Get a grip and learn the difference!"
read -p "Are you SURE you want to ignore this and continue anyway? (y/N): " choice
if [[ $choice != "y" && $choice != "Y" ]]; then
echo "Good. Exiting. Go read the manual."
exit 1
else
echo "Fine. You've been warned. Don't come crying when your AUR breaks."
fi
fi
/usr/bin/pamac "$@"
Although in that case it would be Wrong i guess. Obviously in this case the intended options are maybe shift, mouse movement or blindly typing.