In the beginning I used manjaro xfce full iso to install my pc’s. Later I’ve been using the minimal iso. At some point, I think about the same time as I switched from full to minimal as installation source, to lock screen changed.
In the early installations the lock screen looked exactly like the login screen. In the later installations, the lock screen looks very different. It has a white dialog box, the tool bar which is at the bottom at the login screen is at the top at the lock screen, the toolbar at the lock screen has time and date, but no power button, while at the login screen it has the power button and lacks time and date. If I click [Switch user] at the lock screen, it takes med to the login screen.
At of curiosity, what has changed? Is it a different locker? A different theme? Different settings?
I remember a time when when SLiM was used by default as a display manager/login screen - can’t remember anymore how the screen lock was implemented - probably xlock with some theme.
But you may not go that far back, so:
same locker, different theme, different settings
Things evolve over time,
on a rolling distro, in these cases, you may not know for a long time that something has changed,
that some defaults have changed,
because it just keeps working as it was if you don’t change it,
and you only notice when you look at a more recent installations defaults.
You’re probably right. In particular as the next line adds xfce4-screensaver to the list.
I found it surprising that one would have a lock screen different from login screen as default. I can see the point of not showing the power button while some one is logged in, but as the power button comes to display if you press [switch user] it doesn’t make sense.
“switch user” implies that the system is used in multi user mode - as is “natural” for a UNIX like system
one user might have privileges to shut down the system - the next one (of possibly many) likely does not have these
the lock screen locks one particular session - each one user get’s his own
you can have multiple users logged in and each one can have their own session locked
Showing the power (off) button on the lock screen would only make a bit of sense on the admin account
he can shut down the system no matter what, no matter how many others are still logged in and working (or have their session temporarily locked).
There can be hundreds of users on one system - none of whom (except the admin) has the ability to shut the system down.
Perhaps I don’t understand the confusion - it has been a long time since I worked on a system with many concurrent users.
A home desktop system usually has got only a few or only one even.
The admin user can always take the system down at any time - showing that option to “normal” users does not really make sense since they can’t do that anyway - locked session or not.
I think you’re overthinking. Manjaro default install tend to be single pc environment.
My point in regards to power button is that it may make sense to remove it from lock screen. But when it shows up anyway if any one (a stranger) clicks [switch user] button under the password field, it that bit of sense vanishes.
I don’t understand the point of having two different lock screens - one that shows when screen locks, and another that shows if anyone clicks [switch user] in the first lock screen. The later lock screen is identical to the login screen.
As I consider this a double-up thing, I find it strange that this is the default on manjaro (xfce minimal) installations.
I should probably shut up because I never have had more than two users on my own personal systems.
What I referred to was my university computer pool - with hundreds of users.
Perhaps Manjaro is tailored towards single user desktop systems.
It’s all a matter of (default) configuration.
The way it is implemented in GNU/Linux systems with polkit and systemd is that only whoever is logged in at the local console — i.e. the monitor, keyboard, mouse and potentially any other HID devices connected to the I/O panel at the back (or front, or side) of the computer chassis — has the ability to shut down or reboot the machine. One does not need to have “an administrator account” — which is Windows-speak, by the way — for that.
If you open up a terminal window and you enter the command “reboot”, then the machine will reboot. If on the other hand you log in via ssh — or via a remote desktop connection — and you type the same command, then it will tell you that you don’t have permission.
Of course — and as always in UNIX — UID 0 can do everything.
