Manjaro laptop screens blanks after 5 minutes of inactivty. Unable to access xfce screensaver settings

[Zachrey]

I am pulling my hair out trying to stop my laptop screen from blanking after 5 minutes of inactivity. I read one post saying that it was solved but do not know HOW they actually solved it. I remember one page that mentions “Call xfce4-screensaver-preferences and disable the screensaver” , somehow, but I do not know how to do that:

Screen now switches off after 5 minutes

XFCE hmm, my power management no longer works … everything should run continuously but my screen now switches off after 5 minutes

I tried to execute a call suggested in the above forum link but no joy:

$ xfce4-screensaver-preferences
bash: xfce4-screensaver-preferences: command not found
$ sudo xfce4-screensaver-preferences
[sudo] password for user:
sudo: xfce4-screensaver-preferences: command not found
$

Just to be sure, I ran the following:

$ xfce4-about -V
xfce4-about 4.20.2 (Xfce 4.20)

Copyright (c) 2008-2025
The Xfce development team. All rights reserved.

Please report bugs to https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui/-/issues.
$

So Xfce 4.20 does seem to exist.

BTW, I found LightDM GTK Greeter settings on said laptop and clicked on the Misc tab and found this

Mod edit:- Save the Server. Image removed post-solution.

And made SURE it was set to “Never”. This did not change anything. I also double checked my Power Settings and have this:

Mod edit:- Save the Server. Image removed post-solution.

I have yet to find any other utility or settings that say something like “blank after” __ minutes.

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Mod edit:- You ask for help by virtue of creating a Support topic – Plea’s for help removed from post.

[Zachrey]

Thank you soundofthunder! Sorry for being cute and messing things up.

[soundofthunder]

Sorry, it took a minute to launch the VM and find this for you:

Change the following setting to a longer period than the default 5 minutes:

Menu → Settings → Xfce Screensaver:

→ Activate screensaver when computer is idle:

• Regard the computer as idle after: X minutes

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With any luck that should solve your problem.

Regards.

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@Zachrey

Thank you soundofthunder! Sorry for being cute and messing things up.

No need for an apology. Just remember to avoid it next time.

@Zachrey

And made SURE it was set to “Never”. This did not change anything. I also double checked my Power Settings and have this:

That setting only applies to LightDM, as far as I can tell (I haven’t been an active XFCE user for quite some time).

[nikgnomic]

When Xfce 4.18 was updated to Xfce 4.20 earlier this year, Lock screen settings were moved from xfce4-power-manager to xfce4-screensaver

Xfce 4.20 tour – Xfce
xfce-Power-manager

Screen Locking

There is no dedicated “security” tab anymore. Lock screen management was massively simplified and “Light Locker” was dropped. “lock-on-sleep” is now synchronized with xfce4-session and xfce4-screensaver.

Screen locking settings are now only handled by xfce4-screensaver to avoid conflicts

But Manjaro updates did not automatically install xfce4-screensaver and remove light-locker, and users reported similar issues with screen blanking after 5 minutes, that were usually resolved by installing xfce4-screensaver manually

pamac install xfce4-screensaver

Xfce 4.20 screensaver and locking - #6 by stormschip

xfce4-screensaver:Usage [Xfce Docs]

[Zachrey]

Thank you soundofthunder and nikgnomic!

I did a quick check on the Pamac GUI and see that the following are currently installed:

light-locker 1.9.0-5
xfcemanjaro-xfce-settings
xfce4-power-manager 4.20.0-3

I found on Pamac GUI the app or plugin or ??

xfce4-screensaver

I installed it with the Pamac GUI and I get this!

I set the idel timeout to 1 minute but it did not seems to work. I will reboot and try it again. I’m sure it will work then. Or do I also have to uninstall the light-locker dealie-bob?

THANKS!!!

OK! The reboot fixed it! The screen will blank after 60 seconds! Now I will set it to my preferences! Whew! That is a monkey off my back!! Thanks again you guys!!

[Zachrey]

I now have a keyboard problem after installing xfce4-screensaver.

Keyboard is unresponsive after resuming from suspend by pressing the power button. PTL, I was able to open Mousepad and the keyboard worked there. Then I went back to Firefox and keyboard worked again as you can see.

Should I uninstall light-locker?

[Zachrey]

I removed light-locker and set screensaver to 1 minute and suspend to 3 minutes. Screensaver worked perfectly but suspend failed. After more than three minutes, I pressed the shift key and was greeted with my usual screen where I left off and a dialog:

Mod edit:- Please avoid posting images when a text description will suffice. Save the Server.

So I clicked on “No”. Maybe I need to look into the settings for xfce4 power manager and xfce4-screensaver…

Mod edit:- Please avoid posting images when a text description will suffice. Save the Server.

The Security section suggests screen locking…

I enabled the “Lock Screen with Screensaver” and set it to one minute after screensaver activation and see what happens. Everything else is unchanged. Let’s see what this does.

Mod edit:- Please avoid posting images when a text description will suffice. Save the Server.

1. OK screensaver blanked right on the money at 60 seconds
2. Lock Screen worked after two minutes and presented a login prompt that was different in appearance than the boot up lock prompt.
3. I still got the error dialog about not being able to suspend due to lock failure

Now I will try turning off the “lock screen when system is going to sleep” in the Security section of the xfce4 Power Manager.

BINGO! That did the trick!! I also now, finally, have a wake from suspend prompt thta does not require me to press the shift key a bunch of times to make the screen come back on so I can see the login prompt and log back in!!!