Light Locker Missing from Fresh Install

Support Xfce
1

I just installed manjaro 23.1.3-240113 with xfce, and when I closed the screen I got the error:

" none of the screen lock tools ran successfully the screen will not be locked"

I found this post which is also suffering the same thing 3 days ago: Xflock4 is not “seeing” xfce4-screensaver on Fresh Install - #5 by Adramyttium

By installing the light-locker package, and then running light-locker & in the terminal, I was then able to successfully close the lid and have my screen lock. Also after reboot, I never had to manually run light-locker, it automatically runs, is manjaro doing this explicitly?

I think it would be beneficial to improve this so that the new user experience is a little better by having light locker already installed.

The file .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml contains the line which specifies the call to light-locker-command.

2

Pretty sure by default lightlocker is not used.

3

I can add light-locker to see if that will fix it

4

I’m downloading Manjaro XFCE minimal right now so I will find out :laughing:
But I wont be able to install it until the weekend so is life.

5

I installed from the May23 iso and it worked out of the box…

6

If light-locker is not used, then why do we have a file .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml which has the contents:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<channel name="xfce4-session" version="1.0">
  <property name="general" type="empty">
    <property name="FailsafeSessionName" type="empty"/>
    <property name="SessionName" type="string" value="Default"/>
    <property name="SaveOnExit" type="bool" value="false"/>
    <property name="LockCommand" type="string" value="light-locker-command --lock"/>
  </property>
  <property name="sessions" type="empty">
    <property name="Failsafe" type="empty">
      <property name="IsFailsafe" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Count" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client0_Command" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client0_PerScreen" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client1_Command" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client1_PerScreen" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client2_Command" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client2_PerScreen" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client3_Command" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client3_PerScreen" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client4_Command" type="empty"/>
      <property name="Client4_PerScreen" type="empty"/>
    </property>
  </property>
  <property name="splash" type="empty">
    <property name="Engine" type="empty"/>
  </property>
</channel>

To be honest I don’t know a lot about xfce, but to me this would imply that we’re trying to use light-locker ? If we’re not trying to use light-locker out of the box, then what are we trying to use?

8

On my computer, by default without changing any manjaro settings, when you close the lid, it’s specified in the power settings that it will lock the screen.

When I re-open the lid, I’m always confronted with a black screen with my cursor on it, after a second, it goes away and then I see the login screen. Do others get this?

I think the black screen is an artifact of light-locker, which makes my login feel sluggish, maybe using another locker is better anyways?

I also just ran an experiment, if we replace the string light-locker with xfce4-screensaver in the specified file, we can lock the screen successfully without any extra software. By doing this, note that the theme of the lock screen doesn’t match the initial login screen after a reboot (which I believe is lightdm)

9

Probably maintainer oversight.
As mentioned in this and the linked threads (And more) … obviously the light-locker packages are not included. And this was done deliberately.
It would seem that the expectation is to have xflock4 use xfce4-screensaver (the thing that comes with xfce) … but whether the configuration is correct, again, I cannot say.

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xfce#Lock_the_screen

10

Well, current settings still have it. Have to see in the profiles if light-locker was removed for some reason but the settings not adjusted.

11

As linked to, and mentioned before, yes … the package was removed from the profile.

Specifically this line, which even has a comment

Its been this way for months.

Actually … it was you @philm who did it 4 months ago;

12

What happens if the line gets removed or replaced with <property name="LockCommand" type="empty"/>?

13

When I delete the line, xfce4-screensaver --lock still seems to run.

When we remove this line how does xfce know which program to use to lock the screen?