Since the update (to 2025-02-04), my machine will lock (be at screen lock) after some period of inactivity so I have to supply the password. Before the update, it never locked.
How can I revert to never locking?
Here are some settings of mine (which I did not change across the update):
In addition to “Solved by,” see also this later reply for other solutions. (Summary: Uninstall light-locker.)
l mentioned the solution in the second post and several later posts about how power management changed with XFCE 4.20. Check your xscreensaver settings.
Thank you. I was about to add (to my original question) that I don’t even have xfce4-screensaver installed.
I will try installing and tweaking and report back what I find.
ADDED LATER
@philm It didn’t work. I installed package, went to Screensaver Preferences, found two tabs (Screensaver and Lock Screen), and turned off the whole tab for both. Still I get screen lock.
I guess my case is the same as:
I followed some other links and saw references to a “presentation mode” as part of power management. However, my Settings > Hardware > Power Manager has no such option.
You need to set the Time to the left marging (never)
Are you saying on one of the tabs of Screensaver Preferences, there is an item called “Time” with a bar that slides to the left (reaching value “never”)?
On my tabs, I see neither “Time” nor a sliding bar.
How to disable auto black screen?
Xfce power management has a Presentation Mode to disable screensaver or suspend settings
Left click Power Manager plugin in system tray to turn it on
Power Manager Plugin Properties has an option to show an additional indicator when Presentation Mode is on
xfce:xfce4-power-manager:panel-plugin [Xfce Docs]
Or use this command to toggle Presentation Mode on/off
xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p /xfce4-power-manager/presentation-mode -T
That line is mystifying to me. I don’t have any “Power Manager plugin in system tray” or anywhere on the bottom bar (the one with Whisker Menu).
I can find Power Manager with four tabs: General, System, Display, Devices. But none of those have any “presentation mode.”
Also, my Settings Editor > xfec4-power-manager does not have so many items like your screen shot. Mine is in one my replies above. Could I simply use the “+Add” button > enter “presentation-mode” and choose Boolean > tick the resulting item?
I suppose I could try the command line, but would prefer to clear up these mysteries first.
ADD LATER
I tried the command and got:
[luna@jar-m ~]$ xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p /xfce4-power-manager/presentation-mode -T
Property "/xfce4-power-manager/presentation-mode" does not exist on channel "xfce4-power-manager".
[luna@jar-m ~]$
I believe that means it did not work?
Thank you.
But see below for the two tabs I get for Screensaver Preferences. On neither do I find your sliding bar. Perhaps you have to point me to some other place?
I believe the reference was to the System tab, as displayed in your first post. A slight communication issue resulted, I imagine.
Ha, that must be it! Thank you for pointing that out. But there I am already at “Never.”
Enable System tray icon in xfce4-power-manager-settings
and then right-click Power Manager system tray icon to access Presentation Mode switch
Thank you. That worked. I was able to go to Presentation Mode and disable the system tray icon, which I don’t expect to use again (often).
See my later reply for wrinkles on, “That worked.”
U sure it wasn’t screensaver settings?
For some reason, I had a similar problem where the screen was going blank while watching videos. Was able to get rid of it by disabling the screensaver at all
But noticed a screensaver setting “Inhibit screensaver for fullscreen applications” which for some reason was turned off (maybe newly introduced and defaulting to false?!?)
Please also have a look at
Thanks, but “Display power management” is already off for me. That’s the second picture from the top of original post. My theme may be somewhat unclear, but that button is off.
Off or On change nothing. I don’t know what changes were made but without presentation mode enabled, the screen will lock whatever your options.
Which screensaver are you actually using? For example, i use no screensaver at all, xscreensaver or xfce4-screensaver is not even installed, i have light-locker installed and it works?
I think the manjaro developers changed their minds on the matter recently and advised against light-locker and replaced it with xfce4-screensaver for some unknown reason and that might be the result of that (i didn’t do it). I mean maybe just people that replaced light-locker suffer (and very old or very new installs)?
I only installed xfce4-screensaver a few days ago (2025-02-07) to find out why it was blanking display after 5 minutes instead of time set in power-manager
I still have light-locker installed, but it has not been updated in the last few years
[2022-03-12T18:41:50+0000] [ALPM] upgraded light-locker (1.9.0-4 → 1.9.0-5)
light-locker was last included on manjaro-xfce-23.0.4-231015-linux65.iso
and replaced with xfce4-screensaver on manjaro-xfce-23.1.0-231215-linux66.iso
[xfce] use xfce4-screensaver (2ffe8171) · Commits · Profiles & Settings / iso-profiles · GitLab
There may be many users that installed Manjaro XFCE before Dec 2023 still using light-locker
At the time I began to get locked out, I did not have xfce4-screensaver installed. I only installed it to see whether installing it and turning it off might improve the situation (which would have been strange).
I turns out I did have light-locker installed. Is it even running if I get the following?
[luna@jar-m ~]$ ps aux | grep light-locker
luna 1236 0.0 0.5 378528 29576 ? Sl 06:47 0:01 light-locker
luna 6170 0.0 0.1 7844 5812 pts/2 S+ 11:14 0:00 grep --colour=auto light-locker
[luna@jar-m ~]$
But I know of no way of “getting to light-locker,” for example, a settings or preferences window. If I search for it in Whisker Menu, all I get is an item called “Run light-locker,” and it (when clicked) seems to do nothing.
If I call it from command line, I get:
[luna@jar-m ~]$ light-locker
** (light-locker:6286): WARNING **: 11:21:28.495: screensaver already running in this session
[luna@jar-m ~]$
I don’t need a screensaver and would want to uninstall both xfce4-screensaver and light-locker if that will not cause any problem. Should I uninstall them?
If people would read the release notes of XfCE 4.20 they might understand that power management changed, support for ligth-locker dropped and xfce4-screensaver used for blanking and locking. Simply adjust timing within xfce4-screensaver settings as pointd out already.