I am using Ubuntu 12.04. Is there any way to lock the screen or session from a terminal command or script?
11 Answers
Simple:
gnome-screensaver-command -l
The following can also work, if the screensaver is set to lock when activate (see screensaver settings), since the command activates the screensaver:
gnome-screensaver-command -a
You can add an alias to the command by editing the file .bashrc
(or .bash_aliases
) in your home directory:
gedit $HOME/.bashrc
and adding the following line:
alias lock='gnome-screensaver-command -l'
Then from terminal:
source .profile
This will activate the alias.
From now on, the alias lock
in a terminal will have the effect of locking the screen.
-
Sorry, I had to modify your changes. (i) no need to use sudo (ii) better .profile than .bashrc, since .bashrc gets called every time you create a new shell and (iii) alias works only when called from shell.– JanuarySep 21, 2012 at 14:18
-
-
1sure. I usually lock with a single keypress, though, makes it quicker when leaving the office for a coffee.– JanuarySep 21, 2012 at 14:56
-
3Doesn't work, on my Linux mint mate, instead
xdg-screensaver lock
works.– EricJun 2, 2021 at 12:50 -
1@user218867 perfect for Pop_OS too. Another command is
loginctl lock-session
. To unlock the screenloginctl unlock-session
. Sep 8, 2021 at 7:21
In addition to what January said, this also works:
gnome-screensaver-command --lock
or
gnome-screensaver-command -l
According to the gnome-screensaver-command
man page...
-l, --lock Tells the running screensaver process to lock the screen immediately
-a, --activate Turn the screensaver on (blank the screen)
For further clarification, here is another question/answer (also by January) which describes the differences between invoking the lock and activating your screensaver:
Difference between gnome-screensaver-command -a and gnome-screensaver-command -l
Starting in Ubuntu 14.04, Unity's lock screen no longer uses gnome-screensaver. The command gnome-screensaver-command -l
will still work in most cases, but see this question for exceptions.
If that command does not work (say, for instance, that gnome-screensaver is not installed), bringing up the proper Unity lock screen (not the greeter where you can switch users) can be done via this command in a terminal:
dbus-send --type=method_call --dest=org.gnome.ScreenSaver /org/gnome/ScreenSaver org.gnome.ScreenSaver.Lock
Please install vlock. Then you can switch to a VT (text terminal, using Ctrl+Alt+F1) and run
vlock -a -s
This works whether you have X11 running or not.
-
1
-
1
-
Version
2.0.4
ofvlock
does not seem to have the-s
switch anymore. Just runningvlock -a
works fine. Nov 27, 2017 at 11:08 -
In Version 2.2.2, the
s
flag exists and is defined as-s or --disable-sysrq: disable SysRq while consoles are locked to prevent killing vlock with SAK
.SAK
is the secure attention key, which protects against trojan password capturing according to kernel.org. In a tty thea
flag is enough to password protect.– TimoMay 31, 2020 at 4:56
$!(sleep 10s ; xset dpms force suspend) & xdg-screensaver lock
this starts the screen saver in locked mode and then puts your display in standby. sweet and simple, no sudo. command line or shell script works fine. i use this for a keyboard hotkey. Ubuntu Mate 15.10
-
-
ty for xdg-screensaver lock, +1, however your answer didn't do the trick on ubuntu 16.10 gnome 3, i use:
xdg-screensaver lock && sleep 2s && sudo pm-suspend
. i have this aliased, and also with pm-suspend in my sudoers.d:yourusername yourhostame = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/pm-suspend
– zamnutsJan 3, 2017 at 7:52 -
-
In case that you need to lock the screen on a terminal in a non-GUI environment you could make use of screen
While in screen
press the following key combinations to lock the terminal.
Ctrl + a
Ctrl + x
In my case xdg-screensaver lock
is works perfectly fine.
Also I save it by the setting or when I press window+L it will lock the screen immediately
-
-
1
-
3The accepted answer uses a command that I don't even have installed on Ubuntu 20.04. This one works without installing anything extra. Jun 24, 2021 at 16:31
For LightDM users, try dm-tool switch-to-greeter
.
-
1
dm-tool lock
seems better as that just locks the screen. "switch to greeter" ended my session when I tried it.– pbhjSep 7, 2015 at 16:19 -
Using this in a cron job does not work? Script : lock_script.sh
#!/bin/sh dm-tool switch-to-greeter
Cron-job :42 9 * * * /home/user/lock-script.sh
– DVGMay 4, 2017 at 7:43 -
dm-tool
is not very safe. Not on my system, anyway. Try going to a text TTY (Alt-Ctrl-F2) then back to your X TTY (Ctrl-Alt-F7 for me). It makes the lock screen disappear!– RolfMay 30, 2017 at 15:16
A dirty hack of using the shortcut Ctrl+Alt+L for the locking the screen from a terminal:
Install xdotool from the software center or from the terminal as follows:
sudo apt-get install xdotool
Type the following to lock the screen from the terminal:
xdotool key Ctrl+alt+l
Refer to the manual page for xdotool for more.
-
This was definitely the best - because the other "screen-saver" based ones gave you a different "lock screen" which ONLY allows you to enter a password (no changer-user, logout, restart, etc). Also: May want to do stuff like: DISPLAY=:0 sudo -u username xdotool key Ctrll+alt+l– BradNov 18, 2017 at 16:01
-
It depends on your display manager.
I have lightdm, I can do dm-tool lock
to bring up a lock screen. It's not really secure, though, I found an easy way to bypass it.
A similar situation to lock the screen in lubuntu
in lubuntu 17.10 (not ubuntu) this works xset dpms force off