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I have the lock screen disabled and the screen goes blank after 10 minutes. When I return to my PC and move the mouse, the screen unblanks and I'm presenting with a digital clock display (time and date). I need to press a key to dismiss it (it's not a screen saver or the lock screen, so I don't know what to call it) in order to see my desktop.

Is there any way to disable this? When the screen unblanks, I want to see my desktop, not some other screen.

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04.

6
  • Possible duplicate of Disable lock screen in 17.10?
    – Terrance
    Jul 6, 2018 at 18:58
  • I don't think so. I uninstalled gnome-screensaver, and now I can't blank the screen at all. My problem isn't when the screen goes blank, because that works okay. My problem is that when the screen unblanks, I don't get see my desktop.
    – lord_nimon
    Jul 6, 2018 at 19:02
  • 1
    Ok, one of the answers in that question was to use this: extensions.gnome.org/extension/672/disable-screen-shield. That is what I want, but unfortunately it doesn't work on Ubuntu 18.
    – lord_nimon
    Jul 6, 2018 at 19:06
  • I removed my close vote. I don't see where to turn off the screen-shield at the moment. Maybe the writer of that extension will update it for Ubuntu 18.04.
    – Terrance
    Jul 6, 2018 at 19:30
  • 2
    This "feature" is annoying me too. But it should be mentioned that on the digital clock display you can just start typing your password and hit enter to get directly to the desktop (assuming you're the only user or the pre-selected of multiple users).
    – smcs
    Feb 21, 2019 at 11:47

3 Answers 3

4
  • Go to "Ubuntu Software" application.
  • Search for "disable screen shield".
  • Install it.

enter image description here

1
  • This works on Ubuntu 19.10. You need to either reboot/logout or restart gnome. The README in the repository shows how to properly enable it if it doesn't work. Gnome Tweak application is very useful to verify if it's enabled or not. github.com/lgpasquale/…
    – Emilio
    Apr 9, 2020 at 19:24
3

[heavily edited, was wrong about some assumptions]

Ok so the gnome team seem to have eventually realized that the screen shield implementation of GDM 3 is an abomination. (indeed it is absolutely atrocious, without any doubt whatsoever).

And have started working on a replacement. When that is finally ready, they will be able to retire the old screen shield. And any features of it would be re-implemented (presumably from scratch, we would hope). And integrated into the new login screen itself, as a single element.

So no more separate screen shield. Getting in the way, causing a nuisance.

The place to look at this new development work, while it is ongoing, seems to be over here:

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues/276

[edit 2]

Unfortunately the new design still seems to make the screen shield a mandatory part of the login screen. This is not actually what we wanted. A good place to complain about this would be at the link above ^ (login required). Or on alan's associated blog page / article about the new login screen design / proposal.

Until / unless they change their minds, then I can only recommend people try switching over to a different wayland compatible display manager. Researching the competition other than GDM3, only SDDM currently supports wayland too. Which is the login manager for KDE Plasma. So installing this on a stock version of ubuntu could mess up your installation. Due to all it's other KDE dependencies. Therefore a fresh install of kubuntu from scratch is safer. Try out the Kubuntu Live USB / ISO Disk Image before switching.

[how i reached this conclusion]

A breadcrumbs trail of prior gnome3 bugs leading up to it. Since the gnome3 developers say they are not planning to fix the existing / current / old screen shield included in 18.04 in the meantime...

These bugs are listed in a reverse order, from new to old:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=720656

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=696330

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1049645

2

I tried this gnome-shell-extension and it works for me:

https://github.com/lgpasquale/gnome-shell-extension-disable-screenshield

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  • What version of ubuntu and gnome shell are you using?
    – Dreamcat4
    Aug 13, 2018 at 18:58
  • 2
    It's broken on Ubuntu 18: github.com/lgpasquale/…
    – lord_nimon
    Aug 13, 2018 at 20:38
  • I just tested in Ubuntu 18.04.2 and it works! Remember to disable Automatic Screen Lock in Settings > Privacy.
    – Diego V
    Apr 10, 2019 at 15:34

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