Can't lock screen when using lightdm with gnome-shell

Bug #1715435 reported by Brian Murray
224
This bug affects 46 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-shell (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Low
Unassigned
lightdm (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

Trying to use Super+L or Ctrl+Alt+L, I cannot lock the screen. Additionally, if I wait a very long time the screen does not lock either.

Switching from LightDM to GDM3 fixes the issue.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: gnome-shell 3.25.91-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.12.0-12.13-generic 4.12.8
Uname: Linux 4.12.0-12-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: GNOME
Date: Wed Sep 6 09:17:35 2017
DisplayManager: lightdm
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-01-22 (592 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Alpha amd64 (20160117)
SourcePackage: gnome-shell
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote :

Using the lock icon in the upper right corner did work though.

summary: - can't lock screen with keyboard shortcuts
+ Can't lock screen with keyboard shortcuts when using lightdm
Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Low
Changed in lightdm (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote : Re: Can't lock screen with keyboard shortcuts when using lightdm

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Changed in lightdm (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Janne Snabb (snabb) wrote :

I am using gdm3 (AFAIK) and super-L also stopped working just now when I did "apt dist-upgrade". So in my case it does not seem to depend on lightdm vs gdm3.

Revision history for this message
Janne Snabb (snabb) wrote :

In my case I was able to workaround this issue by changing the lock shortcut from super-L to ctrl-alt-L. All shortcuts using super are broken. My "window action key" in gnome-tweaks is "super". So it appears that it is impossible to use the window action key for shortcuts any more after some very recent updata.

Revision history for this message
Jérôme Steunou (jsteunou) wrote :

Same issue after an upgrade from 17.04

* I was using lightdm and ctrl+alt+L
* After upgrade I was on gdm (oO ok~~~) Neither ctrl+alt+L or super+L worked
* I switched to lightdm and changed shortcut from ctrl+alt+L to super+L and it works, hurray! I'm keeping it but meh...

Revision history for this message
Tiago (timotta) wrote :

Ubuntu 18 is still with the same bug

Revision history for this message
Anders Hall (a.hall) wrote :

Confirm (Super - L) not working on Ubuntu 18.04, switching keyboard language does not work either most of the time (Super + Space). Those I use the most. Extremely annoying after some time, especially when using dual screens (since the Gnome top bar is only on one monitor which is even more annoying: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/+bug/1682542).

Worked fine in Ubuntu 17.10 with Gnome and previous versions with Unity.

Revision history for this message
Anders Hall (a.hall) wrote :

Sorry, small adjustment. I use wayland as default since 17.10 with gdm (works well in general for me):

loginctl show-session c1 -p Type
Type=wayland

tags: added: bionic
Revision history for this message
Christian Geiger (chris-18) wrote :

I had the same problem on ubuntu 18.04. Disabling the key "/org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/disable-lock-screen" in dconf-editor solved the problem.

Revision history for this message
Andrew Schulman (z-ubuntuone-andrex) wrote :

> Disabling the key "/org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/disable-lock-screen" in dconf-editor solved the problem.

I'm not sure what you mean by disabling. If you mean set it to false, false is already the default value. It was at its default for me. I tried overriding it and setting it to false, but that didn't help. So this solution doesn't work for me.

Revision history for this message
Christian Geiger (chris-18) wrote :

Yes, I mean set it to false. I have made an upgrade from 16.04. Maybe the key wasn't on its default value before the upgrade. But on ubuntu 16.04 I didn't have this problem.

Revision history for this message
Dmytro Korzhevin (korg) wrote :

> Disabling the key "/org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/disable-lock-screen" in dconf-editor solved the problem.

Also, solved for mee too (Ubuntu 18.10 with all updates installed, per 12 Dec 2018)

Revision history for this message
Cristian Balan (oviliz) wrote :

Any news here? :(

If helps, I've also upgraded from Xenial long time ago.

tags: removed: artful
Revision history for this message
Jason Jystad (jystadj) wrote :

Just ran into this issue on a fresh install of 19.10 with all updates installed as of 2019/11/30. The lock icon in the menu is missing and the keyboard shortcut is non-functional. The Screen Lock dialog in settings is greyed out entirely.

chris-18's fix from earlier worked.

Setting org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/disable-lock-screen to disabled: enabled the icon, the keyboard shortcut, and the Screen Lock dialog in settings.

tags: added: eoan
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Bug 1851992 has been opened about the disable-lock-screen option too. But it's private for now.

Revision history for this message
Brian Neltner (neltnerb) wrote :

The fix provided by chris-18 worked for me, same issue.

Revision history for this message
Rocko (rockorequin) wrote :

My Ubuntu 20.04 installation just did this - something changed the org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen to true and also the blank screen to never (did an update do this?).

But there's nothing I can see in gnome-control-center to modify this value, making this bug pretty obscure when it happens. Wouldn't a setting in g-c-c make a lot of sense if you can actually disable the screen lock completely?

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Rocko, that is probably bug 1851992 and not this one. This one is about lightdm.

Changed in gnome-shell (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Won't Fix
summary: - Can't lock screen with keyboard shortcuts when using lightdm
+ Can't lock screen when using lightdm with gnome-shell
tags: added: focal
removed: eoan
Revision history for this message
Jose (jvel) wrote :

I managed to fix it in the following way:

1. Install dconf-editor (to edit the "registry keys")
sudo apt install dconf-editor

2. Open dconf-editor as a normal app; search for: /org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/

3. In my case, the disable-lock-screen was set turned on. I turned it off and everything now works fine!

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.