How do I lock the screen from a terminal?

Question

I am using Ubuntu 12.04. Is there any way to lock the screen or session from a terminal command or script?

score 101 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 12 '18 at 06:57

101

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.

edited Oct 12 '18 at 06:57

muru

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answered Sep 06 '12 at 14:24

January

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101

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. – January Sep 21 '12 at 14:18
ok now its looking good , you like the idea ? – Raja G Sep 21 '12 at 14:50
1

sure. I usually lock with a single keypress, though, makes it quicker when leaving the office for a coffee. – January Sep 21 '12 at 14:56
I think if we add more answer about creating a custom-shortcut key will improve , what do you say ? – Raja G Sep 21 '12 at 14:57
3

Doesn't work, on my Linux mint mate, instead `xdg-screensaver lock` works. – Eric Jun 02 '21 at 12:50
1

@user218867 perfect for Pop_OS too. Another command is `loginctl lock-session`. To unlock the screen `loginctl unlock-session`. – aasutossh Sep 08 '21 at 07:21
`gnome-screensaver-command` doesn't appear to be installed but `xdg-screensaver lock` confirmed to work on Ubuntu 22.04. – Batwam Jul 09 '22 at 16:13
On Ubuntu 22.04, `gnome-screensaver-command` didn't come installed. I had to install it first with `sudo apt install gnome-screensaver`. – Gabriel Staples Jun 26 '23 at 05:29

score 33 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:23

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

score 24 · Answer 3 · edited May 22 '17 at 08:25

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

score 18 · Answer 4 · edited Sep 30 '12 at 14:26

18

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.

edited Sep 30 '12 at 14:26

Peachy

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answered Sep 14 '12 at 05:02

Anand Vaidya

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looking nice . ok I'll try and let you know . thank you . – Raja G Sep 14 '12 at 07:14
1

ok its looking good , but suits only for TTY . – Raja G Sep 14 '12 at 12:59
Version `2.0.4` of `vlock` does not seem to have the `-s` switch anymore. Just running `vlock -a` works fine. – friederbluemle Nov 27 '17 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](https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/SAK.txt). In a tty the `a` flag is enough to password protect. – Timo May 31 '20 at 04:56

score 16 · Answer 5 · edited May 30 '17 at 11:40

16

$!(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

edited May 30 '17 at 11:40

muru

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answered Jan 08 '16 at 00:07

blazedego

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Works on Kubuntu 16.04 too. – jippie Oct 23 '16 at 09:52
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` – zamnuts Jan 03 '17 at 07:52
`ERROR: Unknown command 'lock'` in `Lubuntu 18.4. LTs` – Timo Jun 05 '20 at 04:20
Thank you - this works without installing gnome screen save – Amin Jul 14 '20 at 19:52

score 15 · Answer 6 · edited May 26 '17 at 22:10

15

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

edited May 26 '17 at 22:10

answered Sep 12 '12 at 10:45

pl1nk

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Thank you . now I'm in mobile . I'll try and let you know – Raja G Sep 12 '12 at 11:00
For Tmux, `set-option -g lock-command vlock` (require vlock) – Bohr Jun 27 '15 at 14:51

score 12 · Answer 7 · edited Oct 25 '17 at 08:41

12

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

edited Oct 25 '17 at 08:41

Zanna

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answered Oct 25 '17 at 01:56

HeRo

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holms@debian:~$ xdg-screensaver lock ERROR: Unknown command 'lock' – holms Mar 16 '21 at 22:41
1

This works on `Mint mate 20.1`, which is based on `Ubuntu 20.04`. – Eric Jun 02 '21 at 12:49
2

The accepted answer uses a command that I don't even have installed on Ubuntu 20.04. This one works without installing anything extra. – derpedy-doo Jun 24 '21 at 16:31

score 8 · Answer 8 · answered Jun 27 '14 at 14:56

8

For LightDM users, try dm-tool switch-to-greeter.

answered Jun 27 '14 at 14:56

user10962

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`dm-tool lock` seems better as that just locks the screen. "switch to greeter" ended my session when I tried it. – pbhj Sep 07 '15 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` – Dinesh May 04 '17 at 07:43
`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! – Rolf May 30 '17 at 15:16

score 6 · Answer 9 · answered Jun 27 '14 at 15:10

6

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.

answered Jun 27 '14 at 15:10

jobin

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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 – Brad Nov 18 '17 at 16:01
nothing happens in dwm – holms Mar 16 '21 at 22:41

Rolf · Answer 10 · 2017-05-30T15:15:24.273

4

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.

edited May 30 '17 at 15:15

answered May 30 '17 at 11:29

Rolf

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score 1 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 30 '17 at 13:50

1

A similar situation to lock the screen in lubuntu

in lubuntu 17.10 (not ubuntu) this works xset dpms force off

answered Oct 30 '17 at 13:50

ptetteh227

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How do I lock the screen from a terminal?

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