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Animation of swiping the lock screen away

I'm currently running centos 7 (the server with gui config) on a VM. I'd like to keep the log in screen, but the 'phone' style pre-login lock screen that requires a swipe to access the main login screen is annoying. Is there any simple way to disable it and go directly to the log in screen?

Braiam
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Journeyman Geek
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    Seems like it [was not possible in 2012](http://askubuntu.com/questions/207743/how-to-disable-sliding-login-screen-in-gnome#comment266423_207743). You *can* hit `esc` instead of dragging. – Bob Aug 06 '14 at 05:29
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    The `enter` key also works ;) But granted, it is incredibly stupid. – bjanssen Aug 06 '14 at 05:44
  • I haven't used CentOS, so I'm not sure if [this'll help](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jEa2poKYao). – Vinayak Aug 06 '14 at 05:59
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    I suppose a phone is better then a toaster. – n00b Aug 06 '14 at 13:29
  • You can also use the `space` key. – Bogdacutu Aug 06 '14 at 13:48
  • @n00b I see what you did there! – Canadian Luke Aug 06 '14 at 17:52
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    +1 I can sympathise with this. Windows 8 also has this. I wish OS-makers would learn to keep their Phone OSs and PC OSs separate. – Pharap Aug 06 '14 at 17:53
  • I don't think it is specific to CentOS. Same on OpenSUSE which I use. I just pretend it is not there. – James Aug 06 '14 at 20:13
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    GNOME 3 is still an abomination. Switch to KDE ... or anything else! – Michael Hampton Aug 06 '14 at 21:09
  • @Pharap however, you can also just click –  Aug 07 '14 at 02:42
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    OH GOD IT'S INFECTING LINUX NOW? – user253751 Aug 07 '14 at 03:13
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    @Th0masR0ss It's not just the effort of clicking, it's the time and processing power wasted making the overlay slide up. On a PC it serves no purpose whatsoever. On a phone fair enough, on a PC - no thank you. – Pharap Aug 07 '14 at 06:51
  • @n00b Too late: http://superuser.com/questions/792607/why-does-windows-think-that-my-wireless-keyboard-is-a-toaster – Pharap Aug 07 '14 at 06:54
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    @Pharap as another answer mentioned, simply typing in your password will dismiss the overlay. You don't even need to wait for the overlay to finish sliding up before typing your password. It's honestly one of the _least_ obtrusive login screens I've ever used, but then again anything is better than needing Ctrl+Alt+Del... – nemec Aug 07 '14 at 14:21
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    I can't believe the swipe crap is spilling over to Linux... ugh – IAmTheSquidward Aug 07 '14 at 15:54
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    @nemec: Ctrl+Alt+Del is a security feature (Secure Attention Key). The rationale is that it cannot be hooked by applications, so it thwarts malware impersonating the login screen/task manager. – ninjalj Aug 07 '14 at 21:04
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    @MichaelHampton you mean _switch to KDE 3_, right? :P (Or _switch to [Trinity](https://www.trinitydesktop.org/)_) – CijcoSistems Aug 08 '14 at 10:06

5 Answers5

88

Just start typing your password and the screen will just go away. No need to press/swipe/whatever anything at all.

Braiam
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    Terrible discoverability, acceptable usability. A good example of the difference between the two! – RomanSt Aug 07 '14 at 15:43
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Bob
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  • You will need to install the gnome-shell-browser-plugin package from yum for the extensions to work. I'd also add curtains up worked closer to what made *sense* for me (pressing any key got rid of the 'curtain') and disable-screen-shield didn't seem to work. – Journeyman Geek Aug 06 '14 at 05:45
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    Do you really need the extension? I'm running Gnome Shell 3.10 (I think), I don't remember installing any extension, and the pre-login screen disappears immediately when I start typing. In fact, it's one of the best things about Gnome shell -- you don't need to hit a key to "wake up" the screen first, just start typing your password (even on a black screen) and every character will be entered into your password. – nemec Aug 06 '14 at 16:20
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    @nemec exactly what I said in my answer. – Braiam Aug 06 '14 at 20:28
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    For some reason it didn't do that for me when i tried it. And it was annoying the heck out of me. I'll probably roll back to an earlier snapshot to double check. Still the 'shade'/Curtain style thing is entirely redundant in a non touchscreen device. – Journeyman Geek Aug 07 '14 at 14:51
8

I found this in an Arch Linux forum and it appears to work to remove the swipe screen (screen shield)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0

Found here: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1351594#p1351594

gotmarko
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    This appears to disable the screen lock itself, not the screen shield part of the screen lock. In other words, your screen will now never lock at all. – Haydentech Feb 28 '18 at 20:21
  • @Haydentech in Centos 8 with XFCE, this gsettings one-liner works just fine. I still do get a "session locked" password dialogue after some timeout, but it's some standard windowed thing. The ugly swipey curtain is gone for good. – frr Jun 15 '21 at 11:26
2

My issue is that moving the mouse alone is not enough to close the shield. On a media centre machine the last thing you want is having to reach for the keyboard or try and drag upwards. The extensions don't seem to be kept updated with the latest versions of Gnome and the workarounds to do that are scary.

My approach was to disable blanking in Gnome and then fall back to using X11 DPMS to switch off the monitor.

  1. Disable gnome screen blanking. This stops the shield but means the monitor remains permanently on (fixed by DPMS below):
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 0
  1. Disable gnome power plugin (this plugin will always disable the DPMS timeouts you set below)
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power active false
  1. Activate DPMS by adding these lines to /etc/X11/xorg.conf (create if it doesn't already exist). The different power saving modes no longer apply to LCD screens. Time is in minutes.
Section "ServerLayout"
     Identifier "Default Layout"
     Option "BlankTime" "0"
     Option "StandbyTime" "0"
     Option "SuspendTime" "0"
     Option "OffTime" "10"
EndSection
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TownCube
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-1

Or just install the good all xscreensaver. How-to.

Then set the shortcut on the command xscreensaver-command -lock, reboot, done.

Braiam
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Ufos
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