Archives For November 30, 1999

unity screen locker

Ubuntu 14.04 Unity now has its own screen locker which looks identical to the LightDM greeter – the default Unity login screen. For those who prefer the previous lockscreen used in Ubuntu 13.10 and earlier, here’s how to switch it back.

The new lockscreen, light-locker, is forked from gnome-screensaver that aims to have simple, sane, secure defaults and be well integrated with the desktop while not carrying any desktop-specific dependencies.

LightDM locker

If you would like to try this lockscreen in Ubuntu 13.10 or Ubuntu 13.04, see this post.

To restore previous Lockscreen in Ubuntu 14.04:

UPDATE: The option has been removed in Ubuntu 14.04 final release. So this tutorial won’t work anymore.

Search for and install Compizconfig-Settings-Manager in Ubuntu Software Center. Or press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal, and run the command below instead:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

After that, start CCSM from Unity Dash and navigate to Ubuntu Unity Plugin -> General -> Lockscreen. Click on the drop-down box and select which screen locker to use.

change lockscreen ubuntu 14.04

That’s it. Enjoy!

Light Locker is a simple session-locker for Lightdm forked from gnome-screensaver that aims to have simple, sane, secure defaults and be well integrated with the desktop while not carrying any desktop-specific dependencies.

With it, the lock screen will look identical to the LightDM greeter – the Unity default login screen.

LightDM locker

Requirements:

To use light-locker with systemd, you need at least lightdm 1.7.0. light-locker doesn’t work with lightdm version 1.7.5-1.7.9

I’ve tested in Ubuntu 13.04 with default lightdm 1.6.0. The light locker works when my laptop wakes up from suspend. But the Lock/Switch Account option in shutdown menu doesn’t work! Use it at your own risk!

Install LightDM Locker:

The Stable PPA has been created for Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy and Ubuntu 13.04 Raring.

Before getting started installing it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on your keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to remove the gnome-screensaver:

sudo apt-get remove gnome-screensaver

The you can add the ppa via command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:light-locker/release

Finally install LightDM locker. Log out and back in to take effect.

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install light-locker