Linux Mint Forums

Hi there,

I've posted this in the past and haven't got any responses, I'm posting it again to see if someone else is having this problem now.

I have my screen lock turned off, I have it disabled also via dconf-editor, but still, every now and then I'll turn on my monitor and have the lock screen there (big clock, date, etc). Most of the time I'll just move the mouse and the lock screen will go away, and I can resume my use of the computer; sometimes it won't, though. I'll move the mouse and see the cursor moving on the screen, but the screen will still be locked. I'll type anything on the keyboard, the lock screen won't go away - I'll type Ctrl+Alt+F1 and can access the Terminal, but that's it, I can't do anything other than that.

If I was at least able to kill some process when I go to the Terminal, that would be a good workaround for the times I see myself in this position, which are few; however, rebooting the computer, like I'm currently doing, is really annoying.

Any idea of how to solve - or at least work around this?

Thank you.

ultranol,

Try setting your screen saver according to this screen shot

If you have to switch to a console then try Good luck

Always you, WharfRat. You are awesome. I don't remember seeing this screen yet, so the answer may be there. I'll try it and see how it goes. Thank you!

I couldn't find that screen on my system, my Screensaver config screen is like the attachment to this post.

Luckily the "sudo service mdm restart" thing works like a charm. At least I don't have to reboot it anymore. Still, it puzzles me how the lock screen can come up if I have it completely turned off!

Edit: I just found out that if Desktop Sharing is turned on, this problem happens as soon as I log in remotely and let it go idle. Without it, it takes longer to happen. Maybe that should be an indication of something?

Thank you WharfRat!

Your screen differs due to the desktop environment your using. I'm using mate. You didn't mention which one you were using.

What happens if you increase the inactive time Is there any change

Oh sorry, yeah, I use Cinnamon.

I have just increased the "inactive time" to "Never". If the issue goes away, that could be it.

Thanks for the tip.

I'm back... disabled the "monitor to sleep after 10 minutes idle" thing and now what happens is that the screen is not locked, but it is completely unresponsible.

Ctrl+Alt+F1, restart mdm, all the time.

This sucks.

ultranol,

This is starting to sound like it might not be power management or screen saver related

Try disabling power manager and screensaver from menu/preferences/startup applications and see if that make a difference.

You will have to reboot for the change to take effect.

Hi WharfRat,

I don't have that on my Startup Applications. I have mintUpdate, mintUpload, mintWelcome and a couple of applications I added there for other purposes. Would Power Management and Screensaver be embedded on any of those?

I have returned the "turn off monitor when idle" setting and the clock screen is back, but at least it doesn't become unresponsive 100% of the time. Now for example I was able to just move the mouse and it went away.

Are the power mgmt and screensaver desktop-dependent? I might try KDE or Mate just to see if those present the same issues.

ultranol wrote:Are the power mgmt and screensaver desktop-dependent? I might try KDE or Mate just to see if those present the same issues.

Well, this pm stuff is a little nebulous to say the least. There's upower, acpid with a companion package acpi-support and, in the case of mate, mate-power-manager. I'm pretty sure all the desktop managers install the screensaver.

So I guess the mate-power-manager package would be relevant only if you had the mate desktop installed. I'm not sure about other desktops.

What I failed to inquire about in my last post is if this is a laptop or desktop If it's a laptop does this happen on battery, ac power or both

I had a problem where the laptop mouse would shut off on battery because the pm was killing the usb port after 5 seconds of inactivity. I solved that by installing yet another pm package laptop-mode-tools

What I was attempting to do is a process of elimination with these power probes and screensaver to try an pin-down the problem.

Unfortunately it is a desktop, an old Dell Inspiron.

If this keeps happening I'll just try another desktop. I have a partition just for trying distros.

Thank you, once again!

Did you ever get this resolved?

I am having the same issue on a HP Slimline S5310Y (AMD X2 3.0GHz) system with 4GB ram and a 2GB Geforce GT610 Video card. I am running LM17 Cinnamon and it is a somewhat fresh install. Ive installed XBMC, LIRC and then updated.

I am able to get to Terminal with CTRL+ALT+F1 but "sudo service mdm restart" did not do anything.