Xfce On CentOS 7: Can’t Lock Screen

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Ok, trying to bypass the usual flames (I used CDE for years, then KDE until it got dumbed-down too much, and we all know how GNOME
has turned out) … I’ve decided to try out xfce on CentOS 7.

I grabbed xfce from epel by installing the following via yum:
epel-release
@xfce

So far it’s pretty good, and is giving me the basic features I’m looking at without getting in my way. However, I can’t seem to get the damned screen lock function to work.

Leaving the monitor idle doesn’t generally do anything. (Although just now, after having left it for a few hours, I got a blank screen with a few vertical narrow white bars that wouldn’t respond to any key or mouse movement. Switching to a text console and back to the graphics console, however, brought up the xfce desktop again, but with no screen lock prompt.)

If I select the ‘Lock Screen’ menu item from the top right corner of the screen it does nothing; doesn’t lock the screen, provides no feedback that there’s a problem, etc.

The page

describes (for XFCE) bring up “Settings Manager” => “Screen Saver”, but there is no “Screen Saver” option in the Settings Manager.

A clue stick would be appreciated.

Devin

5 thoughts on - Xfce On CentOS 7: Can’t Lock Screen

  • This interests me. Is anyone using CDE on CentOS these days?

    I’ve never used CDE myself so I’m wondering how it stacks up against “modern” desktops like KDE and Gnome.

  • –I suspect hardly any, if anyone, does. To be clear, when I mentioned CDE was referring when my workstations were Solaris.

    Devin

  • CDE? Shudder!! In spite of the way that modern desktops have turned out I
    can’t imagine anyone using CDE these days. I used to use and loath it on HP/UX back when the Internet was a puppy.

    Cheers,

    Cliff

  • describes (for XFCE) bring up “Settings Manager” => “Screen Saver”, but Hi,

    I also use XFCE4 :-).

    My solution was to install xscreensaver and configure/install that.

    You can find it in nux’s repo :-).

    Make sure you start the daemon by running “xscreensaver” in terminal.

    use the command “xscreensaver-command -prefs” to configure your options.

    Once everything is running it should work!

    Good luck :-)

    Kind Regards, Jake Shipton (JakeMS)
    GPG Key: 0xE3C31D8F
    GPG Fingerprint: 7515 CC63 19BD 06F9 400A DE8A 1D0B A5CF E3C3 1D8F

  • If it helps, I am also getting a blank screen with a few thin vertical lines if the computer is not used for a few hours (repeatable, just leave the computer unused), however the mouse remains active. It is a clean install of Centos 7, and Mate on a HP 15-N045TX laptop. If I plug in an external monitor, the screen recovers instantly and works perfectly, so it would appear to be a driver issue.