My PC is not a phone - how do I remove the swipey pre-log in screen from Gnome 3?

Question

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?

Answer 1

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

Answer 2

• As a workaround, you can press esc instead of dragging with the cursor.

• The mouse wheel might also work.

• And another extension that should do a similar thing.

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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

2. 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

3. 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

Answer 5

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

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