I am a brand new user coming from the MS environment. My impression of openSUSE is that it is like moving into a new house that is well built but the rooms are full of half-constructed self-assembly furniture and appliances without any specific instructions. Nor is it clear which does what and whether all are needed or not. There is a town hall down the road where fellow homeowners gather to discuss what each has managed to deduce about putting their own furniture together. The town hall has a sort of library where thousands of pieces of paper with instructions are stored in an ad-hoc filing system:\
My latest problem is that I have created a screensaver via the “Configure Desktop” application and set “Enable display power management” and set some timeouts.
However, I seem to be asked for a password to unlock the screen when I come back to my computer. I have spent 2 hours trying to find the place where I can disable screen password locking but to no avail. I am perplexed and frustrated at how such an obvious function is so ****ed hard to configure. This is the impression I am getting of Linux in general - it is novice user-hostile and badly organised.
Please change my impression - what is the obvious thing I have missed here?
Let me try again. Could you be more specific about where this system setting is located. I cannot find it under yast->system or under applications->system.
There is a such a lock setting under the kde->desktop configuration which IS set to no password but I think it is probably subservient to the system setting. So, If I could find it, that would be great.
Tnx,
Tuck
Yes it is unchecked. That is, if I select “Configure Desktop” from the Application Launcher, then click on the “Desktop” icon, then click on the “Screensaver” icon. I have “Start Automatically” ticked with a 5 min timer. “Require password to stop” is unticked.
I’ll try ticking it and then unticking it again to see if the lever is stuck.
I came from windows after a Vista crash rendered my computer useless. KDE 4 reminds me a lot like vista except it’s not a resource hog and linux provides so much more in the form of speed, functionality, security, and productivity (for me at least).
In Linux packages are installed from repositories instead of going to individual sites. Of course a lot of sites will provide binary or source files but for the most part, a lot of the packages you’ll need are in the repositories. We use Yast to handle the software.
Here’s a tutorial on how to manage your repositories
This teaches you some basic repositories to add and how to prioritize them for a smooth openSUSE experience.
One last thing, once you get comfortable with managing software and can work your way around the OS a bit, I would highly recommend updating to KDE 4.2 or KDE 4.3 as they are much more stable and feature rich than KDE 4.1.3. KDE is short for the K Desktop Environment and it’s what provides the desktop effects and window management such as the title bar and moving windows. It’s also in charge of the widgets and some of the system settings like screen saver and appearance.
To do this follow this how-to on upgrading to KDE 4.2.
Thanks for the tips, Ian. The concepts doc is very good. Will update KDE once I figure out how to do it.
My problem with the screen lock is not cured after all. The lock still comes on after some time, not sure how long, so it may be that there is a second cause of locking that is independent of screen savers and power modes.
Yeah, about updating KDE, use that Repository Management how-to as that will explain how to get your basic repositories added and prioritized. Once you get those down then you can follow the 4.2 how-to to upgrade to 4.2. I advised upgrading because kde 4.2 has a lot of bugfixes and feature enhancements. This locking issue might be something that’s fixed in the later version of KDE.
If you have any questions about upgrading KDE after reading those documents just start a new thread about it.
I have the same issue and the locking program is “xlock”.
This OpenSUSE 11.1 x64 installation is running MythTV DVR, and it is very annoying to have the computer play tinkly music and lock the display every 15 minutes while trying to watch a program.
I turned off (disabled) everything I can find related to power save and locking in the desktop, NVidia display manager, looked through YaST, tried every application in the system->configuration, and system->desktop areas and cannot prevent the display from locking. I’m getting close to renaming the “xlock” program to “xlock.thwart” to see if this will prevent the display from locking.
Does anyone know definitively how to prevent OpenSUSE 11.1 from locking the display with xlock?
BTW, I am not a newbie to Linux, just new to the OpenSUSE-KDE GUI environment, which has some really nice features, and some fairly frustrating ones. It would be nice if all the locking and power saving were consolidated into just one place instead of about 4-5 slightly different pieces I’ve been able to find.
I found the solution in another thread, rjwilmsi wrote:
Under ‘Configure Desktop’ → ‘Power Management’ → Edit Profiles there’s an option ‘when the system is idle for more than’ which was set to lock screen after 15 minutes…
Now my MythTV application isn’t locked up every 15 minutes. If a developer reads this, this was very difficult to find in the UI. It is not obvious that power save is a place to look for screen locking. I link from the desktop screen lock, or this setting should be available under the screen lock area. I never would have guessed to go look in the power save area.
I can’t find this in my installation of SUSE 11.1. My “Configure Desktop” has no “Power Management” icon. The only place I can find anything related to power is in the “Display” icon where there is a “power control” section; but nothing about screen locking.
I don’t see “systems settings”. I don’t see “power management” in Yast. I have turned off “enable display power management” in “Configure desktop -> display”.
“Configure Desktop”, an application, selects by default the “General” tab (up near the top in the grey area of the window). Select the “Advanced” tab to find the “Power Save” settings. The Power Save settings aren’t accessible in “Configure Desktop” until the “Advanced” tab is selected.
I did some reconfiguring of my OpenSUSE 11.1 x64 system and now screen lock behavior is back, every 15 minutes. I’ve tried reenabling, then disabling settings in Power Save and Desktop areas and the system still insists on locking the screen every 15 minutes. Considering this system is for watching MythTV, this is very annoying behavior. Anyone know of any other areas that cause automatic screen lock that I might disable?
I am have been having the same issue with my OpenSuSE 11.1 install. I’m using kde 3.5.`0 release 21.9. After reading this thread I did some searching and found that there is a “configure desktop” for both kde 3.5 and 4. The 3.5 version does not have the advanced tab, but the 4 does. Look around a little more and see if you have both versions too.
Wow I wish I could edit this. I began by typing “I am having this issue”, and then tried to change it to “I have been having this issue” and it turned into that mess. Please excuse my crazy talk. The good news is my computer hasn’t locked the screen and made that horrible “lock” sound since I made that change!
