Immediately lock screen when I close laptop lid under Gnome 3 (14.04)

Question

How can I configure my Ubuntu 14.04, logging in using Gnome 3, to lock the screen when I close my laptop lid?

All Settings ► Power only offers Do nothing or Suspend as options when I close the lid.

All Settings ► Brightness & Lock is configured with Lock ON, Lock screen after Screen turns off. It doesn't seem to work.

I've tried editing /etc/systemd/logind.conf to set HandleLidSwitch=lock and rebooting; nothing changed.

Having changed nothing, it's now working as expected. headdesk Thank you for the suggestions, I hope they'll be of use to anyone searching for it later. — Alan De Smet, Sep 09 '14 at 04:47

score 5 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 08 '15 at 08:14

5

Easy way: after changing

HandleLidSwitch=lock

you have to restart the service

sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind

edited Jun 08 '15 at 08:14

David Foerster

36,900
56
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answered Jun 08 '15 at 07:24

zoccaf

51

1

This should be the top answer, simple and effective – Nov 19 '17 at 00:26
This answer would be more complete if it described where or how to change HandleLidSwitch. – Mark Sep 27 '25 at 08:18

g_p · Answer 2 · 2016-11-17T06:35:11.933

There may be other simple method available for what you want but you can lock you screen using this script upon closing your lid. I found it on help.ubuntu.com. I am trying to keep it short. For detail explanation you can visit the link.

Make the environment variables available for root.

gedit ~/export_x_info

and paste the following contets

# Export the dbus session address on startup so it can be used by any other environment
sleep 5
touch $HOME/.Xdbus
chmod 600 $HOME/.Xdbus
env | grep DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS > $HOME/.Xdbus
echo 'export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS' >> $HOME/.Xdbus
# Export XAUTHORITY value on startup so it can be used by cron
env | grep XAUTHORITY >> $HOME/.Xdbus
echo 'export XAUTHORITY' >> $HOME/.Xdbus

Make it eecutable using

chmod 700 ~/export_x_info
You need to run it on startup. So add it to Startup Applications. Select Startup Programs from Gnome Menu, and click Add.
```
Name:<Any name you want>
Command:/home/your_user/export_x_info
```
Now you need to edit your /etc/acpi/lid.sh file which catch lid open and close event. Change user_name with your user name

gksudo gedit /etc/acpi/lid.sh and paste

/home/your_user/lid_event just after #!/bin/bash. Save and close.
Now you need to create a script for close event so that you can lock your screen.

gedit ~/lid_event and paste the following.
```
#!/bin/bash
grep closed /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state  
 if [ $? = 0 ]
 then
 source /home/user_name/.Xdbus
 DISPLAY=:0.0 su user_name -c "gnome-screensaver-command -l"
 fi
```
Also check for /proc/acpi/button/lid/LID0/state file because LID0 may be LID.
Now restart your ACPI using

sudo /etc/init.d/acpid restart
Make sure that the Power Management option for laptop lid closed is set to do nothing

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '19 at 13:49

2

Make sure that in gnome-tweak-tool Suspend when lid is closed is on under power option

Then change HandleLidSwitch=lock in /etc/systemd/logind.conf

after that run sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind to restart service

answered Jul 19 '19 at 13:49

Rakshith Shetty

21

Immediately lock screen when I close laptop lid under Gnome 3 (14.04)

3 Answers3