How to disable screen lock in Ubuntu

Ubuntu has a feature that after a long period of idle time without any action from the user, the screen locks. This is not quite convenient and it is not necessary if the computer belongs to one person. Yes, there are situations when the screen lock helps, but in home conditions such a feature of the system is practically useless. You can watch a video in a browser or player and the screen will suddenly be locked. Next we will consider the question of what to do if the screen is locked, and there is no need for it. We will also touch on the situation when the lock occurs when watching videos and how to deal with it without drastic measures.

Disable screen lock in Ubuntu

You can find on the Internet instructions on how to disable screen locking with the help of Ubuntu Tweak or Dconf programs, but there is no need for them, because it can be done with the help of standard means, namely through the tools of the Ubuntu system.

Open the System Settings utility from the main menu:

Next, go to the Privacy tab:

After that we need to set the Auto Screen Lock switch to Off:

We can increase the time to lock and disable password entry for unlocking.

There is an even easier way to disable screen lock. For this we need to open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-enabled false

This is how to disable Ubuntu screen lock Go to the second part.

Disable screen lock in Ubuntu while watching videos

We all watch various videos and movies, so in almost any distribution there is such a problem, when after a period of inactivity goes out and locks the screen. What to do in such a case? Disable the screen locker? Actually, you don't have to do it, because the lock can be disabled only in the application.

So in Ubuntu distribution there is a special program Caffeine. It will monitor when running applications from its list and temporarily disable the screen lock. To install the program you need to execute:

$ sudo apt install caffeine

Next, you need to add the program caffeine-indicator in the autoloader. If everything is done correctly, in the system tray icon will appear, the program will automatically detect the launch of video and disable the screen lock. If the detection fails, click on the program icon and select Activate. The icon will turn into a cup of coffee with jets of steam rising, this means disable Ubuntu Screen Keeper.

And lastly: Caffeine doesn't always detect HTML5 video playback correctly. There is a solution for this case too. There is a script that does a much better job of disabling screen fading during video playback. It detects when Flash, HTML5, or any other video is playing and only then disables the screen lock. You can find and download it from the GitHub site.

Copy it to the bin directory:

$ cp ~/Downloads/lightsOn.sh /bin/

Set execute permission:

$ chmod ugo+x /bin/lightsOn.sh

Finally add the script to autoloader.

That's it. As you can see, disabling screen lock is quite simple, as well as defeating screen fades when watching videos.