Xfce Forum

jkohout

Member

Registered: 2025-09-28

Posts: 2

[SOLVED] Disable Users ability to change xfce4-screensaver settings

Running RH8.10 with xfce4 on "secure" system.   One requirement is that the screensaver should lock after a period of idle time and require password to log back in.   By default, and using the GUI this works great.  However, I would like to configure it so users can NOT change the screensaver default settings and turn off the screensaver or locking. 

I have seen several hacks that I might be able to get to work, but maybe someone has a simple solution for this.
It may not need to prevent them from changing, but even it if it resets to default when they login every time would be an acceptable solution (without changing all the xfce settings).  Also, this needs to be a system wide solution.  I don't want to rely on users making modifications.

xfce4-screensaver 4.16.0

FYI, in gnome, there is this - which is exactly what I want to do in xfce4.  (It greys out the slider buttons to enable/disable screen locking)
https://help.gnome.org/admin//system-ad … ng.html.en

My current backup solution is to run a cron job and check each user's .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-screensaver.xml file. If someone changes the settings to disabled, I can be notified and it can be corrected.

Any feedback or tips are appreciated.

Last edited by jkohout (2025-09-28 22:11:52)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,252

Re: [SOLVED] Disable Users ability to change xfce4-screensaver settings

Hello and welcome.

There doesn't appear to be any locking of configuration settings in this application. Xfce did/does have kiosk mode, but I don't think xfce4-screensaver supports it.

but even it if it resets to default when they login every time would be an acceptable solution

The configuration settings are written to ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-screensaver.xml and read from there when the application starts. If you set the immutable flag:

sudo chattr +i ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-screensaver.xml

...this will prevent the system from writing to this file so when the application starts, it will re-read the existing unchanged settings from that file.

In addition, if you change the permissions or move the /usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver-preferences file, you can prevent them from even getting to the screensaver configuration screen. Note: these permissions may be reset if the package is updated.

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jkohout

Member

Registered: 2025-09-28

Posts: 2

Re: [SOLVED] Disable Users ability to change xfce4-screensaver settings

This worked great:

"In addition, if you change the permissions or move the /usr/bin/xfce4-screensaver-preferences file, you can prevent them from even getting to the screensaver configuration screen. Note: these permissions may be reset if the package is updated."

It initially gave a warning that it could not find the file.   I did not like that, so I replaced the xfce4-screensaver-preferences binary with a simple bash script that generated a window popup to provide notice to users that changing screensaver is not allowed.

Thank you for the help!

Last edited by jkohout (2025-09-28 22:12:12)