Tipps

It is recommended to protect the active session on your PC by using a screensaver that locks access by requiring a password. Another way, of course, is just to log out.

Debian 8 „Jessie“ uses gnome-screensaver. It can be activated by pressing „Super+L“ („Super“ is the „Windows“ key on either side of the space bar.)

Look at https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeScreensaver/FrequentlyAskedQuestions for information about the Gnome screensaver. A certain amount of configuration is possible using dconf-editor.

You can also use xscreensaver to lock your screen to prevent unauthorized access while you are away from the computer.

xscreensaver has more configuration options than gnome-screensaver, but it needs to be set up first.

To set xscreensaver to require a password, go to Activities → Applications → Screensaver. This will open up a new window. At the bottom left of the window, activate „Lock Screen After“ and set the time to 0 minutes for immediate locking. You can also specify the kind of screen saver(s) to use.

The easiest way to activate xscreensaver is to use a keyboard shortcut. First you need to define the shortcut by going to Settings → Keyboard → Custom Shortcuts. There you can set up a new custom shortcut like:

Name:    xscreensaver
Command: xscreensaver-command -l

After you've added the action, don't forget to click on the right side of the line to specify the actual key combination, for example „Ctrl-Alt-L“.

You can use xscreensaver to lock your screen to prevent unauthorized access while you are away from the computer. You can do this instead of logging out.

To set xscreensaver to require a password, go to System → Preferences → Screensaver. This will open up a new window. At the bottom left of the window, activate „Lock Screen After“ and set the time to 0 minutes for immediate locking.

You will then need to create a new launcher to activate the screen saver and lock the screen. In order to do this, right click on your desktop background. Select „Create Launcher…“. Enter „Lock screen“ as the name and set the command to:

xscreensaver-command -activate

If you like you can click on the icon at the top left to chose your own icon.

This procedure creates an icon on the desktop. Just click this icon to lock your screen.

Alternatively pressing „Ctrl+Alt+L“ will lock the screen.

If after trying to start xscreensaver nothing at all happens or you get a message that the xscreensaver daemon hasn't been started, you need to add xscreensaver to the programs that are automatically started when you log in. You can do this by navigating to Systems → Preferences → Startup Applications and specifying „xscreensaver“ as the program to start.