F39 Workstation "disable-lock-screen" not writable

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1

The lock-screen is non functional due to the dconf key “disable-lock-screen” preset to
not writable and can not be modified as per follows:

$ gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen
$ true

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen false
$ The key is not writable

Is there any way to set the key writable or any other way to get the screen lock working?

Thanks.

2

You probably need to undo this: Lock down specific settings

Check for a file in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/.

1 Like
3

The dir /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/ is empty. No lockdowns have been defined yet.
This is a fresh F39 installation. It’s weird this key is not writable!

4

Can you change other settings? Maybe there’s a permission issue with the dconf database.

ls -l ~/.config/dconf/user

Do you see anything if you run gsettings with G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all?

5

The other settings can be changed.

Here’s the gsettings run with the debug option:

$ G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen false
(process:112071): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 07:55:13.772: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation dconf (DConfSettingsBackend) for ‘gsettings-backend’
(process:112071): dconf-DEBUG: 07:55:13.772: watch_fast: “/org/gnome/desktop/lockdown/” (establishing: 0, active: 0)
(process:112071): dconf-DEBUG: 07:55:13.773: change_fast
The key is not writable
$

6

Found the cause!

In order to disable the gdm user-list, I placed some files in /etc/dconf/{db, profile}
and there was the following entry in those files:

file-db:/usr/share/gdm/greeter-dconf-defaults

Apparently, this had the side-effect of turning the “disable-lock-screen” key not writable!

Once, the file-db line was removed the key was writable.

No idea why adding this line caused the problem.

Thanks,
SWA

7

It sounds like you put that in the user profile, not gdm. Thus you applied GDM’s default settings and locks to your user session.

https://help.gnome.org/admin/system-admin-guide/stable/login-userlist-disable.html.en

If you can confirm that it happens when following that guide exactly, I can take another look.

8

Yes, the problem was with the user profile. Reset the modified file
/etc/dconf/profile/user to its original and then followed the guide
on the posted link and it’s all good now!

Thanks,
SWA