If you run Xfce (this came up on Kali, but it applies to any Xfce desktop) and you want the screen to still blank or run the screensaver on idle but you do not want a password prompt when you come back, the setting isn't where most people look. Disabling the screensaver entirely is overkill, and the relevant lock toggle often isn't stored in xfconf at all -- it falls back to a built-in default of "locked," which is why poking at the GUI sometimes does nothing.
First, find what's actually locking the screen
On Xfce the idle lock almost always comes from xfce4-screensaver, but a few other components can do it, so rule them out first:
xfce4-screensaver -- the usual culprit; locks when the saver activateslight-locker -- common on some Xfce spins; locks on blank/suspendxscreensaver -- the classic; has its own lock settingxfce4-power-manager -- can lock on suspend/hibernate
Check what's installed and running:
ps -e | grep -iE "screensaver|light-locker|xscreensaver|power-man"
for b in light-locker xscreensaver gnome-screensaver; do command -v $b && echo "$b present"; done
If only xfce4-screensaver (and xfce4-power-manager) show up, those are the only two you need to touch.
Disable the lock in xfce4-screensaver
Here's the gotcha: the lock keys are frequently not present in xfconf, so the daemon uses its compiled default of lock = on. Listing the channel shows them missing:
xfconf-query -c xfce4-screensaver -lv | grep -i lock
So you have to create the keys set to false -- the -n flag creates a missing property:
xfconf-query -c xfce4-screensaver -p /lock/enabled -n -t bool -s false
xfconf-query -c xfce4-screensaver -p /lock/saver-activation/enabled -n -t bool -s false
xfconf-query -c xfce4-screensaver -p /lock/sleep-activation -n -t bool -s false
/lock/enabled is the master switch: false means the screensaver can still activate and blank the screen, but it never asks for a password. The other two cover the "lock when the saver kicks in" and "lock on sleep" paths.
Also check the power manager
xfce4-power-manager has its own lock-on-suspend toggle. Confirm it's off:
xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p /xfce4-power-manager/lock-screen-suspend-hibernate -s false
Verify and persistence
xfce4-screensaver watches xfconf live, so the change takes effect immediately -- no logout needed:
xfconf-query -c xfce4-screensaver -p /lock/enabled
The values persist in ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-screensaver.xml, so they survive a reboot. It's per-user and per-machine.
What this does and doesn't change
This leaves screen blanking and the screensaver alone -- the display still powers down or shows the saver on idle, you're just not challenged for a password on return. If you also want to stop the screen blanking entirely, that's a separate set of keys: the /saver/* keys in xfce4-screensaver and the DPMS timeout in xfce4-power-manager.
One more thing if you're doing this over SSH instead of in the desktop session -- xfconf needs the session bus and display:
export DISPLAY=:0.0 DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/$(id -u)/bus
One caveat: this is a personal-preference tweak, not a security recommendation — on a work machine you generally do want the lock. If you're standardising Linux desktops across an office, lock behaviour belongs in policy rather than per-machine, which is part of managed IT.
