How to use i3lock to wake from suspend state

i3lock on wake from sleep or hibernate.md

How to use i3lock to wake from suspend state

By Raymond Li (Raymo111), September 3^rd, 2019

Last updated 28 August 2021

Table of Contents

Step 0: Preparation
Step 1: Create the lock script
Step 2: Create the systemd module
Step 3: Enable the systemd module

Step 0: Preparation

Disable any preexisting screen locker. I'm using KDE on Arch Linux, so my options for kscreenlocker look like this:

If you don't have it already, make sure you install i3lock. I highly recommend installing i3lock-color.

Step 1: Create the lock script

Create a file at ~/scripts/i3lock.sh, with the following content:

#!/bin/bash
i3lock # Whatever i3lock options you want to use. Use i3lock -h for a list of options

Step 2: Create the systemd module

Create a file using sudo at /etc/systemd/system/wakelock@.service, with the following content:

[Unit]
Description=Lock the screen on resume from suspend
Before=sleep.target suspend.target

[Service]
User=%i
Type=forking
Environment=DISPLAY=:0
ExecStart=/home/%i/scripts/i3lock.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=sleep.target suspend.target

Step 3: Enable the systemd module

Enable the systemd module you just created with:

sudo systemctl enable wakelock@<YOUR-USER-NAME> --now

i3lock will now run once as a demo, then when you wake from suspend, i3lock will automatically start.

That's it! If you make any changes and want them reflected immediately without restart, simply do:

sudo systemctl restart wakelock@<YOUR-USER-NAME>

If my tutorial helped you, or if you encountered any errors or have any suggestions for me, leave a comment below to let me know!

Great guide! 👍

Great guide! 👍

Thanks! Means a lot to hear that this was useful for others. 🙂

For some reason this works with programs like slock, but not with i3lock, even when I set it to /usr/bin/i3lock directly without any options

@SafwanLjd do you have vanilla i3lock or i3lock-color installed? I use this every day with i3lock-color, so it definitely works for me?

@Raymo111 I'm aware that it should work, but I don't know why it doesn't, and yes I do have i3lock-color installed and I do have my own script with a bunch of options (https://github.com/SafwanLjd/BlurLocker) and neither my script nor running /bin/i3lock work through the method in this gist; However, as mentioned above, when trying the same method with slock it also works.

For now I just use xss-lock to sort of achieve the same behavior and it works almost flawlessly (and yes, I did kill xss-lock when trying this method, it still doesn't work), but I would love to be using this method, I just don't know why it won't work...

Interesting. Since I maintain i3lock-color I think I should probably figure out why slock works but i3lock-color doesn't. Can you try with vanilla i3lock?

@Raymo111 I just noticed that I get this error when I try using i3lock-color (and i3lock, I've just tested it), but not when using slock

journalctl output:

I'm no SystemD expert, so I'm not sure what the problem is

The errors are indeed from i3lock-color:

Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified
i3lock: Could not connect to X11, maybe you need to set DISPLAY?

Are you missing this line in the config?:

Environment=DISPLAY=:0

@Raymo111 Nope, it is definitely there, I copied the whole thing from the gist

I'm using betterlockscreen and it shows the lockscreen before going to standby, and when I enter the password that's when the computer goes to standby. When I wake it up it doesn't show the lockscreen.

@gianmarcogg03 Yes, I have the same problem.

@gianmarcogg03 @omargtdev with betterlockscreen setting Type=forking causes that issue. You should set Type=simple instead. See this issue:
betterlockscreen/betterlockscreen#277

got this to work but my desktop is visible for a few seconds before i3lock takes over

also i had to use 'After' instead of 'Before'

Appreciate you spending the time to document.