Ekaterina Gerasimova
kittykat3756@gmail.com 2013
Petr Kovar
pknbe@volny.cz 2014
End an idle user session.
Rafael Fontenelle
rafaelff@gnome.org 2017

# Configure automatic logout

User sessions that have been idle for a specific period of time can be ended automatically. You can set different behaviour based on whether the machine is running from a battery or from mains power by setting the corresponding dconf key, then locking it.

Keep in mind that users can potentially lose unsaved data if an idle session is automatically ended.

# Set automatic logout for a mains powered machine

Create a `local` database for machine-wide settings in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/00-autologout:

[org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power] # Set the timeout to 900 seconds when on mains power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout=900 # Set action after timeout to be logout when on mains power sleep-inactive-ac-type='logout'

Override the user's setting and prevent the user from changing it in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/autologout:

# Lock automatic logout settings /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/sleep-inactive-ac-timeout /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/sleep-inactive-ac-type

The following GSettings keys are of interest:

# `org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power.sleep-inactive-ac-timeout`

The number of seconds that the computer needs to be inactive before it goes to sleep if it is running from AC power.

# `org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power.sleep-inactive-ac-type`

What should happen when the timeout has passed if the computer is running from AC power.

# `org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power.sleep-inactive-battery-timeout`

The number of seconds that the computer needs to be inactive before it goes to sleep if it is running from battery power.

# `org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power.sleep-inactive-battery-type`

What should happen when the timeout has passed if the computer is running from battery power.

You can run gsettings range on a key for a list of values which you can use. For example:

    $ gsettings range org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type
    enum
    'blank' # blanks the screen
    'suspend' # suspends the system
    'shutdown' # starts a standard shutdown procedure
    'hibernate' # hibernates the system
    'interactive' # shows a pop-up query asking the user what to do
    'nothing' # does nothing
    'logout' # log out from the session