Idle and lock

When you leave the computer, bromigOS waits, then starts the screensaver, locks the screen and turns the displays off. This page shows how to change those times, how to stop the screen locking, and how to keep the machine awake for a film or a long download.

What happens when you leave

After	What happens	To come back
8 minutes	The screensaver starts: the Drift, full screen, with the time and the burn-in.	Press any key or move the mouse.
10 minutes	The screen locks.	Type your password.
15 minutes	The displays turn off.	Press any key or move the mouse.
never	The machine suspends. This step is off until you turn it on.

The screensaver in the Wick theme: the burn-in, the clock and this machine’s readings

The turning emblem has the same smooth circular edge as the login and unlock animation.

The screen also locks whenever the machine goes to sleep: when it suspends, when you close a laptop’s lid, or when you choose Suspend in the power menu.

To lock the screen yourself at any time, press Super+L.

Change the times

Open Settings › Idle & lock (Super+,).
Each step has a switch and a slider. Turn a step off, or slide it to a new time.

The Idle & lock page in Settings: a summary line, the presets, stay awake and the timers

The line at the top of the page says what will happen, in plain words. Each change applies at once. To take one back, choose Undo in the note at the bottom. If a combination looks odd, such as the screensaver set to start after the lock, the page says so, but it still does what you asked.

Or from a terminal:

bromigos idle                        # what happens now, step by step
bromigos idle set screensaver 5      # the screensaver after 5 minutes
bromigos idle set lock off           # never lock when idle
bromigos idle set displays 30        # displays off after 30 minutes
bromigos idle set suspend 1h         # suspend after an hour
bromigos idle undo                   # take back the last change

Turn off the lock, keep the screensaver

Open Settings › Idle & lock.
Choose the Screensaver only preset.

Now the screensaver starts at its time, and nothing else happens: the screen doesn’t lock, the displays stay on, and the machine doesn’t suspend. Any key ends the screensaver. The eye on the bar shows NO LOCK while this is on.

To go back, choose the Default preset.

From a terminal: bromigos idle preset screensaver-only, and bromigos idle preset default to go back.

The presets

Preset	What it does
Default	bromigOS’s own times, as above.
Screensaver only	The screensaver, and nothing else. Nothing locks, the displays stay on, and the machine doesn’t suspend.
Presentation	Nothing happens when you leave: no screensaver, no lock, no displays off, no suspend.

Stay awake

For a film or a long download, you can stop everything for a while. When the time is up, everything goes back to how it was.

On the bar: click the eye to stay awake for an hour. Click it again to stop. Middle-click it to stay awake until you stop it.
In Settings: open Idle & lock, and under Stay awake choose 1 h, 2 h or Until off.
In the menu: choose TOGGLE › Stay awake.
From a terminal: bromigos idle stay-awake 2h, or bromigos idle stay-awake until-off. bromigos idle off stops it.

While you’re staying awake, the eye on the bar becomes a cup, with the time left.

The eye on the bar

The eye, on the right of the bar before VECTOR’s power mark, shows what will happen when you leave.

It looks	It means
dim	The usual times apply.
lit, with NO LOCK	The Screensaver only preset is on.
lit, with NO IDLE	The Presentation preset is on.
a cup, with the time left	You’re staying awake.
red	The service that watches for idle isn’t running.

Hover over it to see what will happen. Right-click it to open the settings.

Your settings file

Your idle settings are in ~/.config/bromigos/idle.toml. It holds only what you changed, and updates don’t overwrite it. If you edit it by hand, run bromigos idle apply to use it.

To run a command of your own after some idle time, add it to ~/.config/hypr/hypridle.conf, after its source line.

Keyboard shortcuts

The bromigOS Manual