betterlockscreen

A simple lock script for i3lock

Most of i3lock script out there converts your defined image to add blur, glitch or dim effect to image and it feels so slow and btw who needs dynamic lock background, its not like I change lockscreen background every 5 minutes. I wanted something that was fast and still should have all the effects I want for lockscreen background.

This script generates or already caches the variant for your custom images before hand so they can be later used any number of time as lockscreen background, without the need to apply same effect again and again

Screenshots

In action

• Demonstration - youtube.com

Table of Contents

• Requirements
  • Dependencies
• Installation
  • Manual/Git install
  • OS/Distro Packages
    • Arch Linux
    • Debian and derivatives
• Usage
• Desktop Background
• Keybinding
  • i3wm
  • bspwm
• Lockscreen whenever suspended

Requirements

Dependencies

• i3lock-color - i3lock fork with additional features( >= 2.11-c )
• imagemagick - To apply effects to images
• xdpyinfo, xrandr, bc and feh - To find screen resolution, set custom blur level and wallpaper handling.

Note: Make sure all dependencies are satisfied beforehand.

Installation

Manual/Git install

git clone https://github.com/pavanjadhaw/betterlockscreen
cd betterlockscreen
cp betterlockscreen ~/.local/bin

# or wget the script ~12KB
wget -O betterlockscreen https://git.io/fASUJ
chmod u+x betterlockscreen
cp betterlockscreen ~/.local/bin

# Add betterlockscreen to PATH:
# (In your .bashrc, .zshrc etc)
export PATH="${PATH}:${HOME}/.local/bin/"

OS/Distro Packages

Arch Linux

Installing dependencies(not required if using betterlockscreen aur package)

pacman -S imagemagick feh xorg-xrandr xorg-xdpyinfo

• i3lock-color - trizen -S i3lock-color

Aur package

betterlockscreen is available in the Arch User repos as betterlockscreen and betterlockscreen-git.

• betterlockscreen - trizen -S betterlockscreen
• betterlockscreen-git - trizen -S betterlockscreen-git

Debian and derivatives

UtkarshVerma was so kind to provide an installation script for debian based systems, .

Usage

Run betterlockscreen and point it to either a directory (betterlockscreen -u "path/to/dir") or an image (betterlockscreen -u "/path/to/img.jpg") and that's all. betterlockscreen will change update its cache with image you provided.

usage: betterlockscreen [-u "path/to/img.jpg"] [-l "dim, blur or dimblur"]
           [-w "dim, blur, or dimblur"] [-t "custom text"] [-s "lockscreen and suspend"]
					 [-r "resolution"] [-b "factor"]

betterlockscreen - faster and sweet looking lockscreen for linux systems.

required:
	-u, --update "path/to/img.jpg"	caches all required images

usage:
	-l, --lock effect-name
			locks with provided effect
	-w, --wall effect-name
			set desktop background with provided effect
	-s, --suspend effect-name
			lockscreen and suspend

			Available effects:
				dim, blur or dimblur

	-t, --text "custom text"
			set custom lockscreen text
	-b, blur 0.0 - 1.0
			set blur range
	-r, --resolution res
			uses a custom resolution


Usage examples:
1. Updating image cache(required)
betterlockscreen -u ~/Pictures/Forests.png # caches given image
betterlockscreen -u ~/Pictures             # caches random image from ~/Pictures directory

2. Custom resolution and blur range
betterlockscreen -u path/to/directory -r 1920x1080 -b 0.5

3. Lockscreen
betterlockscreen -l dim                    # lockscreen with dim effect

4. Lockscreen with custom text
betterlockscreen -l dim -t "custom lockscreen text"

5. Set desktop background
betterlockscreen -w blur                   # set desktop background with blur effect

Set desktop background on startup

Add this line to .xinitrc.

# set desktop background with custom effect
betterlockscreen -w dim

# Alternative (set last used background)
source ~/.fehbg

i3wm

Add this line to ~/.config/i3/config

# set desktop background with custom effect
exec --no-startup-id betterlockscreen -w dim

# Alternative (set last used background)
exec --no-startup-id source ~/.fehbg

Keybindings

i3wm

Add this line to your ~/.config/i3/config

bindsym $mod+shift+x exec betterlockscreen -l dim

bspwm

Add this line to your ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc

# lockscreen
alt + shift + x
    betterlockscreen -l dim

Lockscreen when suspended(systemd service)

# move service file to proper dir (the aur package does this for you)
cp betterlockscreen@.service /etc/systemd/system/

# enable systemd service
systemctl enable betterlockscreen@$USER

# disable systemd service
systemctl disable betterlockscreen@$USER


# Note: Now you can call systemctl suspend to suspend your system
# and betterlockscreen service will be activated
# so when your system wakes your screen will be locked.

---

Countributing

Thanks to all the amazing people for all your wonderful PRs, issues and ideas!

How can I support developers?

• Star our GitHub repo ⭐
• Create pull requests, submit bugs, suggest new features or documentation updates 🔧

License

MIT license.

Feel free to use and distribute

This is my first bash script so if you think this could be improved or if you have any suggestion. Feel free.

• Hat tip to anyone who's code was used
• Thanks to those who contributed to make it better
• Inspiration - r/unixporn