34

When I type Ctrl-X X (sic) in screen, the session is locked. What is the default password? Is it the same password which I use to log in to linux?

I ask because: I connect to several different remote linux servers via ssh, under various flavours of linux/unix, and have screen sessions running on all of them. When I lock the screen session and type my password, sometimes it works and on other installations it does not work and I therefore don't know what the password is (so I have to "quit" that screen session externally).

So, what is the default password of screen?

P.S.: I am never root. Version of screen used: Screen version 4.00.03 (FAU) 23-Oct-06

Improve this question
1
  • I expect it depends on whether screen is in a login shell, and whether login is enabled for screen
    – sehe
    Oct 7, 2011 at 9:45

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
12

The screen password has always been simply the system password of the user running it in my experience. the manpage says that if there's a screen lock program available, it will be used if configured so. So maybe you would need to figure out if this is the case, and how that program behaves.

Improve this answer
7
  • For how to configure a custom lock program, see also serverfault.com/a/639406
    – tripleee
    Jan 22, 2016 at 7:27
  • 16
    And what if the user has no password and you use an SSH key to login?
    – Cerin
    Jan 27, 2016 at 0:40
  • 1
    I think then the user should not lock his screen; he might not be able to login again afterwards...
    – jpjacobs
    Jan 30, 2016 at 9:55
  • 3
    @jpjacobs: Alas, It's not always the user's choice: superuser.com/questions/344301/…
    – deltab
    Feb 5, 2016 at 14:28
  • 14
    @Cerin: Open a new SSH connection and steal the screen session from yourself.
    – valid
    Aug 21, 2016 at 10:05
40

I sometimes find myself in the same situation, on servers where I have SSH public-key login and thus no password at all (that I know), and struggle to remember what I did last time to recover.

There is no need to kill the screen. Just disconnect the terminal you are running screen in, then open a new terminal window and reattach (screen -r).

Maybe as a precaution, add bind x to your .screenrc so that the lock keystroke is unbound. In an already running screen, use ctrl-A : bind x.

Improve this answer
4
3

the password of the user that owns the screen process.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    What do you do when there is no password? I use a passwordless SSH key to login to my server and screen still asks me for a password...
    – Cleber Goncalves
    Feb 27, 2014 at 8:19
  • 1
    using a phrase-less ssh key (bad idea btw, look into ssh-agent) isn't the same as having no password. screen will want whatever the users password is on the remote system in /etc/shadow
    – Sirex
    Feb 27, 2014 at 17:37
3

After trying many approaches, I found that:

  • The BEST solution is adding two lines bind x bind ^x to your .screenrc file.

(Note If you are not root user, remember to add alias screen="screen -C [your .screenrc file path]" to your .bashrc file)

  • The second BEST solution is adding one line export LOCKPRG='/bin/true' to your .bashrc file. However, this method is somewhat uncommon, refer to this link

At last, thanks a lot to this guy disabling_gnu_screen_lock_screen, I just copy-paste his content here.

Improve this answer
1
  • You don't need the -C option unless you save the .screenrc in a nonstandard place, i.e. not in your home directory.
    – tripleee
    Oct 24, 2023 at 7:37

You must log in to answer this question.