I'm trying to get user switching running properly on slackware current using xfce4 combined with gdm as installed from slackbuilds.org. User switching in itself works fine, but the thing that drives me absolutely nuts is that every time I switch users I need to unlock both gdm as well as xscreensaver. This makes little sense for a user, but I don't see how to fix this as most detailed guides are now pam/systemd specific and use lightgdm or similar.

All I want is that (1) I can lock the screen through the menu, (2) that the screen locks automatically after xx minutes and ideally that the screen goes to sleep after a specified time.

My impression is that I need to get rid of xscreensaver all together and replace it with something else. Unfortunately I don't see how to do both the lock and the autolock functionality.

Does anyone have a clear pointer how to achieve locking the screen for xfce with gdm in such a way that I don't have to type a password twice?

You aren't unlocking with the password twice.

The first time is to tell gdm which user to change to. It so happens that the user in question is screen locked, hence you have to enter the password a second time.

You CAN avoid this by using ctrl-alt-fx, where x is the virtual terminal of the user. Normally (depending on the system) the first GUI login would use the first virtual terminal, the second (user switched) use gets the second. Thus selecting the first user with ctrl-alt-f1 will bring up the display for that user; and you would need to use the password to unlock the screen. The same applies to the second user ctrl-alt-f2 would go to it.

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Agreed, but one still has to type the password twice. And that is what I want to get rid of in a way that the rest of the family can understand. The solution you suggest is far too complicated for that.

Then you are stuck with entering the password twice. A three character combination is not as complicated as entering a username and password.

Two different applications, with two different functions.