Gnome Screensaver Language Switch simple workaround

After installing Budgie desktop on my Debian machine I am unable to switch between languages using Alt+Shift Key on the lock screen. The Keys combination works perfectly on the Desktop environment but if I lock my device with the wrong Language (Greek/English Layouts) I get locked out of.

Dirty workaround

The first idea was to just kill gnome-screensaver through tty something that helps me to pass through lock screen but keeps turning off the screen after a minute or two of idle.

Workaround

So the next solution was to change the Language layout through tty.

1. 1. Open up a tty console (Ctrl + Alt +  F3)
   2. Then we have to change our display and Xauthority for the running X Server using this command:
      export XAUTHORITY=/home/$USER/.Xauthority && export DISPLAY=:0
   3. And lastly, switch to our preferred language using: setxkbmap us (my password is in English that’s why I used ‘us’)

Too bored to run all these commands every time?

Edit .bashrc file stored in your home directory and add an alias like so:

alias fixme='export XAUTHORITY=/home/$USER/.Xauthority && export DISPLAY=:0 && setxkbmap us'

(If you want to try it out without restart type source .bashrc )

This just a quick workaround just to be able to login. The best solution would be to patch gnome-screensaver but didn’t have the time to patch it. I’ll update this post if I find a “correct solution”.