help me troubleshoot xss-lock

[treeshateorcs]

okay, so my problem is that my screen locker is never activated. this is the only reason why i use sway (a wayland reimplementation of the i3 xorg window manager), and not i3


i have these two relevant lines in my ~/.config/i3/config

exec_always --no-startup-id xset s 120 5

exec_always --no-startup-id xss-lock -n /usr/lib/xsecurelock/dimmer -l -- xsecurelock

but they could as well be in my ~/.xinitrc, it doesn't matter. right now i have them like this, commented out, in my ~/.xinitrc (among many other lines)

#xset s 120 5

#xss-lock -n /usr/lib/xsecurelock/dimmer -l -- xsecurelock &

and here's the output of xset q

Keyboard Control:
  auto repeat:  on    key click percent:  0    LED mask:  00000000
  XKB indicators:
    00: Caps Lock:   off    01: Num Lock:    off    02: Scroll Lock: off
    03: Compose:     off    04: Kana:        off    05: Sleep:       off
    06: Suspend:     off    07: Mute:        off    08: Misc:        off
    09: Mail:        off    10: Charging:    off    11: Shift Lock:  off
    12: Group 2:     off    13: Mouse Keys:  off
  auto repeat delay:  200    repeat rate:  25
  auto repeating keys:  00ffffffdffffbbf
                        fadfffefffedffff
                        9fffffffffffffff
                        fff7ffffffffffff
  bell percent:  0    bell pitch:  400    bell duration:  100
Pointer Control:
  acceleration:  2/1    threshold:  4
Screen Saver:
  prefer blanking:  yes    allow exposures:  yes
  timeout:  120    cycle:  5
Colors:
  default colormap:  0x20    BlackPixel:  0x0    WhitePixel:  0xffffff
Font Path:
  built-ins
DPMS (Display Power Management Signaling):
  Standby: 600    Suspend: 600    Off: 600
  DPMS is Enabled
  Monitor is On

please help me solve this once and for all, it's been bugging me for years (i'm not used to asking for help on forums, i usually solve my problems on my own). i'm at a loss

my system is archlinux
xss-lock v0.3.0.g1e158fb20108-4
xsecurelock v1.8.0-1
i3-wm v4.23-1

 

[treeshateorcs]

apparently it's steam's fault. steam inhibits the screen locker