lockscreen/switch user issues

[Brian Denheyer]

This is using gnome (and the gnome wm, which is called ?):

switch user
you get the login prompt
login
now I get the xscreensaver prompt

I check the screensaver prefs and not only is the lock screen option
NOT checked, I've restarted the daemon a couple of times to make sure
it's not set.

Only it clearly is.

Any ideas ?

Thanks,

Brian

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[Andrew Sackville-West]

On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 07:02:40AM -0800, Brian Denheyer wrote:
>
> This is using gnome (and the gnome wm, which is called ?):
>
> switch user
> you get the login prompt
> login
> now I get the xscreensaver prompt
>
> I check the screensaver prefs and not only is the lock screen option
> NOT checked, I've restarted the daemon a couple of times to make sure
> it's not set.
>
> Only it clearly is.
>
> Any ideas ?

only that I can confirm this is the case. It only seems to happen when
using switch user. I'd call it a bug that's a feature. Some piece of
code in the stack there is assuming that since someone else is using
the machine, it'd better lock the screen despite the configuration to
the contrary.

I would wager this is a bug in whatever does the user switching as the
screensaver is doing what it's told. I believe (without having time to
test it at the moment) that you can force the screensaver to lock
through it's control program despite the preferences being set
otherwise.

.02

A

[Brian Denheyer]

>>>>> "Andrew" == Andrew Sackville-West <and...@farwestbilliards.com> writes:

Andrew> only that I can confirm this is the case. It only seems to
Andrew> happen when using switch user. I'd call it a bug that's a
Andrew> feature. Some piece of code in the stack there is assuming
Andrew> that since someone else is using the machine, it'd better
Andrew> lock the screen despite the configuration to the
Andrew> contrary.

Andrew> I would wager this is a bug in whatever does the user
Andrew> switching as the screensaver is doing what it's told. I
Andrew> believe (without having time to test it at the moment) that
Andrew> you can force the screensaver to lock through it's control
Andrew> program despite the preferences being set otherwise.=20

Good that I'm not the only one. Things can be kind of weird here in
power pc land.

yes - you can using xscreensaver-command to lock it even if the
preferences are set otherwise.

I'm going to say it's pure bug. If I disable locking in xscreensaver,
then, damnit, it shouldn't lock !

Any ideas on what package deserves the bug-report ?

I know that if I let the screen saver kick in, it does _not_ lock the
screen, as per the setting, so my thinking is that it's a switch user
bug.

Maybe I should just drop back to startx in two different VT's.
switch user is a lot slower than Alt-F8 !

[Klistvud]

Dne, 25. 11. 2009 05:19:13 je Brian Denheyer napisal(a):

> I know that if I let the screen saver kick in, it does _not_ lock the
> screen, as per the setting, so my thinking is that it's a switch user
> bug.

Just a thought. There are at least two distinct rationales why you
would want to switch users:

1) enable the new user to access his/her account and personal files
without worrying about file permissions and other things
2) protect users from messing up each other's accounts and personal
files
3) other, more specific reasons ...

Of course, we may only be interested in 1) and set separate user
accounts only for the sake of practicality. In this case, we need not
protect users from accessing each other's files and may in fact set up
passwordless accounts. Great if all the users are members of
the same family and/or we can be sure they are not up for pranks,
mischiefs or even mistakes (such as deleting important personal
files by mistake or inadvertently creating 20 "New Folders" on your
desktop). This case can, for many intents and purposes, be replaced by
only one common account instead of separate accounts; for simplicity,
you could only have one account for, say, an entire family, and just
create separate Documents or Personal subfolders within that shared
account.

If however, we're also interested in 2), then we generally set up
passwords for user accounts. In the latter case, why in the world would
we allow users to freely roam from account to account by simply
pressing Alt-F7, Alt-F8 etc? IMHO, forcing a password is the rational
policy in these cases, and can not be considered a bug in any sense of
the term.

Just my 2¢.

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Regards,

Klistvud
Certifiable Loonix User #481801
http://bufferoverflow.tiddlyspot.com