Re: Screensavers for the console

[Michal 'hramrach' Suchanek]

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 05:34:04PM +0200, Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> I don't believe in the concept of having one desktop for multiple user's
> where each user gets a virtual console and you lock them individually with
> that user's key.
> 
> So, if you want to lock your current login session, you should use whatever
> floats your boat, a standalone program.  It could not restore the screen
> correctly (unless we support something like xterm which restores the screen
> after ncurses apps exit).  Importantly, this would then apply to all console
> clients displaying that virtual console.
This is what I had in mind except a feature allowing to lock all terminals of
particular user would be convenient. Anyway, to allow non-privileged console
clients the console server should keep track of terminal ownership/permissions.

> 
> If you want to lock the physical console, then the console client could do
> it, with it's own passwort, like the BIOS password is separate from
> anything.  It should then lock all virtual consoles, ie, it should directly
> disable the whole console client and display the password prompt on all
> virtual consoles.  This would then only apply to that console client (other
> clients might still access the same console).
This may be useful, too.
> 
> This isn't so bad as it may sound at first.  Users can run their own console
> _server_ and use their own client to display its content, and that client
> can get its own password.
> 
> I am not sure this is the best solution, but it seems to fit into the
> current design without adding new substantial features.
This is probably good except the fact the server has to be set up in advance,
not when the user decides to lock the session. But I can imagine doing that
in some (system) login script.

-- 
Michal Suchanek
hramrach@centrum.cz