GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 559623
Support screen locking pref in user switch applet
Last modified: 2013-11-18 14:48:59 UTC
Here are some patches to implement a preference for locking the screen when switching from the switch applet. This is a regression from fast-user-switch-applet. Previously I had submitted patches to the list: http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gdm-list/2008-October/msg00021.html The patches here are reworked to be more robust in the event that the gconf key cannot be retrieved. The preference is now controlled from a toggle item in the context menu, rather than creating a full preferences dialog. Matthias had questioned why you would ever want to _not_ lock the screen. I've thought about this some more, and I'm now convinced that it's more likely that you would not want it locked by the applet. Consider the occasion where you can actually access the user switch applet: The switch applet can only be used when there is currently an unlocked session running. Sometimes it may be your session that you're sitting in front of and choosing to switch to another, but more often it is that you have left your session running and another user wants to switch to their session. In that case, a malicious user already has full access to your session, and you've lost. If you're concerned about that situation, then you've locked the screen when you've walked away already. If you're not concerned about that situation because you trust all the other users on the system, then locking the screen only serves to slow down the fast user switching experience and may lead to you providing your password to someone else if the need arises to switch back to the original session. So, I would say that having the applet lock the screen does not significantly increase security.
Created attachment 122121 [details] [review] Support --no-lock option in gdmflexiserver when launching new session When launching a new login session via gdmflexiserver, the -l or --no-lock switch can be used to suppress locking of the current session. gdm_user_manager_goto_login_session() has been adapted to take a boolean parameter controlling whether to call gdmflexiserver with this switch.
Created attachment 122123 [details] [review] Support per-applet GConf key "lock_screen_after_switch" Ports code from fast-user-switch-applet to support per-applet GConf keys. The key "lock_screen_after_switch" has been added to control whether the current session is locked when switching to another session.
Created attachment 122124 [details] [review] Add check menu item for setting the lock screen preference The "lock_screen_after_switch" gconf preference can be toggled from the context menu with a check box.
I hope this regression wil be resolved upstream quickly. Thank you.
:-( open for so long and still no solution :-( As for the question why one would want no blocking of the screen: Guess what, there are people out there who have different accounts on one computer for different tasks, one for work, one for leisure. Having two distinct accounts is the easiest way to keep things seperated. There's no need for screen-locking/always reentering your password when you're the only one with access to the machine. Same thing with having auto-login. "How can you possibly want that everybody has access to your account just by powering on the machine?" Too bad that every major release of gnome brings more little annoyances that were solved nicely already by "reinventing the wheel". The real question now is: Why would you ever want to add the switch applet to your panel? (a honest question, really) From my POV it absolutely brings no benefits It just wastes space and tells everyone who can peek over your shoulder what your name is. Logoffbutton-applet is just as good and doesn't waste the space.
closing since we don't ship user-switch applet anymore