[CentOS] How to disable screen locking system-wide?

Wed Jan 26 22:39:30 UTC 2011
Dr. Ed Morbius <dredmorbius at gmail.com>

on 13:11 Fri 21 Jan, Michael Gliwinski (Michael.Gliwinski at henderson-group.com) wrote:
> On Thursday 20 Jan 2011 22:26:08 Bob Eastbrook wrote:
> > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 12:18 PM,  <m.roth at 5-cent.us> wrote:
> > > But the locked screensaver wants the *same* password that you log in
> > > with. I'm having trouble understanding the problem... or is it that many
> > > of the users *never* log out?
> > 
> > Yes, users will sign onto a workstation, and then disappear somewhere
> > in the building.  They usually forget that they're logged on, which
> > means the workstation is unusable by anyone else for several days.
> > 
> > Restarting the X server is one solution, but it will kill any running jobs.
> 
> I'm not sure about GNOME or if that's available in version currently shipped 
> in CentOS but in KDE the screensaver allows you to switch user, i.e. leave the 
> currently logged on user's session running and start a new one for another 
> user.  That seems like a better solution if possible, no?

Or, so long as your graphics card doesn't kill console access, go old
school:

 - Switch to console.
 - Log into console.
 - Launch X.

The problem here is the hanging console session, which you should kill.

Better:  Institute a policy that abandoned desktop sessions are fair
game to be killed.  As with hot stoves and children, the lesson would be
learned after a few experiences.

Systems work should be handled remotely via ssh (or VNC), within screen
session, or via cronjobs. 

Another useful feature would be to have an auto-logoff set after a
certain amount of inactivity.  This doesn't seem to be available within
GNOME, so you'd probably have to homebrew it.

-- 
Dr. Ed Morbius
Chief Scientist
Krell Power Systems Unlimited