Ubuntu – Can one get a mouse for the console

I'm afraid I can't give you a specific answer (because I don't know the tech well), but I believe you can find it out using D-Bus and ConsoleKit.

For example, when I switch from X to a VT and back, I get this listening on dbus-monitor:

$ dbus-monitor --system | grep ConsoleKit
signal sender=:1.16 -> dest=(null destination) serial=19039 path=/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2; interface=org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session; member=ActiveChanged
signal sender=:1.16 -> dest=(null destination) serial=19040 path=/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Seat1; interface=org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat; member=ActiveSessionChanged
signal sender=:1.16 -> dest=(null destination) serial=19041 path=/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2; interface=org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session; member=ActiveChanged
signal sender=:1.16 -> dest=(null destination) serial=19042 path=/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Seat1; interface=org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat; member=ActiveSessionChanged
   string "/org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Session2"

Specifically, you could use the GetActiveSession method. Here's how with dbus-send (may require sudo):

$ dbus-send --system --type=method_call --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit /org/freedesktop/ConsoleKit/Seat1 org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Seat.GetActiveSession

Then, depending on your application, you'll want to check out the returned object's properties, which should be an object path to a Session.

The other question that muru has linked in the comments ( TTY[1-6]: Lock screen after delay (like a screensaver) ) offers us the tool to locking the tty , vlock. At the simplest level , you can combine vlock -a with pm-suspend into a .bashrc function or a script. Here's mine:

$ cat lockTTY.sh 
#!/bin/bash
(sleep 3; sudo pm-suspend) &
vlock -a 

What is happening here ? Basically we're launching pm-suspend with delay in subshell , in background. Meanwhile we use vlock -a to lock all the ttys. After 3 seconds, the laptop suspends.

The catch here however is the sudo pm-suspend part. You have to prevent sudo from asking you password for pm-suspend. In order to do that, we add the following line at the end of /etc/sudosers file

$USERNAME ALL = NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/pm-suspend

Of course , replace $USERNAME with your actual username. You might call sudo visudo to open that file with your default text editor set in /etc/alternatives/editor , just to be safe, but any editor called with proper permissions will do.

What does this script allows us to do ? Suspend and lock with processes still running. vlock -a has big advantage in preventing switching to other consoles, so it's not just one console being locked, but all of them - you cannot just switch to another tty if one is locked.

You could also suspend first and lock second, i.e. call pm-suspend first and vlock -a second. But that means upon resume there is possibility someome may see your screen for a fraction of a second before vlock kicks in.

What would be the simple and dirty solution in case you don't trust vlock and don't want to install it ? Create a script /etc/pm/sleep.d/10_lockTTY with the following contents:

#!/bin/bash

case "${1}" in
        hibernate|sleep)
        ;;
        resume|thaw)
     for NUM in $(seq 1 6); do service tty$NUM restart; done         
    ;;
esac

This will reset all ttys upon return from suspend, but mind - any processes you had there will be killed.