Ubuntu – How to disable GNOME keyring

There is no special trick here; you are just responsible for keeping your desktop session locked when you are not sitting in front of your computer. Otherwise people walking by could do anything to your computer, even if you are not using a keyring of any kind, including installing a secret password-sniffing program!

Get in the habit of locking your screen whenever you get up for any reason. Do it even when you are sure you are alone so it becomes rote. This is quicker if you configure a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+Alt+L for it (launch Keyboard --> Shortcuts --> System --> Lock screen). It would be nice if the Power control panel allowed you to lock the screen when a laptop lid is closed, but this does not seem to be an option.

And in case you forget, configure the screen to lock after a few minutes of inactivity (rather than going into a screensaver): Screen > Lock.

Resetting everything (delete all passwords and start new keyring):

rm ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring

Then, log out and log back in. Ubuntu will automatically create a new login.keyring for you.

Or

Navigate to Places > Home. Press Ctrl + H to view "hidden files". Navigate to .local > share > keyrings and delete login.keyring

Using the same keyring (resetting keyring password but keeping old passwords in keyring):

1. Make a backup of the keyring

    cd ~/.local/share/keyrings/
    cp login.keyring login.keyring.backup
   

and after that delete login.keyring file

    rm ~/.local/share/keyrings/login.keyring

2. Create a new keyring file from Gnome Keyring with the name login

3. Replace the new keyring file with the backup of the old keyring file

    cd ~/.local/share/keyrings/
    mv login.keyring.backup login.keyring      
   

Note: before Ubuntu 12.10 the path to the keyrings folder was ~/.gnome2/keyrings/ instead of ~/.local/share/keyrings/.