Ubuntu – n alternative to the default lock-screen

To create the shortcut

• Go to the Settings Manager from the menu.
• Go to Keyboard.
• In the Application Shortcuts tab press on Add.
• Enter dm-tool switch-to-greeter then press OK.
• Press the desired hotkey.

To run a command after 2 idle minutes

• Create a bash script, containing:

#!/bin/bash

# The target may depend on your system. i8042 is mouse and keyboard on mine.
log=/proc/interrupts
target=i8042

measure_activity() 
{ 
    count=$1
    interrupts_start=`grep $target $log | awk '{ print $2 }'`
    interrupts_stop=`sleep 1 && grep $target $log | awk '{ print $2 }'`

    if [ "$interrupts_start" == "$interrupts_stop" ] ; then
        ((count++))
        if [ $count -eq 120 ] ; then
            dm-tool switch-to-greeter
            measure_activity 0
        else
            measure_activity $count
        fi
    else
        measure_activity
    fi
}

measure_activity 0 &

• Make it executable.

• Add it to Application Autostart tab of Session and Startup.

P.S.: I've got the script from here and I edited it for you.

I had this exact same issue. and no matter what I did I couldn't get it to work. So, on a whim I reinstalled Ubuntu from the latest version (14.10). I originally had 14.04 LTS. Nothing I did could get this to work (even reinstalling 14.04). So I downloaded the lastest release and did a clean install. And it looks as if the Devs fixed the issue in this latest release because now when I enable the option in Onboard settings, I get the keyboard pop up for logging in and from the lock screen. Hope this helps.

An additional note. When you enable the lock screen option you get prompted to enable Accessibility features. This is the key for log in screen. Onboard doesn't automatically pop up at login. But in the task bar, you'll see the little Accessibility icon (a little man figure in a circle). Touch that and you get the option to show the keyboard. This was also an issue with 14.04 LTS as it would never give me the accessibility icon in the task bar.