Terminal – How to Lock Command Line

screen-lockterminal

For example, in X session, I can use Ctrl–Alt–L to lock the screen, so it would ask for password to unlock and prevent somebody from messing with mine computer.

But if I have an open terminal session on one of the tty's (which I can access with Ctrl–Alt–F1, for example) – then it is not locked, and somebody can still use it to do some harm. Is there a way to 'lock' that command line (with some background processes running in it, maybe)?

Best Answer

vlock will do as you ask. However, if you want to run background processes, consider screen instead, which will let you also log off and keep processes running in the background, and then reattach -- even when logged in from alternate places.

Related Solutions

Pause music while screen is locked

Maybe there is easier solution for this, but my first guess was to use actkbd - keyboard (but not only) shortcut daemon that works outside of X server.

In config file you can bind any keys combination to any command. More details about running actkbd you can find in this answer.

Rhythmbox can be controlled over dbus interface, so if you bind that command to some key it change your track.

dbus-send --type=method_call  --print-reply --dest=org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.rhythmbox  /org/mpris/MediaPlayer2 org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.Player.Next

To discover more dbus "commands" you can use d-feet.

Xorg Security – Preventing Access to TTY When X is Killed

You can prevent console switches from Xorg by adding the Option "DontVTSwitch" "yes" to your Xorg config file.

To prevent Ctrl+Alt+Backspace you have to add the DontZap option to your Xorg config file. Of course this will not completely prevent access to the console. If X terminates for some reason, e.g. problem with a driver the attacker will still have access to your console.

You can also use exec startx instead of startx which will replaces bash with startx, this means even if someone is able to abort X they won't be able to access your console. You can also use a display manager like lightdm, kdm, gdm, or xdm so you won't need an existing shell session to start a x session.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Pause music while screen is locked

Xorg Security – Preventing Access to TTY When X is Killed

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