BT4, fluxbox and an auto-locking screen

[macphail]

Having BT installed on a dedicated system is extremely convenient. Using BT in the workplace is a no-brainer (assuming you are, actually, in "the business").

One of the issues that I have had to work around, however, is that locking the screen is a bit of a chore. Not only do we mandate a 15-minute lockout in the workplace, but these systems in particular are obviously extremely sensitive. Keeping your tools, actions and data secure is simply good practice, especially for us.
The largest hurdle; xscreensaver simply refuses to function under root logon. While one could certainly follow lupin's excellent guide to creating non-root users, that introduces other issues to the mix.

This isn't an extremely (or even moderately) complex tutorial or hack, just a few quick steps that will get you an auto-locking screen using BT and fluxbox. This isn't the only solution, but certainly simple and effective.

First, let's install two packages:

apt-get install xautolock xlockmore

...and now, let's open up the fluxbox startup script (from the terminal, in this example):

pico ~/.fluxbox/startup

...and let's add a couple of lines (make sure that you add them above 'exec fluxbox', which should remain last):

# autolocks X screen  after 15 minutes of inactivity
 xautolock –time 15  –locker “xlock –mode blank” –secure &

That's it. No mess or fuss. Save the file (Ctl+O) and exit (CTL+X). Go ahead and manually run the xautolock command as it is listed above to start it now (or just restart fluxbox). You should read the man pages for both xautolock and xlock to get a feel for the options that you have available. xlock, in particular, is loaded with a ton of useful switches.

It should be noted that you can use xautolock for automating just about anything, not just screensavers.

Also, for extra credit, I most often install and configure 'oblogout' from launchpad, modifying ~/.fluxbox/menu to have a single "exit" entry that points to it. Eye candy, really.... but small and clean.

Hope I made someone's day a tiny amount easier to deal with.