Regression: fast user switch can no longer be fast because it locks screen every time.

FWIW, if you disable locking the screen entirely for the accounts, then it will not lock the screen when switching users anymore.

Open 'gconf-editor' (e.g. with Alt-F2) and go to /desktop/gnome/lockdown and check disable_lock_screen .

This will entirely remove the ability to lock the screen though. You can install xlock (xlockmore) to still be able to do that.

OT: IMHO ubuntu (linux in general?) is evolving so fast, that regressions like this pop up to often (even skipped Karmic because of this). Luckily, there is always a fix :-).

Thank you, Hugo! Your workaround will become useful for Lucid.

I am still on Karmic and my workaround so far was to train my family to use Ctrl-Alt-Fx for switching if possible. This also helped with Karmic's missing fast-user-switch.

Checked around the same problem as well, here is what I found:

* Lockdown Editor (Package pessulus) is a "family" friendly tool (sitting on System->Administration->Lockdown Editor when pessulus is installed) which allows to configure "disable Lock Screen" in gnome screensaver (beside others user interface configurations). This is much more intuitive for the "family" than digging into gconf stuff.

* In German the "Lockdown Editor" is called "Benutzerschnittstelle" (= "User Interface") which is an even more "family" friendly name in Non-admin land (maybe something to think about).

And most important:

* As far as I understood Hugo and Robert, however, above is only a work-around and I totally agree.

A use case for family sharing computers is also:
  - If I wanna lock, I do
  - If I switch to another user for whatever purpose,
    I don't want to lock automatically,
    since I'm switching back in most of the cases soon

So what would be needed here is another option beside "disable_lock_screen", named something like "disable_lock_screen_on_user_switch" and this should really be changeable efficiently in the user switching menu.

Possiblities when lock_on_user_switch is disabled and wanted exceptionally:

Case 1 (clumsy)

* Lock Screen
* Do UserSwitch from Lock

Case 2 (fast)

* Have a field to tick in the switching menu, setting lock_on_user_switch
* Do UserSwitch from the same menu afterwards

That's it
I hope, expressing wishes is OK in this wishlist bug-report.

cuK

The actual need is IMHO not to brute-force disable the locking mechanism for all users, but allow to remove need for password for a subset of (passwordless) users, like guest.

The need is choice for *all* accounts: allow the user to decide whether to lock the screen when switching sessions. Like it used to be. (So indeed disable locking is not the solution, nobody claims this.)

Locking the session when 'fast user switching' with "living-room PC's" is often unwanted:
- typing the passwords might take more time than the action that required the switch (e.g. checking email, facebook status update)
- it requires 'hot seat switching' to have the other person type the p.w. (no more "could you switch to my session to check whether XX replied to my email?")

There is simply no logical relationship between "having a password" and "lock the screen when switching users":
- I don't mind anyone accessing my session when I'm physically in the same room: no locking required.
- When I leave the room, I want to lock the session: password required.

(Furthermore I don't understand why this is categorized as 'wishlist' since it is clearly a regression. The *fast* user switching --the 0.5 seconds kind of Jaunty-- is broken.)

# Current status: regression bug still observed

Bug still present on Xubuntu 16.04 running XFCE (and without a doubt with Unity, too, since logic is in lightdm which is common).

# Good discussion at the time of bug report

Robert Pollak reported it very well: it's a regression.

## Some workarounds no longer applicable with lightdm

Hugo Buddel @v-launchpad-hugo-doemaarwat-nl wrote:

> FWIW, if you disable locking the screen entirely for the accounts, then it will not lock the screen when switching users anymore.

This workaround no longer works under the new lightdm logic: lightdm always switch to a lightdm greeter even if the session is not locked.

Robert Pollak (robert-pollak) wrote:

> I am still on Karmic and my workaround so far was to train my family to use Ctrl-Alt-Fx for switching if possible. This also helped with Karmic's missing fast-user-switch.

This workaround combined with completely disabling locking might still works under the new lightdm logic. Then users then have to guess and try which session is on which VT.

Klaus Reichl (klaus-reichl) made a very good case:

> A use case for family sharing computers is also:
> - If I wanna lock, I do
> - If I switch to another user for whatever purpose,
> I don't want to lock automatically,
> since I'm switching back in most of the cases soon
>
> So what would be needed here is another option beside "disable_lock_screen", named something like "disable_lock_screen_on_user_switch" and this should really be changeable efficiently in the user switching menu.

Hugo Buddel @v-launchpad-hugo-doemaarwat-nl confirmed with:

* concrete examples
* good analysis of what is related and what is not, showing that current logic is flawed

# What now?

## Need remains

In the meantime, some tech layers have changed (specifically, lightdm replaced many other components) but the users' needs remain. And human users that share a computer (e.g. at home) want fast switching that is fast.

## Solution

Bringing back a per-user option that says "Lock screen on switching users" would be very nice.

## Proof-of-concept implementation

I opened https://askubuntu.com/questions/811953/switching-between-two-opened-x-sessions-without-reauthenticating with a proof-of-concept implementation for lightdm. Currently it just allows any user to fast switch to any user that has a session already opened (actually, it unlocks it, this can be improved). This is overkill, but at least it provides the benefit and users wishing security can use a third party screen locker (e.g. xscreensaver) to get it back.

I'm open to discussing alternate solutions, like having groups of mutually trusted users as sketched on https://askubuntu.com/questions/811953/switching-between-two-opened-x-sessions-without-reauthenticating .

Thank you for your attention.