[Gloucs] Lock keyboard/mouse in Gnome without locking screen?

[Maximillian Murphy]

On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:41:53 +0100
Andrew Oakley <andrew at aoakley.com> wrote:

> 
> I have a two-year old daughter and an Ubuntu laptop (Hardy

... so should be able to cope?


> 
> How do I lock the keyboard and mouse without locking the screen?
> 
> For example, I want to be able to play a video on the laptop, whilst my
> daughter to bashes the keys and clicks the mouse/trackpad. Ideally the
> keyboard/mouse would only be unlocked once a particularly difficult key
> combination or sequence is pressed.

Run a text editor & put the cursor in the text editor.  That will catch the keyboard.

If you want to catch the mouse as well, run a copy of vmware or virtualbox & let that capture the mouse.

Providing you aren't trying to run a full-screen app at the same time this should do the trick.  You can put the text editor/vmware in a corner so that you have most of a full screen.

But yeah, babes and laptops don't mix.  That's what the virtual table is meant to fix .. a table lit by a projector and watched by a camera so that one can pick up and move virtual bits of paper (whoops, I meant virtual toys.  Virtual paper has too many pie-chart connotations.  God forbid.).

A few years ago someone was asking on a mailing list for help in attaching a dozen mice to a single computer for a single user to use.  Now of course we see why with the first multi-touch tools.  Ultimate goal?  A virtual playground.

Regards, Max