jhwelch@ecs.umass.edu (04/02/91)
We're about to allow students access to some VAXstations running Decwindows. I'd like to disable the Pause Session feature in the session manager so that someone can't lock up a workstation and walk off, rendering it useless to anyone else. A call to the DEC telephone support folks told me that this would be an option in the next release of Decwindows, not due out until after this summer. In the meantime I could type in the .UIL files from the fiche and modify them. Ugh. I'm working on getting access to source listings on CD. Has anybody written a UID -> UIL converter? or does anyone know where the format of a UID file is documented so I could write my own? Any workable suggestions are welcome - I'm sure other sites would like to be able to do something like this, too. Jonathan Welch VAX Systems Programmer Bitnet: JHWELCH@umaecs UMass/Amherst Internet: JHWELCH@ecs.umass.edu
allebrandi@inland.com (Tom Allebrandi) (04/04/91)
In article <13044.27f8a2ca@ecs.umass.edu>, jhwelch@ecs.umass.edu writes: > We're about to allow students access to some VAXstations running > Decwindows. I'd like to disable the Pause Session feature in > the session manager so that someone can't lock up a workstation > and walk off, rendering it useless to anyone else. A call to the > DEC telephone support folks told me that this would be an option > in the next release of Decwindows, not due out until after this > summer. > >... > Any workable suggestions are welcome - I'm sure other sites would > like to be able to do something like this, too. The way we have solved this problem here is with a homebrew application called SESSION_LOCK. SESSION_LOCK does basically the same thing as "Pause Session", the difference is that it uses a list of usernames and will accept the password to any of them. A file in SYS$MANAGER: controls the list of usernames that are accepted. For example, when I run SESSION_LOCK to "lock" my workstation, it accepts the password to my username, SYSTEM, or our operator account. This allows either myself or anyone on our system support staff to "unlock" my workstation. The current downside of SESSION_LOCK is that it is an application so it needs to go on your application menu. I haven't dug in deep enough yet to figure out how to hook it to the "Pause" item on the "Session" pulldown. (If that is even possible. It may be better to just get rid of the "Pause" item.) This means that people can still use "Pause". Here, we only have eight workstations, seven of which are on peoples desks. It was easy for us to simply tell everyone to use SESSION_LOCK, your milage may differ. I've been intending to post SESSION_LOCK, I just haven't gotten around to it. Send me mail if you want a copy. It works on both VMS and Ultrix. The VMS version supports both the old HPWD and the new SYS$hash_password() methods of password hashing. --- Tom Tom Allebrandi | Mail guru - DECUS UUCP Development Team Inland Steel Research Labs | Chairperson - VMSnet Working Group, DECUS VAX SIG East Chicago, IN | Internet: allebrandi@inland.com 219 399 6306 | UUCP: ...!uunet!inland!allebrandi | DECUServe: allebrandi BIX: ta2