ubuntu page display question

[rmd]

Is there a way (or what's the best way) to make ubuntu 12 display a web page when the screen is locked? I'd like to be able to have my monitoring server's page up when the host idles out, but I don't want to just put the browser in kiosk mode and leave the screen unlocked.

Thanks!

Comments

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

Perhaps the "programs" portion of xscreensaver is a viable option. Just run an instance of a browser whose home page is your monitoring tool.


From: http://linux.die.net/man/1/xscreensaver (http://linux.die.net/man/1/xscreensaver)

programs (class Programs)
The graphics hacks which xscreensaver runs when the user is idle. The value of this resource is a multi-line string, one sh-syntax command per line. Each line must contain exactly one command: no semicolons, no ampersands.
When the screensaver starts up, one of these is selected (according to the mode setting), and run. After the cycle period expires, it is killed, and another is selected and run.

If a line begins with a dash (-) then that particular program is disabled: it won't be selected at random (though you can still select it explicitly using the xscreensaver-demo(1) program.)

If all programs are disabled, then the screen will just be made blank, as when mode is set to blank.

To disable a program, you must mark it as disabled with a dash instead of removing it from the list. This is because the system-wide (app-defaults) and per-user (.xscreensaver) settings are merged together, and if a user just deletes an entry from their programs list, but that entry still exists in the system-wide list, then it will come back. However, if the user disables it, then their setting takes precedence.

If the display has multiple screens, then a different program will be run for each screen. (All screens are blanked and unblanked simultaneously.)

Note that you must escape the newlines; here is an example of how you might set this in your ~/.xscreensaver file:

programs: \
qix -root \n\
ico -r -faces -sleep 1 -obj ico \n\
xdaliclock -builtin2 -root \n\
xv -root -rmode 5 image.gif -quit \n