Does anyone know of a way to lock keyboard?

[simbalala]

What I need is to lock the keyboard as if the machine is sleeping but not put the machine to sleep. If it sleeps my ssh session is killed.

My cat is a perverse creature and she knows I hate it when she walks on the keyboard so she does it and she’s got two to choose from. Last night she did a forced restart by standing on the power button. I’ve now taped a piece of card over that button.

I can’t remember all the strange things she’s made the machine do but some were pretty weird.

Locking the screen is not enough because the keyboard still accepts input. I need keyboard locking as if the machine were asleep where a click or a key press brings one to the authentication screen.

 

[Natobasso]

Unplug it?

 

[g/re/p]

Put the keyboard(s) in a cat-proof box?

 

[g/re/p]

Unplug it?

Tried that - makes the mac come out of sleep and go to login screen - and then to screen saver.

 

[Qion]

You could set your screen saver to require a password after having been activated. That option is somewhere in the Security tab of the Accounts menu in System Preferences.

That way your dastardly feline would have to DDR your password back in in order to screw anything up!

 

[g/re/p]

When it comes out of sleep and goes to the screen saver, it will not go back into sleep mode.


(or is that just my machine that does that?)

 

[Natobasso]

The screen saver password idea works on my comp, and I can set a hot corner to activate it when I want it.

There's gotta be software out there to disable the keyboard just as you can disable the trackpad on a laptop when the mouse is present...searching...

 

[Natobasso]

Not very helpful but another discussion here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1015233&tstart=30

 

[simbalala]

The screen saver password idea works on my comp, and I can set a hot corner to activate it when I want it.

Doesn’t work, already have that with a keyboard shortcut via applescript.

Problem is that the lock screen/screen saver password does not disable keyboard input. It’s buffered so once you unlock, the buffer dumps the keystrokes or they’ve already been sent, one of the two. It can be interesting to watch what the cat can come up with.

 

[g/re/p]

Put tape on her paws.......

 

[Qion]

Wait no! I might have a solution!

Open up the program called "Keychain Access", go to File: Preferences, and choose to show the lock in your menubar. A small black lock icon will appear, and from there you can choose to lock the screen without anything else happening. I can't see how your cat could input a spurious command from the locked screen.

 

[Rhisiart]

Apply lemon juice to a cloth. Squeeze the excess juice out. Carefully dab each key with the cloth. Cats hate lemon juice.

 

[simbalala]

Wait no! I might have a solution!

Open up the program called "Keychain Access", go to File: Preferences, and choose to show the lock in your menubar. A small black lock icon will appear, and from there you can choose to lock the screen without anything else happening.

That’s what I’m already doing.

 

[Satcomer]

How about getting in the habit of tipping the keyboard up on end when walking away from the Mac? This is simple and cost nothing.

 

[Qion]

That’s what I’m already doing.

*fail*

 

[g/re/p]

rolz laffz.....

 

[g/re/p]

...

 

[Rhisiart]

What about my feckin' lemon juice?

 

[simbalala]

What about my feckin’ lemon juice?

I was reluctant to put lemon juice on the aluminum plated keys of the PowerBook but after the cat screwed up a 20 minute compile I did use lemon juice ALL OVER THE TABLE and on a cardboard cover I’d made by gluing two sheets of cardboard together. So far so good, she certainly doesn’t like the smell of lemon juice on my fingers.

We’ll see. I wonder if Lemon Pledge has the same effect.

 

[riverteeth]

Amazing! This post mirrors the question I have been asking for weeks now! My new kitten does the same thing, Sambalala.

I tried a mini program called insomniax just for this purpose, but the machine really does get hot with the lid closed, so I can see now why Apple doesn't make this a choice in the settings. One of the trade-offs of using the whole casing as a heat sync (mine's a macbook pro) instead of having fans that such dust into the machine.

HOWEVER, the solution of requiring your password to come out of screen saver mode works perfectly for my purposes, and I also followed the above advice of setting a hot corner to activate it, making it super easy to "lock" my keyboard whenever I step away.