Is there a way in KDE4 to do fast user switching w/o passwords such as the fast-user-switch-applet in gnome?

I just did a clean install of kubuntu 9.04 after a long time ubuntu/gnome user. The one feature that I missed instantly is fast switching between sessions. Me and my GF use this all the time, as in 'can you check whether I got that email?' takes 4 clicks. Click applet, select user, wait for switch(, select email program), click applet again, click original user. 10 seconds tops, and we do not have to change seats. (We disabled screen locking on user switching.)

In KDE I cannot find a widget to switch users at all, so I have to click 4 times to switch to another user ('K', 'leave', 'Switch user', other user). Furthermore I cannot figure out how to prevent the screen from locking, so now the other user has to type his/her password, and then the same route back. It takes an awful lot of time and effort. (Ah, there is a lock-screen widget, but that takes 4 clicks as well to switch users.)

I figured, ah well we can do it the old way (before the gnome applet existed) with Ctrl-Alt-Fx, but those keys seem to do nothing in kde4.

Presumably I can configure all this somewhere (the power of KDE, I've been led to believe), but I cannot find out where. I would be very grateful if any of you can help me with:

• a (fast) user switch widget in KDE?
• no account locking on user switching?
• enabling the use of Ctrl-Alt-Fx?

Google showed me this bugreport https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=123254 but it is rather old (KDE 3.5.1), so perhaps things have changed since then. (At least Ctrl-Alt-Fx does not work anymore.)

It is strange how quickly one can get used to specific features. This really broke my productivity, at least it felt like that. So I installed ubuntu-desktop again.

For the people that never used the fast user switcher in gnome: every user has a checkbox to select whether they want to lock the screen after fast-switching, which I checked. If I do want to lock my screen, I just lock it and switch users from the unlock window. ('Lock screen' is in the same applet.)

BTW, the applet also allows to change your status for pidgin, and perhaps other IM clients. Which I think makes sense, since 'setting yourself 'away' or 'N/A' on IM conceptually comes before 'lock screen' and 'log out'. However, I don't think this feature is very important (for me).

Maybe this needs to be taken to the brainstorm section. Would be nice to have that back indeed.

I believe there is "Switch User" functionality in KDE 4, although it is not yet available at this time as a Plasmoid. It probably wouldn't be hard to write one that made the needed call to KRunner, which is resposible for displaying the list of available sessions.

bcooksley wrote:I believe there is "Switch User" functionality in KDE 4, although it is not yet available at this time as a Plasmoid. It probably wouldn't be hard to write one that made the needed call to KRunner, which is resposible for displaying the list of available sessions.

Should be put option to disable password when you change session...

now, I must manually delete or rename krunner_lock file (what is not a good solution!)

Please either add two items in the brainstorm or at bugs.kde.org ( One to enable an option not to lock session when switching user and the other for a Plasma quick drop down )

Isn't there a runner?

No, this functionality is directly built in I believe, or at least it isn't listed normally. There is no way to get KRunner to show the user switcher other than through a D-Bus call ( which the menu's perform )