I want to use the plasma screensaver. However, I also want to be able to lock my screen, both manually and after a certain period on inactivity. However, presently if I use the screen lock, instead of using the plasma screensaver's built-in unlock system (the one attached to the cashew), I get the normal kdesktop unlock menu. This means if I move my mouse to try to interact with the plasmoids, it bring up the unlock menu. If I click cancel I am then able to use the applets correctly. Is there a way to use the plasma screensaver's unlock system instead of the mouse movement-based unlock?

the screensaver locking is completely unrelated to the Lock Widgets option on the desktop.

you can configure the screensaver (and plasma widgets on the screensaver) from the screensaver control panel in system settings.

I am not talking about "lock widgets". When you are in the normal (non-plasma) locked desktop, moving the mouse pops up the "This Session is Locked" password box to unlock the screen. When you enable plasma as your screensaver, moving your mouse on a locked desktop still brings up the "This Session is Locked" box, which means I cannot easily interact with any of the plasmoids on my locked desktop.

If I then click "cancel", I am able to move my mouse as much as I want and I can then interact with the plasmoids. To unlock the screen after that, I can mouse over the cashes, which gives me two options "Unlock" and "Unlock and Quit". Clicking "Unlock" bring up a "Unlock Plasma Widgets" password box. If I enter the password, the cashew's options change to "lock", "quit", "appearance settings" and "add widgets". If instead I click "unlock and quit" I get the old "This Session is Locked" password box, which allows me to return to my normal desktop.

What I want to do is bypass the part where moving my mouse brings up the "This Session is Locked" dialog box, so that as soon as the desktop is locked I can move my mouse around and interact with the plasmoids without bringing up a password box. I don't want to have to click "cancel" on the password box initially before I can freely move my mouse. I only want the password box to appear when I click "Unlock" or "Unlock and Quit" in the cashew.