How can I use an on-screen or virtual keyboard to login, and enter passwords at the screen saver or locker screens, (auto login is not sufficient/appropriate)? I am needing to access the PC using an alternate input device (joystick). I've gotten used to Linuxmint with Cinnamon. Currently using LM 17.2 Rafaela with Cinnamon 2.6.13 (32-bit on HP desktop). Linuxmint with Cinnamon and MDM doesn't seem to offer that capability at the moment.

I believe you might want this:

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=90&t=124704

However, as you're using Cinnamon which shares the Ubuntu repositories this should just work.

Thanks. I installed Onboard but it isn't available on the screen locker or login screens under LM17 Cinnamon, despite setting the "Show when unlocking the screen" option. I believe the display manager used by Cinnamon, MDM, may not have options for offering accessibility features at login or screen locker screens (someone correct me if I am wrong).

I did find info on replacing MDM with LightDM (https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/2), which does offer Accessibilty features (including Onboard) at login. I tried that and was successful in being able to login with Onboard, but can't get past screen locker or switch user screens when they activate. I haven't been able to figure out how to use LightDM's screen locker instead of MDM's/Cinnamon's.

BTW: The LightDM info I found involved adding a Guest account under LightDM. Unrelated directly to access via virtual keyboard, one downside I experienced was that the Guest account began triggering Apparmor messages. It would be great to get access via MDM to avoid this potential downside, but any solution will be welcome.

Edited: to add the link with info on using LightDM

How odd. I could have sworn I'd tried that already but in hindsight, I think I was using Ubuntu itself and not Mint which means no Cinnamon or MDM. So, I've gone out and done a bit of searching and found only one place that indicated they had *some* success. There's a cryptic follow-up at the end of a very short post as well.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopi...f=190&t=142905

Take a peek at that thread and let us know how it goes. It doesn't look too difficult. In my case it was me poking at a tablet thus needing/wanting the virtual keyboard on login but, alas, I really think it was Ubuntu. I can pop up a VM and poke around and see what happens if the thread doesn't help you out. No guarantees of success though.

Thanks KGIII. I actually saw this this link in my searches as well. It seems to also indicate installing LightDM to have access to a virtual keyboard at login. I had gotten this far with my previous efforts (BTW: info source has now been edited into my previous post). I will look at the steps from your link again. Maybe it will avoid the apparmor issues but I'm not sure that will offer any solution to having a virtual keyboard when Cinnamon locks the screen at screensaver. That's where I'm stuck at present.

It's too bad MDM doesn't support those features because I really hope not to have to leave LM Cinnamon. I'm not such a fan of Ubuntu's Unity. I have to admit, the mixture of distros, desktop environments, display managers, window managers, session managers, etc. is confusing and a little intimidating for a non-technical convert to Linux.