Re: [Usability] Screensaver unavailable for root login ?

[Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn letterboxes org>]

On Sun, 2005-07-31 at 13:18 +1000, Rod Butcher wrote:
> I'm not asking how to use Gnome. I'm raising what seems to me a 
> usability issue - why can't I use the screensaver as root ? Seems to me 
> a necessary feature. The messages that come up about running it as 
> nobody etc are not user-friendly or even comprehensible.
> Rod

The author of Xscreensaver explains this pretty well:

http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/faq.html#root-fail

Even if you do get it working, it will never ask for a password when
you're root (because it's designed to be usable from a display manager)