My 10-year-old laptop has no fingerprint sensor. No Face ID. Just a keyboard.
And I was typing a 10+ character password every single time I locked my screen.
Lock. Type. Unlock. Lock. Type. Unlock. Repeat 40 times a day.
So I thought — my mouse has 3 buttons. What if clicking them in a secret pattern could unlock the screen instead?
2 left clicks → 2 right clicks → 1 left click. Screen unlocked.
I’m running Linux (Fedora + KDE Plasma) on a decade-old machine, so I asked Claude Code to build it from scratch. It wrote a Python daemon using evdev that:
<ul>
<li>Reads raw mouse events directly from <code>/dev/input/</code> (works even on Wayland lock screen)</li>
<li>Checks if the session is locked via <code>loginctl</code></li>
<li>Matches your registered click pattern → fires <code>loginctl unlock-sessions</code></li>
<li>Runs as a systemd service at boot</li>
</ul>
The whole thing is ~150 lines of Python. No PAM hacks. No special hardware.
Is it secure? Absolutely not — but neither is a laptop old enough to be in 5th grade. 😅
Old laptop. No biometrics. Zero excuses now. 🖱
#Linux #KDE #Python #OpenSource #Wayland #DIY

Heart

Dixit Ram

A developer built a mouse-click pattern unlock system for a Linux laptop without biometric sensors. Using Python and the evdev library, a ~150-line daemon reads raw mouse events from /dev/input/, checks lock state via loginctl, and unlocks the screen when a secret click sequence is entered. It runs as a systemd service and works on Wayland. The project was built with Claude Code on Fedora + KDE Plasma.

Mouse Unlock!—no password, just a secret click pattern

Really fun and interesting implementation.

This is awesome! Super cool idea. You could implement more external devices to this too, like a music keyboard where you have to play a tune to unlock your computer 😂

I like the idea tha this open up to new shortcut possibilities inside the OS.
Maybe execute a n app with a combination of clicks?

Love the idea! I wish it could be compliant with my company security policy, it would save a lot of typing 🙄

you need to incorporate speed aside from just click combinations.
2 fast left click != 2 left click.
now it’s harder to brute force.
if you want to add more factor, incorporate long presses. Now it’s like morse code