I am wondering if there is any way I can lock the computer (logout but keep the apps running) from a shell. I want to be able to do this via ssh from another computer.

Using KDE 3.3.2 on Debian Sarge.

maybe xlock would do the trick? (man xlock)

No, not really. No such command in my path at least and not on my slack box too. No such package to install via apt-get.

maybe it's in screensaver or xscreensaver? don't have a linux box to check right now.

EDIT: Oh, and couldn't you use screen for this?

Hm.. I am not sure if you understood my questions. Here is what I have: I have a computer with KDE, inlogged most of the time. When I am at my laptop I want to be able to ssh to it and lock the screen, letting all the apps keep running but make sure that no one can use it without typing a password. I would then need to go to the box and login, but I want to be able to lock the screen remotely.

I am aware that xscreensaver is used to lock the screen and I have that installed and it works. But I can't lock it remotely. I found a few commands to lock the screen from a shell but then it needed to be typed in locally.

Maybe I am being a little fuzzy here?

you can use the -display argument to lock a certain screen with xlock/x-screensaver-lock/whatever the command is.