I have multiple computers, so I can easily ssh into my desktop when the screensaver password is hanging and won’t let me log in.
The not-so-new trick has been to use AppleScript on the command line to not-so-harshly close some applications (run osascript
, then tell application "program name" to quit
, followed by ctrl-D (EOF).
The new trick is to sudo kill SecurityAgent, sudo run SecurityAgent, put the machine to sleep, then wake it back up (necessary to get SecurityAgent to put up a new password window).