phpMyAdmin: No activity within 1440 seconds; please log in again

Problem

phpMyAdmin’s “No activity within 1440 seconds; please log in again” message is slowly but definitely driving you crazy. How to remain sane?

Solution

Increase the time limit. Open the file /etc/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php and add the following line to its end:

$cfg['LoginCookieValidity'] = 60 * 60 * 8;  // in seconds (8 hours)

Here I set 8 hours, but you can change that.

When you log in again in phpMyAdmin, this new value will be taken into account.