[gdm/wip/initial-setup2] initial-setup: Add some notes

[Matthias Clasen <matthiasc src gnome org>]

commit 1fcdd7e0d4c987fec32e9ad5bded7b83e0032519
Author: Matthias Clasen <mclasen redhat com>
Date:   Sun Apr 15 20:52:06 2012 -0400

    initial-setup: Add some notes

 gui/initial-setup/README |   74 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 1 files changed, 74 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-)
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diff --git a/gui/initial-setup/README b/gui/initial-setup/README
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+Initial setup
+-------------
+
+The first time a new system is booted is a special situation. There is
+no user account yet, and a few basic setup steps need to be performed
+before it can be considered fully usable. The initial-setup mode is an
+attempt to solve these problems.
+
+When in initial-setup mode, gdm does not bring up the regular greeter
+for the login screen, but instead starts the gdm-initial-setup application
+in a special session. gdm-initial-setup offers a series of steps to
+
+1. Create a new user account
+2. Connect to the network
+3. Set the right location/timezone
+4. Set up online accounts
+
+In terms of the user experience, we want the initial setup to seamlessly
+switch to the regular user session. In particular, we don't want to
+make the user enter his credentials again on the login screen.
+
+We can't run the gdm-initial-setup application with the correct user,
+since the user account does not exist yet at that time. Therefore, gdm
+creates a temporary gdm-initial-setup user, and runs gdm-initial-setup
+as that user. When gdm-inital-setup is done, it then initiates an autologin
+for the newly created user account to switch to the 'real' session.
+gdm removes the temporary gdm-initial-setup user before switching to
+the real session.
+
+Due to this arrangement, we need to copy all the settings that have been
+changed during the initial setup session from the gdm-initial-setup
+user to the real user.
+
+Mechanics
+---------
+
+To enable the initial-setup functionality in gdm, set
+
+InitialSetupEnable=True
+
+in the [daemon] section of /etc/gdm/custom.conf. To actually
+trigger the initial-setup, gdm additionally looks for the file
+/etc/gdm/run-initial-setup. gdm removes this file after the
+initial setup has been performed.
+
+The session that gdm starts for the initial-setup session is
+defined by the file /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gdm-setup.session.
+Like the regular greeter session, it uses the desktop files in
+/usr/share/gdm/greeter/applications/
+
+Before starting the initial-setup session, gdm copies the file
+/usr/share/gdm/20-gdm-initial-setup.pkla into the PolicyKit
+configuration to provide suitable permissions for the gdm-initial-setup
+user. The pkla file is removed again together with the gdm-initial-setup
+user account.
+
+TODO
+----
+
+- Copying the settings from the gdm-initial-setup account to the newly
+  created user account is not implemented
+
+- Automatic detection of location/timezone (using geoclue) is not
+  implemented
+
+- gnome-shell needs a somewhat slimmed down mode that is more suitable
+  to the setup scenario. It should be similar to gdm-mode in that it
+  will not show activitites or the user menu or the calendar. But it
+  should (obviously) not present a user list and act as a greeter.
+
+- The network connection needs to be moved before the user account setup,
+  and network login needs to be added
+
+- The summary screen should offer a 'tour' of the desktop.