Re: gscreensaver :: a bit of a mockup

[Shahms King <shahms shahms com>]

On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 10:39, Sean Middleditch wrote:
> On Tue, 2004-05-04 at 13:19, Davyd Madeley wrote:

> > How does gdm handle more non-standard auth methods?
> 
> I'm fairly sure it works using the standard PAM calls.  PAM will kick
> back a challenge ("Password:") and GDM asks the user for it.  This is
> why GDM doesn't have the username and password on the same screen, but
> instead only shows the password entry after entering the username: PAM
> doesn't send the first challenge until after its given a username. 
> Altho modules do have the ability to request multiple inputs at once,
> there isn't a guarantee that they will actually do so.  (Though it would
> be nice if they did, as login managers and such could then more
> consistently provide single dialogs for authentication.)

This is what GDM does, however, it is currently rather kludgy in how it
does it.  It actually checks for the string 'Password:' coming from PAM
as a 'hidden' prompt.  In other words, if you put say, pam_l33t.so in
your stack and get a 'P455w0rd:' prompt, GDM will have no idea what to
do with it. (Or this was the case the last time I checked the code)

-- 
Shahms King <shahms shahms com>