Re: FUSA vs. GDM

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

James:

Hello.  I'm the GDM maintainer, and this interface breakage was
caused by me.  I can get a new version of GDM that fixes this
problem released tomorrow.

> So GDM has changed it's method of handling configuration in the last
> couple months. The config file has been split into three (factory,
> distro, and local) which get merged into the actual config.

I believe it has only been split into 2.  /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf
and /etc/gdm/custom.conf.  The factory configuration file is
simply a copy of the originally installed file so that you can revert
back to the original settings if you like.  But it isn't accessed by
GDM when it runs.

GDM will use the values in the /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf file
unless the key/value pair is defined in the /etc/gdm/gdm.conf file.

The advantages of splitting the file like this is that the custom.conf
file is normally empty, and has no key values.  If you use gdmsetup
it will update the custom.conf file with the updated key/value pair.
This way your distro can update the defaults.conf file without
breaking your customizations.  This is useful for when new keys
get added to the GDM configuration, or if the default configuration
needs to change for whatever reason (e.g. security).  It also makes it
possible for multiple machines to share the same GDM configuration
defaults file if the /usr/share directory is mounted across multiple
machines.

> The documentation includes a section on interface stability which
> specifically mentions the location of the config file and the
> configuration keys/values therein, but as of 2.13.0.8 that appears to be
> out the window.

That interface stability comment was added to the version *after* the
change to the location of the configuration files.  But your point
is well taken.  I will modify GDM so that if the /etc/gdm/gdm.conf
file exists on the system it will use that instead of
/etc/gdm/custom.conf.

> Like everyone else, I don't bother compiling GDM because I never
> considered it worth the frustration of running a developmental display
> manager. Obviously this was a mistake, because I didn't find out about
> this problem until this evening, when someone filed a bug against RC2,
> letting me know FUSA simply does not work anymore.
>
> The quick solution to this particular problem is to drop FUSA from 2.14,
> and disable user-switching from gnome-screensaver until 2.16, but I'm
> open to other solutions if someone else out there knows a way that
> doesn't involve a huge chunk of code changing two weeks before a final
> release.

It's not clear to me exactly what problem you are having.  I'm guessing
that it is because you depend on configuration settings in the gdm.conf
file which are being ignored since GDM no longer looks at that file.

Simply copying the user's /etc/gdm/gdm.conf file to /etc/gdm/custom.conf
will workaround the problem until I correct it in the next release of
GDM.

Again, apologies for the trouble.

Brian