ANNOUNCE: GDM 2.2.5.3, the "Polythene Pam" release

[George <jirka 5z com>]

PAMPAMPAMPAMPAMPAMPAMPAMPAMPAMBLAAAAAAAAAM

It's been a few releases since the last rework of the pam stuff in gdm.  One
of these days, I am going to get it right.  Here is my latest attempt.  The
biggest change of this release is the gdm-autologin pam configuration.  This
is a pam file that allows logins without a password.  Here you set up what
needs to be done to autologin people.  This is because we can't apparently
just skip the authentication in the code without some adverse effects.

Other then that I've tried to keep things to just bugfixes, as I expect
the majority of new work to happen on the new development branch.

And now for the standard part of the release announcement:

Ahh, so you have no clue what gdm is?  Well if you've read this far ... let's
not get into that.  Gdm is GNOME Display Manager, the little daemon that lets
you log in to your computer.  It allows xdmcp multiple login displays,
selection of languages, multiple login sessions and generally is much cooler
then any xdm clone out there, mostly cuz it isn't an xdm clone to begin with.
I mean heck, it's even got a graphical configurator, so you don't have to use
the command line to hose your system anymore.

News:
=====

Highlights of 2.2.5.3:

- PAM support revamped.  Session open and credentials are done before
  we do anything else.  Also we work on one pam handle only, and
  yet again switch setcred/open_session order (Karsten Petersen, me)

- Autologin is now done with a separate pam configuration.  gdm-autologin
  service.  This just logs anyone in without asking for a password,
  but this makes autologin work on some all wankered pam setup.  Of course
  you must now modify gdm-autologin in addition to 'gdm' if you have
  some weird pam setup.

- Fix gdmconfig saving of server definitions

- Add possibility of multiline welcome message by use of '\n'

- Use the text dialog interface for more errors including the toplevel
  loop of death

- Fix a USR2 race in the slave if the main daemon is already dead
  (this makes 'killall gdm' work right)

- Translation updates (Kjartan Maraas, Gustavo Maciel Dias Vieira,
  Abel Cheung, Christian Rose, Duarte Loreto, Christian Meyer,
  Stanislav Visnovsky, Peteris Krisjanis, Artis Trops, Akira TAGOH, 
  Göran Uddeborg, Ole Laursen)

Note:  Gdm2 was originally written by Martin K. Petersen <mkp mkp net>, and
is now maintained by the Queen of England.  Although when she's not answering
her email, me or Lee Mellabone usually cover for her.

Note2:  If installing from the tarball do note that make install overwrites
most of the setup files, all except gdm.conf and gnomerc.  It will however
save
backups with the .orig extension first.

Note3:  Distributors, packagers.  Please, PLEASE use the standard Gnome
script
when setting things up as gnome, or at least equivalently working scripts.
It
should never be OK to just exec gnome-session, that is considered bad form.
The script needs to read (if available) the ~/.gnomerc and otherwise read
the <sysconfdir>/gdm/gnomerc file.  This allows users and administrators to
setup custom startup for gnome.  Another thing is that if your distro
doesn't have gnome-core 1.4.0.3 or later you should probably disable the
Gnome
Chooser stuff until that happens (you should update gnome-core anyway).
Third
thing is make sure to set up the X servers to run on the correct virtual
terminals if you start the gdm process before the other login thingies.  See
the end of the gdm.conf sample file.

Downloading:
============

ftp://ftp.5z.com/pub/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/sources/gdm/
(soon) http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/redhat/i386/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/redhat/alpha/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/redhat/SRPMS/gdm/

BTW: i386 RPMS aren't done yet, they'll magically appear when I get to it,
or when someone else does it :)  (The .tar.gz is known to magically create
rpms with "rpm -ta foo.tar.gz")

Have fun,

George

PS:  Since the tarball has grown yet another 150k to a whooping 2463198
bytes, I urge people to download it in several parts as not to overheat your
connection cable.  Once you succeed in downloading it, spray it with ample
amounts of RAID to get rid of any bugs that could have been attracted to this
new release.  If you notice any security holes when inspecting the surface,
use a piece of duct tape to cover these before turning it on.  Only use in a
well ventilated area.  Adult supervision is required if used by children
under the age of 13.  We will not be responsible for any damage to you,
your property or the space-time continuum resulting from the use of
this product.  Void where prohibited.  Please send $5.00 for shipping
and handling.  If you wish not to be handled, please send some beer.

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   If you think nobody cares if you're alive,
   try missing a couple of car payments.
                       -- Earl Wilson