Re: [gdm-list] Re: gdm user and pass fields together

["Philippe C. Martin" <pmartin snakecard com>]

On Tuesday 04 October 2005 12:10 am, Brian Cameron wrote:
> I'm no power Windows user, but when I've used the XP login screen, the
> username and password fields are not displayed at the same time.  It seems
> to work similar to how GDM works.  Though perhaps it can be configured
> differently than how I've seen it work.
They do, with the domain also.

>However, keep in mind that GDM depends upon PAM for authentication.  The
>idea behind PAM is that the PAM module determines how authentication
>happens.  In theory, you should be able to write a PAM module that
>authenticates the user via eye-scanner or gets the username from a
>smartcard rather than making the user type it in.  It may be possible to
>write a PAM module that prompts the username and password at the same time.
>Assuming GDM properly implements the PAM interface, then GDM should
>"just work" and let the PAM module drive the authentication process.  I'm
>not sure many people have written custom PAM modules to be used with GDM,
>so doing this properly might expose some problems in GDM that need fixing.
>
>I would recommend that if people are interested in making GDM work this 
>way, that the first step would be to explore the topic on a PAM mailing
>list and see how this could be done within the PAM framework.  Assuming
>it is possible, writing up the PAM module and getting it to work with
>GDM would be the next step.  I would be happy to help with the efforts,
>but someone who really wants this feature should drive figuring out the
>proper solution.  Personally I'd be more interested in helping by working
>on the bugs that will cause GDM to not work well with custom PAM modules
>than writing the PAM module part.  I'm pretty sure bugs are there.

Could you explain where gdm passes control to PAM ? (I'm a newbie) - I have 
somewhat of the same issue: I need to control the "look" of the dialog box 
and then talk to my smart card, authenticate the user, retrieve the username, 
password .... information and launch the session.

Are you saying all of this should be done in a PAM module ?

Is there a PAM list/site you would suggest ?

Philippe


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Philippe C. Martin
SnakeCard, LLC
www.snakecard.com
+1 405 694 8098
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