Re: [gdm-list] GDM smartcard hack

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Geoff:

> > You probably need to hack the PAM module if you want a 
> > different label.
> > It'd be gross to change the prompt in the GDM GUI code, I'd think.
>
> I didn't want to change labels, just wondering if it is possible to not
> display an edit field until one is actually needed (ie, when a PIN is
> requested, not before). But on reflection "until one is actually needed"
> is too hard to figure out. 

I would entertain enhancing GDM to do special things like this if people
figure out ways to make it work cleanly and generically with PAM.  I do
not plan to accept patches that hack GDM to work with specific PAM
modules.

> > PamStack was added in 2.14.5.  I'd recommend using this version (the
> > latest 2.16 release would be better) since it has code like this to
> > support things like SmartCard, dynamic PAM stack modification, etc.
>
> Thanks for the info. I'll look into supporting later versions. 

You could probably patch your older GDM to have this PamStack feature
if you wanted.  Though the per-display configuration stuff is very
useful for supporting SmartCard in multi-display environments.  You
could also backport that work, but it would be a bit of work to do.

I'd recommend just moving to the newer GDM, which is designed to better
support SmartCard style setups.

Brian