Re: [gdm-list] gdmflexiserver questions

["simon.zheng" <Simon Zheng Sun COM>]

Reid Rivenburgh wrote:
> > > 2. I noticed my machine was slowly using up memory.  It seems that
> > > everytime I run "gdmflexiserver -s", I get a whole new X session
> > > running.  When I log back in as me, it doesn't go away, so they're
> > > building up over time.  At the moment, I have six metacity processes
> > > running (and I run fvwm!), which is how I've been monitoring this.
> > > I've noticed that when I run "gdmflexiserver -s", it almost
> > > immediately shows the gdm login screen, but then I see a new X server
> > > starting, and after a few seconds, I again see the gdm login.  I
> > > thought at first that it was just killing and restarting the X server
> > > for some reason, but now I suspect it's creating a new one each time.
> > > Does anyone know why this might be happening?
> > >
> > >       
> > What you are seeing might be switch Xserver rather than killing
> > and restarting Xserver.
> >
> > In fact, login screen is running like a real gnome-session,
> > called greeter-session. When starting gdmflexiserver, it will
> > detect whether or not greeter-session exists. If yes, just
> > switch to there. Otherwise, create a new greeter-session and
> > then switch.
> >     
>
> That's what seems to be broken for me right now.  It looks like it's
> showing the existing greeter-session, but then it starts a new one.
> After testing that a few times this morning, now I get this in my
> xterm when trying to run gdmflexiserver:
>
> % gdmflexiserver
>
> ** (gdmflexiserver:30519): WARNING **: Unable to determine session:
> Unable to lookup session information for process '30519'
> ** (gdmflexiserver:30519): DEBUG: seat id is not set; can't switch sessions
>
> And I get a dialog that says "Could not identify the current session."
>  So now it's not just starting new, extraneous X servers, it's
> completely broken.  I don't know what might have broken it.  If you
> know of any log file info or anything else that could help diagnose
> this, let me know.  I haven't manually killed any processes, and I
> still have 8 metacity processes running that should all be associated
> with gdm sessions.
>   

You probably meet the same issue as me before. Please refer to
ConsoleKit problem.
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=15866

Session is identified by a cookie, which is stored in envrionment
variable "XDG_SESSION_COOKIE". Cookie is created by session leader,
such as gdm-session-worker for gnome-session, gdm-simple-greeter
for greeter-session. But "XDG_SESSION_COOKIE" is likely lost in
their child process or grandchild process. Once loss, a session
can't be identified.

>   
> > > 3. Assuming I can get things running properly, I've been a little
> > > confused about what scripts run when.  I was hoping the
> > > gdm/Init/Default and related scripts get run every time I run the
> > > gdmflexiserver command.  It doesn't seem like they do, though.  Is
> > > that correct?  Basically, after running gdmflexiserver, I want to turn
> > > off the monitor after sleeping for a short time.  I get the feeling
> > > that DPMS doesn't work if you simply change VT to a display that
> > > thinks the monitor is already off (i.e. past the idle time) unless you
> > > hit a key or move the mouse to reset the idle counter.
> > >
> > >       
> > You can try with GPM display management. That would be easier
> > than writing a script. What you need to do is just set from
> > gnome-power-preferences.
> >
> > Also, GPM can be even run on login screen. When you stay on
> > login screen for a long time, monitor will sleep after a
> > specified idleness time.
> >     
>
> Yes, that would be ideal.  I even added a default DPMS line to my
> xorg.conf.  But what I'm afraid is happening is as I explained above
> (which could be wrong): If I switch from the VT with my X session to
> an existing gdm-greeter session using gdmflexiserver, it seems like
> the gdm X server thinks it's been idle for a long period of time and
> as a result doesn't ever turn off the monitor.  If I hit a key or move
> the mouse, that resets the idle counter and it will.  If a new X
> server were to be started, then that wouldn't be a possibility, of
> course, but it would also take several seconds to start up and show
> the login.  (Not that that's how gdm/gdmflexiserver works, just
> stating it.)
>   

When a session transfers from inactive to active state, perhaps
some applications aren't aware of this. In your case, if
applications are able to receive "ActiveChanged" from
"org.freedesktop.ConsoleKit.Session" and then reset timer,
things would be OK. AFAIK, HAL seems to already do in this
way. Request action from inactive session would be refused
by HAL.

Could you file a bug to let maintainer evaluate?

>   
> > > 4. When I try to run a gdmflexiserver command, I get this:
> > >
> > > % gdmflexiserver --command VERSION
> > >
> > > ** (gdmflexiserver:15043): WARNING **: No longer supported
> > >
> > > Is that supposed to happen?
> > >
> > >       
> > You could try with
> > $gdmflexiserver --version
> >     
>
> Well, that's a workaround for that one!  But I've seen references to
> other commands you can pass in, too.  I seem to be collecting gdm
> sessions, so I was wondering if I could use a gdm command to list them
> and possibly delete extras.  No matter what I do, though, I get the
> "no longer supported" message.
>   

Since GDM 2.22 scratched and rewrote, some interfaces changed a
lot, Old socket-based command controlling is replaced by dbus
interface.I suspect references you said is only for old GDM.

I encourage you propose your idea or even patch to maintainer.
Here's a TODO list. http://live.gnome.org/GDM/ToDo

Probably preceding user switching button should be added too.

Thanks,
-Simon