Re: [gdm-list] gdmdynamic questions

[Yan Seiner <yan seiner com>]

Yan Seiner wrote:
> On Thu, October 2, 2008 9:09 am, Brian Cameron wrote:
>   
> > >       
> > No technical reason.  In fact, some of the work has been done, I think.
> > If you want to try it out, there are some patches in this bug report:
> >
> > http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=336174
> >
> > Nobody ever got the patches to production quality, but it will at least
> > point you towards the relevant code.  If you or anyone wants to help
> > finish off this work, we could get this fixed in the 2.20 branch since
> > it does seem to be an often requested feature.
> >     
>
> Thanks Brian.  From looking at the bug report, it doesn't look too
> difficult.  I have to set up a development environment for gnome, but
> again, not too difficult.
>
> I live in the PNWC so with winter coming, I'll have less outdoor stuff to
> do.  At least until the snow builds up in the mountains....  :-)
>
> I'll take a shot at it.
>
>   
Brian:

I've started working with the 2.20.8 codebase.  I guess there was a 
complete rewrite between 2.20 and 2.21....

I'm trying to figure this out.  I've added a new parameter to the 
[server] handling code (basically cribbed your device= code) that simply 
prints out a test string.

If I call gdm with

[server]
0=Standard
1=Standard test=ABCDEF

Then things work as I would expect - the string ABCDEF is printed on the 
terminal.

But if I comment out server 1 and try it with gdmdynamic, the server 
fails to start.

gdmdynamic -a "1=Standard test=ZYXWVU"
gdmdynamic -r "1"

then either nothing happens (X fails to start) or gdm crashes.

gdmdynamic passes the string to the gdm daemon via gdmcomm_call_gdm.  I 
can't find the other end of the connection.  Obviously pushing the 1=... 
string to gdm via gdmdynamic is different than pulling it from the 
config file  but where does the gdm daemon listen for and parse the 
connection?  Without a roadmap to the code it's pretty convoluted....  :-(

Also, is the 2.20.X codebase in the process of being replaced by the 
rewritten code of 2.21+?  Ideally this would want a significant rewrite 
of the config file parser to allow gdmdynamic the full range of options 
available via the .conf file, but if the codebase is on its way out I 
would rather just hack something up than spend a huge amount of time 
rewriting the config file parser.

Thanks,

--Yan