Re: [gdm-list] Adding button functionality

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Robert:

> I'm sorry to bother ya'll with this seemingly newbie question but I've thus far been
> unable to find an answer. I've been researching whether or not it is possible to add 
> a configurable button to GDM. A button that can be defined to execute whatever command 
> string I'd like. I know that themes can be created to change the look & feel of GDM 
> but I haven't been able to find out if it's possible to do what I'd like to do. To be
> more specific, we have systems on IP-based video switches. Sitting at one terminal I 
> have access to a Linux host as well as a seperate physical Windows host. To switch
> between either computer on the same screens I execute a script that tells the video 
> switch to change the feed. My main issue is currently I need to be logged in to 
> perform the switch. That being said, If I log out of the linux host I cannot switch 
> to the windows host without logging back in and thus leaving my linux session open. 
> I could however add the executable to PostSession but their may be an instance 
> where one would just want to log out and not switch the video feed. To be honest 
> I obviously have the same issue with the windows system and that basically means 
> that there will always be one host logged in. So basically I'm looking for a bit 
> more flexibility on the linux side rather than forcing a switch on logout. The 
> more I think about it, the more PostSession makes sense, however the question 
> still stands.

The gdmgreeter Custom Widgetry feature might suit your needs.  It's not
a button, but a drop down list you can select from a list of choices.

http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/docs/2.20/thememanual.html#customwidgetry

This just saves the information in a file, so you can access the choice
from the PreSession/PostSession scripts to make the login process behave
differently.

Aside from that you could modify the Init script to launch an additional
GUI program you could write (perhaps with zenity) to collect a user
choice and save it aside somewhere, then you could process the choice in
the PreSession/PostSession scripts.

Also, the GDM configuration supports "Custom Commands" which might meet
your needs.  You might be able to get this to work as you need.

http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/docs/2.20/configuration.html#customcmdsection

Aside from that, I'm not sure of any other hooks that would meet your
need.

Does this help?

Brian