Re: [gdm-list] Turn off user list in greeter

[Dan Nicholson <dbn lists gmail com>]

On Sat, May 30, 2009 at 3:50 PM, Ray Strode <halfline gmail com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
>>>> Anybody want to create a patch for the docs/C/gdm.xml file to include
>>>> the example?  I think the manual would be easier to understand if it
>>>> provided more clear examples like this.
>>>
>>> FWIW, it would probably be pretty simple to take the old gdmsetup code
>>> and revamp it to just operate on gconf instead of the configuration
>>> files.
>>
>> I would love to see any proposal.
> I don't think it's a good idea.  The party line is that we want to
> *integrate* gdm with the rest of the desktop.  It shouldn't seem like
> some disjoint application separate from the rest of the system.  In
> that same vein, we shouldn't add a monolithic gdmsetup tool.  That's
> why it was removed in the first place.  What we really need is to
>
> 1) get some incarnation of the patch in bug 536531 upstream, for
> setting the background
> 2) get a new user account dialog written that covers things like auto login
> 3) get the display configuration stuff halton's working on fleshed out
> and finished (i hope to spend some time helping with that next week)

I would agree that integrating gdm to the rest of the desktop is a
great thing, but you have to admit two problems:

1. There is currently no UI for controlling most of gdm. Setting the
desktop background from control-center sounds reasonable, but the
preference for showing the user list? At some point you have to have a
separate capplet or application specific to the display manager. I
only suggested using gdmsetup because the code already exists and
currently there's nothing.

2. gdm is not actually a desktop application. There's only a certain
amount integration possible there. Not to mention that settings have
to be applied either system wide or to a different user (gdm). Kind of
tough to manage from a user's session. I was imagining more of a
configuration dialog from run from the greeter rather than an
application you launch from your session.

--
Dan