Re: [gdm-list] Changing the login screen

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Akash:

> But what should I do know as my ubuntu just hangs during booting ,
> should I reinstall?
> I am running Ubuntu 9.10 on Vmplayer.

Re-installing will likely get your system working again.  However, if
you plan on doing development work with GDM, then it might be worthwhile
for you to investigate the problem, and try to debug and fix it.

One unfortunate reality about doing development work on GDM is that
it can be more difficult than working on most other programs.  Since
GDM is the first GUI program that runs on the system, it is not
uncommon to debug problems with it starting up.

Debugging programs that are run in a normal user session is easier
since you can have multiple terminal windows open and you can easily
run the debugger and an application in separate windows.  However, to
do this with GDM, you often need to debug from the system console or
use ssh or telnet from a second machine to attach to running GDM
processes.  So, doing GDM development is more cumbersome.

So, in short, it will likely be difficult for you to do much
development work on GDM if you do not learn how to debug and fix these
sorts of problems.

Brian


> On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 5:33 AM, Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron sun com
> <mailto:Brian Cameron sun com>> wrote:
>
>
>     Akash:
>
>
>         Thanks for replying back .
>         One more thing , I installed the gdm from source (./configure ,
>         make ,
>         make install).
>         But now when I restart it just shows a blank screen after ubuntu
>         logo
>         (Ubuntu 9.10) .
>         Is it because I didn't uninstall the previous version of gdm before
>         installing from source ?
>
>
>     It is hard to say.  In general, it is probably best to uninstall the
>     previous version of GDM before installing a new version.
>
>     Each distro has its own unique configuration for modules like GDM, so
>     problems could be related to how GDM was configured, or how your distro
>     integrates with GDM.  For example, if the system assumes that GDM is
>     installed to a particular file location, you may have problems if you
>     have installed it to a different place.  Also, each distro may apply
>     distro-specific patches to GDM, and it may not work without applying
>     such patches.  If you find it is not working, then it might be a good
>     idea to check with your distro and make sure that you apply any patches
>     needed for GDM to operate well on your platform.
>
>     You could try editing your /etc/gdm/custom.conf file so it contains
>     these lines:
>
>     [debug]
>     Enable=true
>
>     This will cause GDM to append debug messages to your syslog (the
>     /var/log/messages file )Then cause GDM to fail again.  After it fails,
>     you can check the gdm-related messages at the bottom of the syslog
>     file and see if it helps you understand why it might be failing.
>     You can share such debug output with us on this mailing list, and
>     we can help analyze the debug output if it isn't clear what the
>     problem is.
>
>     Brian
>
>
>         On Tue, Feb 9, 2010 at 2:03 AM, Brian Cameron
>         <Brian Cameron sun com <mailto:Brian Cameron sun com>
>         <mailto:Brian Cameron sun com <mailto:Brian Cameron sun com>>>
>         wrote:
>
>
>             Akash:
>
>
>                 I was just browsing through the code of GDM . What I
>         want to do is ,
>                 take the username and password from the user in a gtk window
>                 (like the
>                 explorer one ) instead of the usual login procedure. So
>         I was
>                 searching
>                 through the code as to where can I do this , but am lost
>         with
>                 the code ,
>                 can anybody help me with that ?
>
>
>             GDM makes use of PAM for authentication.  GDM just blindly
>         displays
>             whatever prompts (username/password/etc.) that PAM is
>         configured to
>             display.  You should be able to refer to the pam.d or
>         pam.conf manpage
>             for more information.
>
>             If you wish to modify how GDM prompts the user, this would
>         require
>             either configuring PAM differently, or modifying GDM to not
>         use PAM.
>
>             Note that you could probably find more PAM-focused forums
>         where you
>             would likely find better help with PAM specific questions
>         than on this
>             mailing list.
>
>             Brian
>
>
>
>
>         --
>         Best Regards
>         Akash Gangil
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Best Regards
> Akash Gangil