Re: [gdm-list] modifying login process

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Patrick:

Not sure which version of GDM you are using, but the best docs to
reference are here:

  http://library.gnome.org/admin/gdm/

Note in the "Configuration" section of the version you are using
there are the following script interfaces:

- Init       - This runs after the Xserver starts but before the login
               GUI is presented to the user.  This script is not aware
               of what user is logging in since it is run before the
               login screen is presented.
- PreSession - This runs after the user authenticates but before the
               user session is started.  This script is passed in the
               user who will be logged in via the USER environment
               variable.

There are also PostSession and PostLogin scripts, but I do not think
they are what you would want to use.  You can read about them, though,
in the docs.

If you run a GUI program in either script, then the GUI will run
and block GDM from continuing until the user exits the launched GUI.
This provides a mechanism for you to launch your own GUI to do setup.
Note both scripts run as root, so you have permission to do any setup
needed.

Since you want to run your script and be aware of the user who will
be logging in, I would think you would want to use the PreSession
script.

You could save a dot-file in the user's $HOME directory or in
/var/tmp/$USER-wizard-complete or something to indicate that the user
completed the wizard so that on future logins the script could
determine that it should not run the wizard program again, if that is
the sort of behavior you want.

Also, as Halton mentioned before, there is the autostart mechanism.
However, programs started via autostart run along with the login GUI
and users could avoid running your GUI and just login.  Running this
way, your wizard becomes optional.  Using the Init or PreSession hooks
would force the user to complete the setup before GDM would allow the
login process to continue, which I think is what you want.

Brian


On 01/14/10 15:09, Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I got stuck in a loop looking for gdm documentation on the wiki so I am
> asking here instead :-)
>
> I have a project that requires a wizard interface for the user to
> configure system settings prior to starting the desktop session. I would
> appreciate some feedback on whether modifying gdm is the correct
> location for this process to happen.
>
> The plan is to display the wizard when gdm starts and guide the user
> through a set of questions to configure the system settings before
> logging into the desktop. It's important that the user only has to login
> once and not to login, change the config, logout, login again.
>
> Do you recommend modifying gdm for this purpose?
> Could I run anaconda over gdm with auto login post wizard?
>
> I also need to be able to force the wizard to display every time the
> session is dropped back to gdm ex. inactivity timeout is reached, user
> logs out.
>
>
> Any thought or tips on making this happen will be greatly appreciated.
>
>
> Cheers.