Re: [Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>] problem with session management ingnome-1.4beta1

[Vlad Harchev <hvv hippo ru>]

On Mon, 5 Mar 2001, Vlad Harchev wrote:

 Hi,

 Here is a Gnome session script (based on Gnome session script from the GDM
from 1.4beta1) that allows user to select which gnome session to load (a list
of gnome sessions is presented in GtkCList, default session is marked with "*"
and can be activated by pressing "Cancel" or hitting Escape).

 Unfortunately gdialog is slightly broken - it doesn't allow to prevent
displaying "tag" field in a serparate column, to interpret doubleclick
as shorthand for "OK", and to disallow "Cancel" button. But it could be fixed
- at least in gnome mode, and even without fixing it the selection is fairly
usable.

 To George: what do you think about including this script with GDM (may be
under the name "Gnome-Multisessioned")?

> On Mon, 5 Mar 2001, Glynn Foster wrote:
> 
> > >  OK, then my memory is corrupted (I'm not 100% sure that gnp was
> > > restarting, but I have an impression that it did) and gnotepad wasn't
> > > restarting for me. I'm sorry for confusion then.
> > 
> > Okay...maybe it's me who's confused...I didn't have either on my system 
> > and assumed gnotepad is the same as gnp?....In any case, it's a fault of
> > the original application and their implementation of the save_yourself
> > command [see libgnomeui/gnome-client.h]
> 
>  Yes, gnp is gnotepad. I was able to test gnp and old gnome - and yes, gnp
> also wasn't loaded when session with it was started. 
>  
> > >  Hmm, just tried again. I'm getting impression that in order to restart named
> > > session, I have to use gnome-session with some argument from commandline,
> > > since when I select another default session in gnomecc (having "save session
> > > on logout" unchecked), logout and login, and get the session I just left
> > > (since it's apprently was saved).
> > > 
> > >  What I (and probably all users) expected is when I logout (just after
> > > changing a name of default session via gnomecc), the session I quit gets saved
> > > under previous "default session name" (or the one I was started), so that
> > > when I login next time, I get another session (a state that was saved in
> > > recently-became-new "default session"); in reality (behaviour of gnome-1.4b1)
> > > the session I quit seems to get saved under new "default session name" - i.e.
> > > when I login I'll get the session with state I just quit. This means
> > > that without involving gnome-session from commandline user won't see ANY
> > > visible trace of named session support.
> > >  Also it seems that "save session" options gets useless (since gnome-session
> > > ignores it and save session unconditionally). (I.e. having that option
> > > unchecked and "don't ask to confirm saving session" checked and without
> > > changing name of "default session", session still gets saved.
> > > 
> > 
> > Okay...the way it *should* work is the following -
> > 
> > gnomecc get the list of saved sessions from the ~/.gnome/session file and
> > highlights the current session you have loaded. It then gives you an
> > opportunity of being able to edit the name of the current session, adding
> > new sessions and editing existing sessions. This only affects
> > ~/.gnome/session file. When you highlight a session, it changes the name
> > of the session that gnome-session holds in memory and also changes the
> > ~/.gnome/session-options file.
> > 
> > So in order to change to a different session, you must highlight the
> > session you want [which most importantly changes the CurrentSession
> > key/value pair in ~/.gnome/session-options], make sure that the autosave
> > check box is off and then logout. Upon logging back in again, you *should*
> > get the new session you previously highlighted with associating
> > applications.
> > 
> > But what is currently happening is that gnome-session is saving on logout
> > [and seems to have a habit of saving at other times too] regardless of
> > what you do. This is a bug which I've been trying to fix [although not
> > very successfully].
>  
>  Thanks for an explanation - the scheme you described sounds like exactly
> what's needed. I hope it won't be too hard to fix gsm.
> 
> > The --choose-session=ARG is really designed for remote displays. Actually
> > it would be nice to be able to select a session to load from gdm, but
> > that's not a beta issue ;)
> 
>  We can hack script that starts gnome-session to start 'gdialog' (kinda
> 'xmessage' program for GUI interaction from shell scripts) popping a GtkCList
> of saved sessions (if there are more than one session stored), and use the
> user choice as ARG in gnome-session --choose-session=ARG. That's only 10 lines
> of shell code, that will bring us that flexibility, without the need for
> hacking any desktop manager. What do you think about this?
> 
> > 
> > > Multisession support in theory is very cool feature to me, and all I
> > > have to dream now is reality matching that theory :)
> > 
> > And a misery to code :/ [or maybe that's just gsm...]
> 
>  Good luck fixing all this :)
>  
> > 
> > 			See ya,
> > 				Glynn ;)
> > 
> 
>  Best regards,
>   -Vlad
> 
> 

 Best regards,
  -Vlad

#!/bin/bash -login

for errfile in "$HOME/.gnomerc-errors" "${TMPDIR-/tmp}/gnomerc-$USER" "/tmp/gnomerc-$USER"
do
	if ( cp /dev/null "$errfile" 2> /dev/null )
	then
		chmod 600 "$errfile"
		exec > "$errfile" 2>&1
		break
	fi
done

sessfile=$HOME/.gnome/session
if which gdialog >/dev/null 2>&1 && [ -f $sessfile ] ; then
    #we can provide a selection of sessions to load.
    selected=$(
    grep '^\[' $sessfile  | sed -e 's/^\[\(.*\)\]$/\1/' | sort | 
    (
	args="--title 'Select gnome session to restore' \
    	    --radiolist 'select a gnome session to restore' 100 100 20 "
        if [ -r  $sessfile-"options" ]; then
	    #user cancelled seleciton for some reason - use default session
    	    defaultsession=`grep "CurrentSession" $sessfile-"options" | 
	    sed  -e 's/^CurrentSession=//'`
	fi
	    
	while read S; do
	    if [ x"$defaultsession" = x"$S" ]; then
		#mark default session with this
		tag="*"
	    else
		tag=""
	    fi
    	    args="$args '""$S""' '$tag' 1"	
	done
        if ! eval gdialog "$args" 2>&1 
	then
	    if [ -r  $sessfile-"options" ]; then
		#user cancelled seleciton for some reason - use default session
        	grep "CurrentSession" $sessfile-"options" | 
		sed  -e 's/^CurrentSession=//'
	    fi
	fi
    ) )
    exec /usr/bin/gnome-session --choose-session "${selected}"
else
    exec /usr/bin/gnome-session --choose-session Nautilus
fi