I am having an issue
that has so many moving parts involved I'm not sure where
the problem lies. I am trying to build an LTSP server using
Ubuntu 18.04. For those not familiar with LTSP (Linux
Terminal Server Project), it creates an image suitable for
downloading to thick clients via tftp at boot. The greeter
is LDM, but it uses an ssh session to the server for
authentication. We have used it for many years, with Gnome
Flashback (Metacity) our desktop of choice since it became
available in Ubuntu LTS. Recently LTSP for Ubuntu
development has focused on Ubuntu MATE (instructions for
18.04 at
http://wiki.ltsp.org/wiki/Installation/Ubuntu).
Following these instructions, I added the package
gnome-session-flashback, and booted a thick client. The
session list gives both GNOME Flashback (Compiz) and GNOME
Flashback (Metacity). No matter which one I choose, I get
compiz. I started over building the server with standard
Ubuntu Desktop and added the gnome-session-flashback
package, which suggested but did not install the compiz
package. The session list gives only GNOME Flashback
(Metacity), but when logging in it gives a black screen with
a spinning cursor for a moment, then goes back to the login.
Both methods show similar messages in syslog:
systemd[1857]:
Started GNOME Session Manager.
systemd[1857]: Reached target User systemd services for
the GNOME Flashback sessions.
sh[2103]: + [ gnome-flashback-compiz != gnome-classic ]
sh[2103]: + export GNOME_SESSION_XDG_SESSION_PATH=
sh[2103]: + [ gnome-flashback-compiz =
gnome-flashback-metacity ]
sh[2103]: + exec gnome-session
--session=gnome-flashback-compiz
If I log in at the console of the server and choose
Metacity, I get Metacity. The syslog looks like this:
systemd[4589]: Started GNOME Session
Manager.
sh[5053]: + [ gnome-flashback-metacity != gnome-classic ]
sh[5053]: + export
GNOME_SESSION_XDG_SESSION_PATH=/org/freedesktop/DisplayManager/Session1
sh[5053]: + [ gnome-flashback-metacity =
gnome-flashback-metacity ]
sh[5053]: + exec gnome-session
--session=gnome-flashback-metacity
--disable-acceleration-check
systemd[4589]: Reached target User systemd services for
the GNOME Flashback sessions.
Can someone more familiar with the inner workings of GNOME
Flashback point me to where the issue might be, or advise
what might give better info for troubleshooting?
