Re: [Usability] GDM

[Dave Ahlswede <mightyquinn letterboxes org>]

On Thu, 2005-09-29 at 16:47 -0700, Rob Adams wrote:
> The reasons for the way gdm is aren't usability ones, but technical
> ones.  It is possible that the way the user authenticates isn't through
> a password.  It could be a fingerprint, or pretty much anything, and
> this is all decided by PAM based on the username.
> 
> I don't know the exact details, but that's the core reason it is the way
> it is.
> 
> -Rob
> 

I'm willing to bet that over 9 times out of 10, it's going to need a
password, though.

Perhaps it might be reasonable to show both entry fields, but after the
user name is entered and sent to pam, if something besides a password is
needed, insensitize the password field and display a brief message
saying what is required? (I have no idea if pam provides any sort of
human readable messages)