On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 23:32:44 +0000 dep <d...@drippingwithirony.com> said:
> said Carsten Haitzler: > | On Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:21:39 +0000 dep <d...@drippingwithirony.com> said: > | > I realize that the terminology is tangled, with confusion between the > | > window manager that we usually see directly only in the login screen > | > -- sddm and the like -- and the windowing desktop managers -- gnome, > | > kde, etc. -- but I'm asking about the former: does Enlightenment have > | > its own window manager, that can be installed and used instead of one > | > of the others? > | > | what you are asking about (i think) is the display manager (or login > | manager). this just handles: > | > | 1. running a service that is always alive like any server (apache, sshd, > | etc.) 2. this service starting up an xserver > | 3. once x is up - displaying a login gui of some sort > | 4. handling authentication of a user (give username and password or > | whatever) 5. launching a new process (the login session) as the > | authenticated user 6. when the login session ends, restarting x and > | showing the login gui again > > Exactly what I was asking about. There is some justified or unjustified > sense that whatever it is called, it somehow lives under or in association > with the desktop chosen and therefore choosing one that is particularlt > sympatico with the desktop is in some way advantageous. Ie., GDM with > Gnome, TDM with TDE. SDDM seems for some reason the default for at least > Debian and works with anything. > > Is that belief -- that it matters -- justified? It may be due to a bug in > one, or even just a coincidence, but I've encountered two issues: I have > two big monitors, one above the other, which xrandr reads as one big > screen of 1920x2160. With one DM, I don't remember which, it was not > treated as such -- having to go off one side of one monitor to get to the > other, while with SDDM it is just one big blob. I do not know, but did > assume, that this was a function of the DM. If there is some continuing > functioning of the DM, are there one or more that are better for use with > Enlightenment? as i was describing - the dm (display manager) handles this - it just starts a raw x server and what it does that is entirely up to it. if it ignoredx xrandr info and treats it all as one big screen across 2 monitors .., then that's a limitation or a policy decision by that dm. it may be configurable. this is one of my many reasons why i think e getting a login mode is by far the best way to build a dm that matches/works well with e ... as really it then comes for free with e and is a little extra code beyond what e already can and does do (along with some locking down of features). so many things you have in a regular login session with your wm/de you also want when your dm is up asking you to log in. so... i guess as above - a bug or limitation or configuration issue with that given dm as what to use with e - use whatever you like, but the dm's job is to run your login session and shut down anything it was doing with x and leave it all alone to the login session until the session process ends (login session ends). in the case of e - this would be ebnlightenment_start exiting (or whatever parent shell like the one run for your ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession exiting if you didnt use exec to replace the shell with the wm/de command like enlightenment_start). dm's can have bugs and odd behavior but there is really no link between wm/de and dm other than dm launches the wm/de session (and exsures and xserver is there and ready to use). > | of course authenticating could be anything from just simply switching to > | a fixed named user with no password and never showing anything visible > | at all. this is actually how most of my systems work - i just configured > | slim to log in my user with no password. my systems never have any other > | users on them so i don't care. if i want to lock down my session to only > | allow me (ie need a password) enlightenment can do this itself: settings > | -> screen -> screen lock -> lock on startup ... e will just start in > | desktop lock mode and you have to authenticate to get past it. > | > | the login gui if not skipped can be anything from a simple "enter > | user+password" to an elaborate user selector with complex authentication > | mechanisms (fingerprints, 2fa things like smart cards, yubikeys and > | more). it could also provide other handling like multi screen hotplug, > | power management (battery monitoring) > | suspend/resume/hibernate/shutdown/reboot handling, backlight > | brightness/dimming handling and so on - so i guess a subset of what > | enlightenment already does but in the login manager. so it's quite a > | broad range of what could be offered here and different login managers > | do things differently here. > | > | i'm skipping the whole "walyand session" handling here - it's slightly > | different but mostly in broad strokes it's similar. > | > | there is an old go at making one of these called entrance - it uses EFL. > | it's not really maintained: > | > | https://git.enlightenment.org/old/entrance > > Does it work? *shrug* dunno... as i described. i don't use it. i haven't used it in many years. i know what i need to do (login mode) and will get to that eventually. > | on my long todo list: > | > | https://git.enlightenment.org/enlightenment/enlightenment/src/branch/mas > |ter/TODO.md > | > | is "login manager mode" ... so basically enlightenment then also can be > | its own login manager - just run it with its own system service handler > | to spawn and it would start x itself and so on... > > That would indeed be cool, particularly on a machine that has only one > desktop installed, such as one I'm building right now with Enlightenment > in mind. yes - and it'd come "for free" with e - you just need to use it. > Thanks for the very useful information. > -- > dep > > Pictures: http://www.ipernity.com/doc/depscribe/album > Column: https://ofb.biz/author/dep/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > enlightenment-users mailing list > enlightenment-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-users -- ------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" -------------- Carsten Haitzler - ras...@rasterman.com _______________________________________________ enlightenment-users mailing list enlightenment-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/enlightenment-users
