Re: Fwd: [xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM
On Tue, 26 Nov 2013, Stephen Michael Kellat wrote: The last time anything happened in Ubuntu's archives with XDM was a merge done by Micah Gersten in December 2011. The screenshots in the packages.ubuntu.com listing show the Debian graphic very prominently so we'll need to see if that is hard-coded or not. The graphic isn't hardcoded. At least isn't now or in older XDM setups I've done on other distros in the past. In 13.04, it's specified in /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources with parameter xlogin*logoFileName: path to the.graphic.xpm file) Likewise, the text portions of the login screen can be set with xlogin*greeting: CLIENTHOST -- Login as guest. No Password. (--ours) xlogin*namePrompt: \040\...\040Login: (--default) xlogin*fail: Login incorrect or forbidden by policy(--default) Apparently the Password: prompt text comes from PAM, and in 13.04 the prompt and entry box only appear after a username is entered. (In a much older Vector Linux (slackware-based) I used, the Password: line was always visible.) In 13.04, an .Xsession file containing exec xfce4-session is required in the user's home directory, otherwise it tries (and fails) to launch a gnome session. From the discussion on LP Bug #585853 it looks like Steve Langasek said XDM does not play nice with Upstart ten months prior to Micah's merge. Debian Bug #615020 talks about a lack of ConsoleKit support which is going to be crippling nowadays. More details can be found through the portal here: http://packages.qa.debian.org/x/xdm.html I'm not a developer, or a programmer. I'm a hardware type, but I've poked at linux since 0.93 as an admin...and the bulk of my experience goes back to days when things were lots less convoluted with PAM, policykit, consolekit, hal, upstart, dbus...most of which I know nothing at all about and a lot of which tends to make my head hurt! I see there was some comment on the bug you mentioned there were some patches for KDM in Mandriva but they didn't get upstream. Plus the discussion is pretty old, so don't know if any of that would even be relevant to the current version. I might suggest considering a different option than XDM if possible. I might think of some Wednesday once I get a good night's sleep after a day On The Run in Cleveland handling business downton. I'm open to an alternative provided: -- It's simple to configure (so I don't have to re-invent the wheel again) -- It has documentation that a clueless old guy like me can decipher -- It doesn't drag in a lot of extra baggage needed to make it work -- It will allow XFCE to function and not force a window manager change (users are familiar with XFCE, and I've made the new machines look and feel like our old ones as much as possible, and a kiosk mode is *essential* to restrict what random users can do/change/screw up) -- It will (preferably) allow a remote X login like VNC from the system admin. -- It will allow a custom background and logo graphic(s) for the greeter login screen as well as enough text to inform someone who has never seen it before to be able to do a guest login. -- It is or can be 'dumbed down' to not allow the public users to do *anything* other than log in to the guest account. And, of course, it should also allow proper users with greater privileges to log into their individual accounts as well. i.e. The login screen should allow No shutdown/sleep/reboots No network or any other system configuration/changes. No language, or session selection/changes. I do appreciate folks looking at this, and I'm happy to be a guinea pig for suggestions or testing, though I may need some hand-holding for anything very complex. Thanks again! =^_^= Tigerwolf -- xubuntu-devel mailing list xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
Fwd: [xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM
I need to strip all ability to change *anything* on the machines (network settings, session settings, decorations, logout/reboot/shutdown, etc.) out of the login screen. Let me attempt to interpret this request. You still need root to be able to administrate the machine. But, all other users must be removed from the privileged groups (adm and sudo). There is no need to make fundamental changes to your machines such as removing LightDM. As the root, 1. Make sure that the /etc/sudoers file is as it was installed i.e. there are no ordinary users mentioned in it. 2. Remove all ordinary users from /etc/group adm and sudo groups. That should do it. Regards, Richard -- xubuntu-devel mailing list xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
Fwd: [xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM
Hey George, forwarding this to the developer mailing list. I'm pretty sure we won't switch at least for 14.04 (we have more features and improvements landing for LightDM), but it's always possible to rethink this after the LTS. Maybe this will also raise up some questions. Cheers, Pasi Original Message Subject:[xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 16:14:28 -0500 (EST) From: George F. Nemeyer tigerw...@tigerden.com Reply-To: Xubuntu Support and User Discussions xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com To: xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com I have 30 machines running Xubuntu 13.04 in a public kiosk-environment. I need to replace the lightDM display manager with XDM, because I need to strip all ability to change *anything* on the machines (network settings, session settings, decorations, logout/reboot/shutdown, etc.) out of the login screen. LightDM seems to be in a constant state of change, and what little configuration seems possible either dosen't work as described, or has other issues, such as putting a right-click panel option into XFCE which leads to options allowing any user to be able to reboot or shut the machines down. I've had only partial success converting to XDM. XDM works and is configured to look as I want it, and it allows logins, but once a user session starts, there's lots of strange behavior: - The package manager starts, allows you to select a package to install, but does nothing when you tell it do do so. - Other programs have similar oddities. These *seem* to be ones that do some cross-interfacing with system functions. - Some, but not all, panel icons won't launch the underlying program at all. - Wireless, audio volume, and other icons normally in the 'notification area' aren't there, even for admin users who should have access to those functions. I suspect that LightDM is starting something like dbus, session bus, or some other daemonish-process(es) that are not started by XDM. The LightDM configuration is not fully documented (no man pages), and much of the Internet forum guidance is simply wrong for the versions in 13.04. It uses non-plain-text configuration files, so I haven't any real idea of just what all it does when logging in with it. Has anyone been able to run with XDM successfully, and if so, what did you do? Likewise, if anyone has a clue on what LightDM does and insight how to get rid of it, I'd be very grateful. =^_^= Tigerwolf -- xubuntu-users mailing list xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users -- Pasi Lallinaho (knome) » http://open.knome.fi/ Leader of Shimmer Project and Xubuntu » http://shimmerproject.org/ Graphic artist, webdesigner, Ubuntu member » http://xubuntu.org/ -- xubuntu-devel mailing list xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
Re: Fwd: [xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM
On Wed, 27 Nov 2013 02:46:05 +0200 Pasi Lallinaho p...@shimmerproject.org wrote: Hey George, forwarding this to the developer mailing list. I'm pretty sure we won't switch at least for 14.04 (we have more features and improvements landing for LightDM), but it's always possible to rethink this after the LTS. Maybe this will also raise up some questions. Cheers, Pasi Original Message Subject: [xubuntu-users] Replacing LightDM with XDM Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2013 16:14:28 -0500 (EST) From: George F. Nemeyer tigerw...@tigerden.com Reply-To: Xubuntu Support and User Discussions xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com To: xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com I have 30 machines running Xubuntu 13.04 in a public kiosk-environment. I need to replace the lightDM display manager with XDM, because I need to strip all ability to change *anything* on the machines (network settings, session settings, decorations, logout/reboot/shutdown, etc.) out of the login screen. LightDM seems to be in a constant state of change, and what little configuration seems possible either dosen't work as described, or has other issues, such as putting a right-click panel option into XFCE which leads to options allowing any user to be able to reboot or shut the machines down. I've had only partial success converting to XDM. XDM works and is configured to look as I want it, and it allows logins, but once a user session starts, there's lots of strange behavior: - The package manager starts, allows you to select a package to install, but does nothing when you tell it do do so. - Other programs have similar oddities. These *seem* to be ones that do some cross-interfacing with system functions. - Some, but not all, panel icons won't launch the underlying program at all. - Wireless, audio volume, and other icons normally in the 'notification area' aren't there, even for admin users who should have access to those functions. I suspect that LightDM is starting something like dbus, session bus, or some other daemonish-process(es) that are not started by XDM. The LightDM configuration is not fully documented (no man pages), and much of the Internet forum guidance is simply wrong for the versions in 13.04. It uses non-plain-text configuration files, so I haven't any real idea of just what all it does when logging in with it. Has anyone been able to run with XDM successfully, and if so, what did you do? Likewise, if anyone has a clue on what LightDM does and insight how to get rid of it, I'd be very grateful. =^_^= Tigerwolf -- xubuntu-users mailing list xubuntu-us...@lists.ubuntu.com Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-users -- Pasi Lallinaho (knome) » http://open.knome.fi/ Leader of Shimmer Project and Xubuntu » http://shimmerproject.org/ Graphic artist, webdesigner, Ubuntu member » http://xubuntu.org/ The last time anything happened in Ubuntu's archives with XDM was a merge done by Micah Gersten in December 2011. The screenshots in the packages.ubuntu.com listing show the Debian graphic very prominently so we'll need to see if that is hard-coded or not. From the discussion on LP Bug #585853 it looks like Steve Langasek said XDM does not play nice with Upstart ten months prior to Micah's merge. Debian Bug #615020 talks about a lack of ConsoleKit support which is going to be crippling nowadays. More details can be found through the portal here: http://packages.qa.debian.org/x/xdm.html I might suggest considering a different option than XDM if possible. I might think of some Wednesday once I get a good night's sleep after a day On The Run in Cleveland handling business downton. Stephen Michael Kellat -- xubuntu-devel mailing list xubuntu-devel@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/xubuntu-devel
