Bug#408418: suggestions for documenting startup behaviour (kdmrc)
Package: kdm
Version: 4:3.5.5a.dfsg.1-5
Severity: normal
Tags: patch
This is about the behaviour new in etch (the overrides to kdmrc).
Please consider the suggestions below. Judging by the number of related
bugs (eg #403776, #403797, #406438, #406939) it would help many people.
These suggestions would have saved me a whole morning.
(1) I propose adding a prominent comment to /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc (see patch1).
The reason for putting the comment in this file and right at the top is
twofold. Firstly, users who are upgrading will be used to editing the
so-called "master configuration file". They will not expect overrides.
This helps to clarify the prominent word "master".
I realize that kdm *if started directly* won't ignore values in kdmrc. But
most people start it the default way, via the scripts /etc/init.d/kdm.
And so kdmrc will be where people will look. They will not look
in /usr/share/doc/kdm until *after* they have wasted a lot of time
investigating this issue. See the various bugs in the BTS.
This way, upgraders will have half a chance of seeing it with dpkg's
conffile handling, and otherwise, they'll see it when editing kdmrc.
[It is a pity that the gui-frontend deletes comments, so I endorse bug
http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86650 whole-heartedly.]
(2) I propose clarifying the README.Debian (see patch2)
Reason: the existing text can be misunderstood when reading carelessly.
It looks a bit like "we provide a way of customizing kdm [...] in kdmrc"
in other words, the way to override kdm builtin defaults is in kdmrc.
Also, I have fixed a typo. (The past participle of "ride" is "ridden".)
(3) I propose fixing the same typo in /etc/init.d/kdm (see patch3)
Many thanks for all your debian work. I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
(Dr) Jeremy Bygott
-- System Information:
[deleted: I'm writing from sarge; reportbug seems broken on my etch system]
--- /etc/kde3/kdm/kdmrc.supplied 2006-12-29 20:25:12.000000000 +0000
+++ kdmrc.improved 2007-01-25 16:57:08.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@
# KDM master configuration file
#
+# Please note: settings in this file are sometimes ignored (overridden).
+# The default KDM startup script /etc/init.d/kdm looks in /etc/defaults/kdm.d
+# for theme-related settings which, if found, take precedence. The possibly
+# overridden settings are: UseBackground, BackgroundCfg, UseTheme, Theme.
+# See /usr/share/doc/kdm/README.Debian for details.
+#
# Definition: the greeter is the login dialog, i.e., the part of KDM
# which the user sees.
#
--- /usr/share/doc/kdm/README.Debian 2006-12-29 19:50:41.000000000 +0000
+++ README.Debian.improved 2007-01-25 17:05:02.000000000 +0000
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
KDM Customization
=================
-We provide a way to customize KDM by overriding theme related values in
+We provide a way to override theme-related values normally set in the
master configuration file (kdmrc):
* USEBACKGROUND
* BACKGROUNDCFG
@@ -26,8 +26,8 @@
and background configuration file (backgroundrc):
* WALLPAPER
-You just need to create a file with overrided value(s) and put it in
-kdm override directory (default is /etc/default/kdm.d).
+You just need to create a file with override value(s) and put it in
+the kdm override directory (default is /etc/default/kdm.d).
================================================
Below this is direct from the xdm package README
--- /etc/init.d/kdm 2006-12-29 19:50:41.000000000 +0000
+++ kdm.improved 2007-01-25 17:09:03.000000000 +0000
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@
# we generate kdm configuration files
genkdmconf --in $KDMCFGDIR 1> /dev/null
-# we update kdm configuration files (only overrided values)
+# we update kdm configuration files (only overridden values)
[ -n "$USEBACKGROUND" ] && sed -i "s|^#\?UseBackground=.*|UseBackground=$USEBACKGROUND|" $KDMCFG
[ -n "$BACKGROUNDCFG" ] && sed -i "s|^#\?BackgroundCfg=.*|BackgroundCfg=$BACKGROUNDCFG|" $KDMCFG
[ -n "$USETHEME" ] && sed -i "s|^#\?UseTheme=.*|UseTheme=$USETHEME|" $KDMCFG
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