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Re: xdm config help



Karl E. Jorgensen declaimed:
> On Fri, Oct 18, 2002 at 11:10:39PM -0700, Paul Mackinney wrote:
> > I'm trying to set up xdm. Whenever I boot the last message I see before
> > the login prompt is:
> > 
> > Not starting X Display Manager (xdm); it is not the default display manager.
> I run xdm, and for me it says:
> 
>     /usr/bin/X11/xdm
>             ^^^^
Yep that was it. I feel silly. Even worse, all the info you'd ever need
to figure this out is right at the top of the /etc/init.d/xdm script.

Still, I did do the following:
- read the man pages, no mention of "default display manager" in any
	context.
- reinstall (apt-get install --reinstall)
- remove and then intstall (apt-get remove --purge, apt-get install)
  (the xdm package & scripts don't touch or verify the
	default-display-manager file)

It doesn't feel right that reinstallation doesn't detect or fix the
issue.

IMO, the best solution would be to modify the /etc/init.d/xdm script.
Even if it's set to respect the default-display-manager file, it could
check that the current default display manager exists before deciding
not to launch. Current 'start' block is:

case "$1" in
  start)
    if [ -e $DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE ] && \
       [ "$HEED_DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER" = "true" ] && \
       [ "$(cat $DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE)" != "$DAEMON" ]; then
      echo "Not starting X display manager (xdm); it is not the default display 
manager."
    else
      echo -n "Starting X display manager: xdm"
      start-stop-daemon --start --quiet $SSD_ARGS || echo -n " already running"
      echo "."
    fi
  ;;

It would be easy to add the test 

  [ "$(which $(cat $DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE))" = \
    "$(cat $DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE)" ] 

If the test fails, display a warning message 

echo "The default display manager, $(cat \
$DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE), doesn't appear to be present. \
Please enter the desired path (e.g., $DAEMON) in \
$DEFAULT_DISPLAY_MANAGER_FILE."

and run xdm anyway.

Shall I log this as a bug?

PM
-- 
Paul Mackinney
paul@mackinney.net



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