On Sat, Oct 19, 2002 at 11:18:42AM -0700, Paul Mackinney wrote:
> 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.
[snip]
> 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.
There might well be a bug in there somewhere, for the life of me I
cannot see what package owns /etc/X11/default-display-manager - it does
not seem to be managed by debconf.
Which raises the question: what package should you purge to get a
"clean" copy?
> 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:
[snip]
> 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?
That bit of code is present in in /etc/init.d/gdm too - and I would not
be surprised to find it in other display managers.
My personal preference would be to invent the package:
x-display-manager-admin-utils
and stick the code in here, and let [a-z]dm Depend: on
x-display-manager-admin-utils.
Perhaps somebody can do that? I'll be applying to becoming a Debian
Maintainer (again) soon, and it looks like a relatively easy project. On
the downside, it requires a fair bit of coordination with the
maintainers of [a-z]dm.
--
Karl E. Jørgensen
karl@jorgensen.com
www.karl.jorgensen.com
==== Today's fortune:
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves
up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.
-- Winston Churchill
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