[LightDM] Autologin (lightdm) questions

[Robert Heller]

At Tue, 8 Jul 2014 13:07:44 +1200 Robert Ancell <robert.ancell at gmail.com> wrote:

> 
> 
> Hi Robert.
> 
> I responded to you on June 29th:
> http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/lightdm/2014-June/000628.html

The issue here is that /var is a RAMDISK (that is lost on a reboot).

> 
> To answer your further questions:
> - While many systems are likely only set up with one user set to autologin
> it is not uncommon to have multiple user accounts with and without
> autologin. I do expect this use case to work fine.
> - Unity Greeter (the default greeter used in Ubuntu) does not give visual
> indication of timed logins (https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1121660)

That kind of sucks...

> - The version of LightDM in 14.04 does not support automatic login after a
> session ends (https://launchpad.net/bugs/1302491)

Ah, this is useful information. 

I see that these two things are in the bug list -- are there plans to fix 
these problems?  Or is the version with 14.04 stuck with these 'bugs'?

> - Yes, you can use alternative display managers in Ubuntu. For example, GDM.

Hmmm... Maybe I need to look into this.

> - If you think you've found a bug, attach the logs as requested in the
> first reply and file a bug against LightDM (
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/lightdm/+filebug)

There is another 'weirdness': the Unity Greeter displays all of the possible
user names, but not all of them are clickable -- some are and some aren't --
to get to a partitular user sometimes one has to click on a user one past the
one wants and then click back. It would really be nice if there was a proper
list with a scrollbar or something. What the Unity Greeter does is weird, kind
of like a broken touch-screen hack, which is really bad for a conventual
desktop with a mouse (or maybe one *has* to use the scrollwheel? *I* don't
normally deal with scrollwheels, since I don't like them). I don't know if
this is a bug or what.

The more I think about it the more I want to toss lightdm and the Unity 
Greeter.  They really don't work for me.  Unfortunately, it is going to 
require some hackery with DRBL...

> 
> --Robert
> 
> 
> On 8 July 2014 12:47, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> > OK, this question has sat, unanswered for some time now, both on the
> > ubuntu-users list, the lightdm list, on askubuntu forum, and on the
> > unix.stackexchange forum.  I guess *no one* has done anything like this.
> >  Or
> > is there someplace else I should post this question to?  Or is there some
> > other problem?  I *think* I have stated the problem completely and
> > carefully
> > -- no one has asked questions about my question, so I *assume* it is
> > understood, but *please* let me know if there is anything unclear.
> >
> > I have another question: How many Ubuntu users have more than one user
> > account
> > set up on their Ubuntu machines? Or are Ubuntu users like MS-Windows and
> > MacOSX users: on any given machine there is only ever one and only one
> > 'user'?
> > A machine with just one user would never have any reason to logout and then
> > login to another user and then logout and login to the original user,
> > either
> > manually or automatically.
> >
> > Am I the *only* one in the entire universe that has set up Ubuntu
> > machine(s)
> > with multiple users?  *And* want to use the autologin feature?
> >
> > Or have I hit a bug or misfeature in lightdm that *no one* else has
> > stumbled
> > across? Does it make sense to file a bug report? With lightdm? Or with
> > Ubuntu?
> > Or both? Or is there something I am totally missing here? When I set
> > things up
> > way back when with CentOS 5, using the GDM Greeter, things worked great.
> > The
> > old machines would come up and after thirty seconds would autologin to
> > their
> > proper guest accounts. If one logged out of the guest account, the GDM
> > Greeter
> > would come backup up with 30 second timeout and log back into the guest
> > account, unless you logged into another account and when you logged out of
> > the
> > other account, the GDM Greeter would do its 30 second timeout thing. (And
> > it
> > displayed the remaining seconds left until it autologined. lightdm does not
> > seem to do that. It does (most of the time) auto login the *first time*,
> > but
> > doesn't after a logout. And there seem to be cases where it does not
> > autologin
> > after a reboot (generally when the user does not logout before shutting
> > down
> > the machine).
> >
> > Is there an alternitive to lightdm for Ubuntu 14.04? Is it possible or
> > sensible to *replace* lightdm with a different display manager or a
> > different
> > greeter? *I* am feeling that lightdm's greeter is just plain broken, at
> > least
> > for my situation -- it might be fine for a single user machine or a multi
> > user
> > machine without using the autologin feature, but it appears broken in my
> > context.
> >
> >
> > At Sat, 28 Jun 2014 09:12:06 -0400 Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > I have set up a batch of workstations at a library using DRBL. These
> > > workstations are running Ubuntu 14.04. I want these workstations to
> > autologin
> > > to a specific user (a different one for each workstation, since the
> > /home file
> > > system is NFS mounted). I have a custom copy of
> > /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf for
> > > each workstation and I have set autologin-user-timeout=30 and
> > > autologin-user=workstationuser (different for each workstation). This
> > mostly
> > > works, but there are some 'weirdnesses' I would like to resolve.
> > >
> > >     1) Doing a Shutdown from the gear menu and then restarting the
> > machine does
> > >     not always log the user in. Sometimes it behaves like the user
> > 'locked'
> > >     the screen and it is expecting to unlock a running session. I want a
> > >     shutdown to imply a full logout (it is too much to ask the library
> > staff
> > >     people to logout and then shutdown). Always. These are guest
> > accounts, so
> > >     there is never a session to save (screen locking is also disabled).
> > >
> > >     2) Doing a logout from the gear menu brings up the list of all
> > possible
> > >     users. This is OK (sometimes someone wants or need to login as a
> > >     'real' user). But if the login screen is left alone and/or after the
> > >     'real' user logs out, it does not automagically re-login to the
> > >     autologin-user. What do I need to do to fix this?
> > >
> > > I am not very experienced with Ubuntu -- I am an old hand with CentOS and
> > > RedHat.
> > >
> > > (I asked this question on the AskUbuntu forum over 9 days ago, but got no
> > > responses.)
> > >
> > >
> >
> > --
> > Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> > Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
> > http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
> > heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
> >
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> > LightDM at lists.freedesktop.org
> > http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/lightdm
> >
> 
>                                              

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller at deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services