[LightDM] Autologin (lightdm) questions

Robert Ancell robert.ancell at gmail.com
Mon Jul 7 19:04:28 PDT 2014 

If you have a bug in unity-greeter (in short, anything graphical on login)
then file it against that (
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/unity-greeter/+filebug).

You can use other greeters if you find the UI of unity-greeter to be
unsuitable. A first try would be lightdm-gtk-greeter which is used by XFCE.

--Robert


On 8 July 2014 13:37, Robert Heller <heller at deepsoft.com> wrote:

> 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
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > LightDM mailing list
> > > 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
>
>
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