Bug#241096: gdm: Brutal indeed, but apparently with a reason

[Antonio Fiol]

Package: gdm
Version: 2.4.4.7-1
Severity: normal
Followup-For: Bug #241096

Hi,

Seen the same evil effects of the upgrade. Apparently, it was
intentional, as said before:

  * gdm no longer reads the Sessions directory to populate the menu
      (closes: #218786)

However, the same changelog also gives a hint on the "solution":

  * With the new Xsession.in that uses the Xsession.d dir to start up,
	and the /etc/dm/Sessions dir supported by kdm and gdm for programs to
	indicate they should be on the session list, all that's needed is those
	programs to supply desktop files for /etc/dm/Sessions
	(closes: #84396)
		  
And if you look in that directory, you find only the "default" file.

Apparently, they did also...

  * Add |'d dependency on possible session programs, so at least one
	will be installed.

apt-cache show gdm shows the following Depends line:

Depends: [...], gnome-session | xterm | x-window-manager | x-terminal-emulator

So it seems it's THEIR responsibility to provide the ".desktop" file for
session startup in /etc/dm/Sessions

Although it sounds a reasonable policy, I would have advocated for a
(maybe short) migration period, supporting both /etc/gdm/Sessions and
/etc/dm/Sessions.

So, I think I'll file a bug against gnome-session, if there is not one
already.

Hope this info helps you, if you are reading it.

Yours,


Antonio Fiol


-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.4
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C

Versions of packages gdm depends on:
ii  adduser                    3.52          Add and remove users and groups
ii  debconf                    1.4.20        Debian configuration management sy
ii  dpkg                       1.10.20       Package maintenance system for Deb
ii  enlightenment [x-window-ma 1:0.16.6-1    The Enlightenment Window Manager
ii  eterm [x-terminal-emulator 0.9.2-5       Enlightened Terminal Emulator
ii  gnome-session              2.4.2-2       The GNOME 2 Session Manager
ii  gnome-terminal [x-terminal 2.4.2-7       The GNOME 2 terminal emulator appl
ii  konsole [x-terminal-emulat 4:3.2.1-1     KDE X terminal emulator
ii  libart-2.0-2               2.3.16-3      Library of functions for 2D graphi
ii  libatk1.0-0                1.4.1-1       The ATK accessibility toolkit
ii  libbonobo2-0               2.4.3-1       Bonobo CORBA interfaces library
ii  libbonoboui2-0             2.4.3-2       The Bonobo UI library
ii  libc6                      2.3.2.ds1-11  GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgconf2-4                2.4.0.1-4     GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0                2.0.1-11      Library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0               2.2.3-1       The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgnome2-0                2.4.0-9       The GNOME 2 library - runtime file
ii  libgnomecanvas2-0          2.4.0-3       A powerful object-oriented display
ii  libgnomeui-0               2.4.0.1-10    The GNOME 2 libraries (User Interf
ii  libgnomevfs2-0             2.4.1-5       The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgnomevfs2-common        2.4.1-5       The GNOME virtual file-system libr
ii  libgsf-1                   1.8.2-6       Structured File Library - runtime 
ii  libgtk2.0-0                2.2.4-3       The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                    4.3.0-7       Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  liborbit2                  1:2.8.3-2     libraries for ORBit2 - a CORBA ORB
ii  libpam-modules             0.76-16       Pluggable Authentication Modules f
ii  libpam-runtime             0.76-16       Runtime support for the PAM librar
ii  libpam0g                   0.76-16       Pluggable Authentication Modules l
ii  libpango1.0-0              1.2.5-2.1     Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpopt0                   1.7-4         lib for parsing cmdline parameters
ii  librsvg2-2                 2.5.0-2       SAX-based renderer library for SVG
ii  libsm6                     4.3.0-7       X Window System Session Management
ii  libwrap0                   7.6-ipv6.1-3  Wietse Venema's TCP wrappers libra
ii  libx11-6                   4.3.0-7       X Window System protocol client li
ii  libxext6                   4.3.0-7       X Window System miscellaneous exte
ii  libxml2                    2.6.7-1       GNOME XML library
ii  metacity [x-window-manager 1:2.6.5-1     A lightweight GTK2 based Window Ma
ii  multi-gnome-terminal [x-te 1.6.2-3       Enhanced the GNOME Terminal
ii  wmaker [x-window-manager]  0.80.1-8      NeXTSTEP-like window manager for X
ii  xlibs                      4.3.0-0pre1v5 X Window System client libraries m
ii  xterm [x-terminal-emulator 4.3.0-0pre1v5 X terminal emulator
ii  zlib1g                     1:1.2.1-5     compression library - runtime

-- debconf information excluded