Bug#526544: gnome-session: Should use gnome-wm by default rather than metacity

[Josh Triplett]

Package: gnome-session
Version: 2.26.1-1
Severity: wishlist

Currently, gnome-session launches the window manager specified by
/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager, which defaults
to metacity.  This means that changing the window manager launched by
gnome-session requires setting that gconf key.  That gconf key can only
have one value, making it difficult to implement logic like "Launch my
preferred window manager if available, but fall back to metacity if
not."

gnome-session ships a script, gnome-wm, specifically designed to find
and exec an appropriate window manager, defaulting to metacity.  This
script supports setting the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable, which
..xsession could then set based on the availability of different window
managers.

Please consider setting the default for
/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager to gnome-wm.
Users could still override this setting themselves to set the window
manager, or they could set the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable.

Note that this will also require installing the gnome-wm .desktop file
to /usr/share/applications, which the gnome-session package does not
currently do.

- Josh Triplett

-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.29-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages gnome-session depends on:
ii  dbus-x11                     1.2.12-1    simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  gconf2                       2.26.0-1    GNOME configuration database syste
ii  gnome-settings-daemon        2.26.0-2    daemon handling the GNOME session 
ii  libc6                        2.9-9       GNU C Library: Shared libraries
ii  libdbus-1-3                  1.2.12-1    simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2             0.80-4      simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libgconf2-4                  2.26.0-1    GNOME configuration database syste
ii  libglade2-0                  1:2.6.4-1   library to load .glade files at ru
ii  libglib2.0-0                 2.20.1-1    The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgtk2.0-0                  2.16.1-2    The GTK+ graphical user interface 
ii  libice6                      2:1.0.5-1   X11 Inter-Client Exchange library
ii  libpango1.0-0                1.24.0-3+b1 Layout and rendering of internatio
ii  libpolkit-dbus2              0.9-3       library for accessing PolicyKit vi
ii  libpolkit-gnome0             0.9.2-2     PolicyKit-gnome library
ii  libpolkit2                   0.9-3       library for accessing PolicyKit
ii  libsm6                       2:1.1.0-2   X11 Session Management library
ii  libstartup-notification0     0.10-1      library for program launch feedbac
ii  libx11-6                     2:1.2.1-1   X11 client-side library
ii  libxau6                      1:1.0.4-2   X11 authorisation library
ii  libxext6                     2:1.0.4-1   X11 miscellaneous extension librar
ii  libxrender1                  1:0.9.4-2   X Rendering Extension client libra
ii  libxtst6                     2:1.0.3-1   X11 Testing -- Resource extension 
ii  policykit-gnome              0.9.2-2     GNOME dialogs for PolicyKit

Versions of packages gnome-session recommends:
ii  gnome-panel                   2.26.0-1   launcher and docking facility for 
ii  metacity                      1:2.24.0-2 A lightweight GTK2 based Window Ma
ii  nautilus                      2.24.2-2   file manager and graphical shell f

Versions of packages gnome-session suggests:
ii  desktop-base                  5.0.5      common files for the Debian Deskto
ii  gnome-keyring                 2.26.0-4   GNOME keyring services (daemon and
ii  gnome-user-guide [gnome2-user 2.24.2-2   GNOME user's guide

-- no debconf information