[Pkg-utopia-maintainers] Bug#690127: release-notes: Issues: switch dm to get an active consolekit session

[Wolodja Wentland]

On Sun, Jan 27, 2013 at 12:05 +0100, Joost van Baal-Ilić wrote:
> Hi Wolodja,
> 
> Thanks a lot for your helpful suggestion!  I agree with you :)
> 
> Could you please do a
> 
>  svn co svn://svn.debian.org/svn/ddp/manuals/trunk/release-notes/en
> 
> and hack up some DocBook XML code to get your text in? That'd allow me to fix
> this issue even more soon.
> 
> If not, I'll get to this issue within about a week, I hope.

I'll happily do that once I am sure that the actual solution is indeed the
correct one. I am not convinced of that yet and investigated a bit further.

I successfully reproduced #598150 here. That is that sessions listed by
ck-list-sessions are still marked as "active = FALSE" (but is-local = TRUE)
even if I try the "workaround" in [0] and use an ~/.xsessions file such as

    exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch awesome

I am not sure which workaround was being referred to in the initially
suggested text and I haven't tested if there are actually any problems that
arise from the fact that the session is being as inactive. I might find some
time to investigate this later though.

So far my understanding was that the way I start sessions in ~/.xsession is
the correct one and that this method /should/ work, but it looks as if the
only sensible recommendation regarding this issue we can give right now is
"Just switch to gdm, kdm or lightdm".

I don't think that this would be acceptable and copied in
pkg-utopia-maintainers in the hope that they can provide some authorative
feedback on the right way to deal with this.

In particular we need authorative advice for users of:

    1. startx

       How should startx users start their sessions? Is the aforementioned way
       sufficient? What other changes have to be made in order to ensure a
       correctly working system in the sense that "system services like
       automounting and autoconfiguring network interfaces" work as expected?
       That is: How to fix #598150 and which workaround is being referred to?

       Please clarify if it is indeed enough to make the changes to
       ~/.xsession that I suggest below /and/ remove the "nox11" in
       /etc/pam.d/common-session

    2. xdm

       It sounds that xdm users should be encouraged to switch to a supported
       display manager or asked to start their session via ~/.xsession from
       xdm as suggested in [1]. (which also means that "nox11" has to be
       removed IIRC)

    3. wdm

       What about wdm and other display managers?

> On Sat, Jan 26, 2013 at 04:45:57PM +0000, Wolodja Wentland wrote:
> > Hello,
> > 
> > I've just stumbled over this report and have to say that the proposed section
> > in the release notes is suboptimal. This is mainly due because it is unclear
> > which workaround is actually being referred to in the linked bug reports.
> > 
> > I would prefer it if the actual changes that are needed are documented in the
> > release notes which would (for startx users) lead to something like:
> > 
> > --- snip ---
> > Users of display managers other than kdm, gdm and lightdm (e.g. the xdm and
> > slim display managers) as well as users who start their X session by manually
> > calling startx from a virtual console will likely be hit by problems with
> > system services like automounting devices and autoconfiguring network
> > interfaces.
> > 
> > Due to changes in consolekit, display managers need to update their consolekit
> > interaction. The displaymanagers kdm, gdm and lightdm in wheezy have been
> > updated. Others (xdm, slim, a.o.) have not yet been updated. If you're using
> > a not-yet updated display manager, either switch to an updated one before
> > starting to upgrade your system, or make sure to apply the following changes
> > to your configuration (as applicable):
> > 
> > startx
> > ------
> > 
> > Please make sure that the `consolekit` and `dbus-x11` packages are installed
> > and that both `ck-launch-session` and `dbus-launch` are called in all
> > $HOME/.xsession files as in:
> > 
> >     exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch $WM
> > 
> > That means that if, for example, a user started the awesome window manager
> > with:
> > 
> >     exec awesome
> > 
> > it should be ensured to change this line to:
> > 
> >     exec ck-launch-session dbus-launch awesome
> > 
> > to ensure that the aforementioned system services work correctly.
> > 
> > slim
> > ----
> > ...
> > 
> > xdm
> > ---
> > ...
> > 
> > --- snip ---
> > 
> > I know that the actual text needs to be amended and polished, but I simply
> > wanted to point out that actual instructions in the release notes are much
> > more helpful than just references to (long!) bug reports.
> > 
> > Have a wonderful day!

[0] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=598150#134
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=615020#36
-- 
Wolodja <debian at babilen5.org>

4096R/CAF14EFC
081C B7CD FF04 2BA9 94EA  36B2 8B7F 7D30 CAF1 4EFC
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