Bug 5908

Summary: kdm Console Login feature does not work
Product: Mageia Reporter: Neil Darlow <neil>
Component: RPM PackagesAssignee: Mageia Bug Squad <bugsquad>
Status: RESOLVED FIXED QA Contact:
Severity: normal    
Priority: Normal CC: alien, balcaen.john, lmenut, luigiwalser, mageia, mageia, rwobben, ycollette.nospam
Version: Cauldron   
Target Milestone: ---   
Hardware: i586   
OS: Linux   
Whiteboard:
Source RPM: kdebase4-workspace-4.8.2-5.mga2.src.rpm CVE:
Status comment:
Attachments: Fedora 19 kdmrc file

Description Neil Darlow 2012-05-14 23:14:39 CEST
Description of problem:
kdm has a Console Login feature on its Shutdown Menu which should terminate the X server and switch to a virtual console to permit login. In the event of no login (after 40 seconds) or after logout from the console (after 10 seconds) the X server should be restarted and kdm reappear.

This feature is not working. When it is selected a momentary switch to tty1 is performed and then kdm redisplays. The contents of tty1 are status messages from system startup and there is no login functionality present on it. This is likely why the function fails to operate.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
kdm-2:4.8.2-5.mga2.i586.rpm

I am reporting this against kdm but it might just be a symptom. The cause may lie elsewhere in dracut or systemd perhaps.

How reproducible:
Every time.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Boot the system and wait for kdm to appear
2. Select Console Login from the kdm Shutdown Menu
3. Observe a momentary switch to tty1 (vc1) before returning to kdm
4. A console login without X running is not possible as it should be using this function.
AL13N 2012-05-14 23:18:16 CEST

CC: (none) => alien, mageia

David Walser 2012-05-15 02:22:40 CEST

CC: (none) => luigiwalser

Comment 1 John Balcaen 2012-05-15 04:31:39 CEST
Funny (or not) it's the inverse situation in mageia 1 ( #2759 ).
I'll issue an update to disable this option since it's not working as it should (since 4.6.x in mga at least since i forgot to test on others distrib).
Also something strange here is that it should take you to tty2 according to the default kdm file while you're back to tty1 (which is where Xorg is supposed to run according to the last change submitted by colin )

CC: (none) => balcaen.john

Comment 2 Neil Darlow 2012-05-15 08:53:01 CEST
My kdmrc has tty1 listed in ConsoleTTYs so maybe the upgrade from Mageia 1 to Cauldron left the old file in place.

I've taken a look at #2759 and I also experience the behaviour of kdm not returning if I remove tty1 from ConsoleTTys.

There might be a clue in openSUSE's implementation of this feature because it works for that distribution. I use the feature to recompile and install the NVidia proprietary driver a lot (for openSUSE-11.4 with KDE-4.6.5 before I updated to openSUSE-12.1 with KDE-4.7.2).
Comment 3 Colin Guthrie 2012-05-15 11:08:43 CEST
FWIW, I would recommend just nuking the console login feature anyway. If you're skilled enough to want to use a console login from a DM, then you are skilled enough to be able to use the keys that you'll need to use to go back to the graphical screen later anyway.

I strongly believe the DM should be quite minimal in appearance and do only as much as it needs to do.

It's just my opinion of course, but designing in hacks (like console login) for "when things go wrong" is likely the wrong approach... we should be aiming for a situation where things don't go wrong :p
Comment 4 Neil Darlow 2012-05-15 12:11:12 CEST
@coling: I agree with the sentiment ;)

If there's an easy way to disable the feature completely e.g. via build options or source code conditional then I'd say do so.

If it's just a case of patching out a menu option and leaving dead code present then I'd say it's worth investigating why it doesn't work.

Just my opinion.
Comment 5 Marja Van Waes 2012-05-26 13:02:33 CEST
Hi,

This bug was filed against cauldron, but we do not have cauldron at the moment.

Please report whether this bug is still valid for Mageia 2.

Thanks :)

Cheers,
marja

Keywords: (none) => NEEDINFO

David Walser 2012-07-22 21:04:25 CEST

CC: (none) => nicolas.lecureuil

Comment 6 roelof Wobben 2013-01-04 12:44:37 CET
@Colin : Any news on this bug. Do you know if somebody has done something with it.

Roelof

CC: (none) => r.wobben

Comment 7 Colin Guthrie 2013-01-06 16:38:48 CET
I'm not aware of anyone doing much with it. Also KDM development upstream is pretty stagnant generally - I think a lot of people are preferring lightDM these days. Go figure. Anyway, I doubt this feature will be fixed, so I'd generally recommend just disabling it (either via theme, config or in code - not sure if the former options are possible). It's such a marginal feature anyway - the people who would know how to use it would also know to use the keyboard shortcut (actually in my experience people would know the keyboard shortcut before they knew about the pointy-clicky method anyway - although I'm sure others would disagree!)
Comment 8 AL13N 2013-05-05 15:20:48 CEST
confirmed on Mga3 RC, console login just returns to kdm instantly
Comment 9 Yann COLLETTE 2013-06-25 08:25:59 CEST
And it's also the case on mageia 3.
The console login first tentative returns to kdm instantly, but the second succeed.
When I am connected to the console, if I logged out, I should be able to return to kdm by waiting just 40 second, but this feature doesn't work. I need to restart my laptop to be able to login in X mode.

Yc

CC: (none) => ycollette.nospam

Comment 10 Yann COLLETTE 2013-06-25 08:29:01 CEST
*** Bug 2759 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 11 John Balcaen 2013-07-08 01:44:22 CEST
Just in case
could you edit your /usr/share/config/kdm/kdmrc in order to have
ConsoleTTYs=""
instead of the tty2,....
Comment 12 David Walser 2013-12-18 18:06:53 CET
Making it have ConsoleTTYs="", if you choose Console Login, it just restarts X.

Keywords: NEEDINFO => (none)

Comment 13 Yann COLLETTE 2013-12-19 08:26:14 CET
Under Fedora 19, they have:

ConsoleTTYs=tty1,tty2,tty3,tty4,tty5,tty6

Ihaven't tried yet this config under mageia, but I will try asap.

YC
Comment 14 Yann COLLETTE 2013-12-19 08:32:32 CET
Created attachment 4641 [details]
Fedora 19 kdmrc file
Nicolas Lécureuil 2013-12-19 08:33:58 CET

Attachment 4641 mime type: application/octet-stream => text/plain

Nicolas Lécureuil 2013-12-19 08:34:48 CET

CC: (none) => lmenut

Comment 15 Yann COLLETTE 2013-12-19 09:55:48 CET
In fedora 19, the console login is desactivated. There is a link to a fedora bug in the kdmrc file. Here is the link: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=966095
Comment 16 Nicolas Lécureuil 2013-12-19 13:04:04 CET
i think we will do the same then. Luc do you agree ?
Comment 17 Luc Menut 2013-12-19 22:36:29 CET
(In reply to Nicolas Lécureuil from comment #16)
> i think we will do the same then. Luc do you agree ?

Yes, I agree.
Comment 18 Nicolas Lécureuil 2013-12-24 00:56:01 CET
Fixed on git.

Luc do you have things to commit before we do a release ??
Comment 19 Samuel Verschelde 2015-04-25 09:48:33 CEST
Fixed according to comment #18

Status: NEW => RESOLVED
Resolution: (none) => FIXED