gdm lacks language & kbd layout selection

[Frantisek Hanzlik]

Frank Murphy wrote:
> On 15/07/12 09:05, Frantisek Hanzlik wrote:
>> It seems as gdm login screen now in F16/F17 not offer language and
>> keyboard layout selection, thus my question:
>>
>> - It is possible somewhere in configuration turn on this offer?
>>
>> - when not, which login manager is able do it? (I switched to Xfce
>> from F14, thus preferably some one appropriate for this DE)
>>
>> Thanks, Franta
>>
> 
> You can try lxdm or lightdm

Hello Frank,
thanks for You recommendations. I heard about lxdm before; lightdm is
quite challenge for me (and it seem it is newly packaged in Fedora).
I tried both, and as both satisfy my needs, I can little explain it
here (lxdm-0.4.1-1.fc17 and lightdm-1.2.2-15.fc17 on i686):

1) lxdm
- instal: yum -y install lxdm

- activate: create "/etc/sysconfig/desktop" with one line
DISPLAYMANAGER="/usr/sbin/lxdm"

- configure: either edit configuration files, or there is simple
graphical configuration tool: lxdm-config
It isn't nothing as comfortable as was gdm-config of blessed memory
in original gdm from George Lebl, but it did work for me

Note: lxdm offers both language selection (it work) and also keyboard
layout selection (weird - it display pulldown menu, but its items are
blank). But language selection is enough for me.

2) lightdm
- install: yum -y install lightdm-gtk

. activate: create "/etc/sysconfig/desktop" with one line
DISPLAYMANAGER="/usr/sbin/lightdm"

- configure: edit configuration files in "/etc/lightdm/".
Particularly I add two lines to "lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf":
show-language-selector=true
font-name=DejaVu Serif 12

Notes:
+ I had some problems due to lightdm packaging bug
 	(https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=840302
+ lot of useful information I found at URL
	http://askubuntu.com/questions/tagged/lightdm
+ lightdm, although new, seems be very powerfull. I will test it now
more closely. Fedora 17 has version 1.2.2, but it seems as latest
version is 1.3.2  - maybe it contains further interesting features.