MATE desktop

[Suvayu Ali]

Hi Mihai,

I do not think you are following what I mean.  I'll try to illustrate.

First some comments on your tests:

> Tests:
> 
> 1. reboot normally.
> 
>    Result: gnome-shell is started at the login screen:
> 
>     ps axuww | grep -w gdm

Did you login to Gnome?  If so, of course gnome-shell will be started.
I tested on my F19 server with WindowMaker, there was no gnome-shell
process after login.

> 2. reboot without gdm-shell.session:
> 
>     mv /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gdm-shell.session /tmp
>     reboot
> 
>    Result: graphical screen informing that something went
>    wrong, try again.
> 
> 3. restore gdm-shell.session and reboot without gnome-shell:
> 
>     rpm -e --nodeps gnome-shell
>     reboot
> 
>    Result: no login screen.
> 

Here I have to admit my fault.  My comment about removing the session
files was not correct.  I had similar results on my system too.  I dug a
bit deeper, and now the comment in the spec file makes more sense.  My
comments and what I found are below.

> On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 02:29:52PM +0200, Suvayu Ali wrote:
> 
> > <http://pkgs.fedoraproject.org/cgit/gdm.git/tree/gdm.spec#n348>
> > 
> > This is what it says there:
> > 
> > - Require gnome-shell. We no longer use the fallback greeter.
> >   (Since gdm 3.7.92).
> > If you look at the spec file, it includes a session file
> > 
> > (line 283):
> >
> > %{_datadir}/gnome-session/sessions/gdm-shell.session

The above file looks like this in F18:

[GNOME Session]
Name=Display Manager
RequiredComponents=gnome-shell;gnome-settings-daemon;
IsRunnableHelper=bash -c 'type -p gnome-shell >& /dev/null && /usr/libexec/gnome-session-check-accelerated'
FallbackSession=gdm-fallback

There is another session file called gdm-fallback.session (as mentioned
in FallbackSession above), shown below:

[GNOME Session]
Name=Display Manager
RequiredComponents=gdm-simple-greeter;gnome-settings-daemon;polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1
RequiredProviders=windowmanager;
DefaultProvider-windowmanager=metacity

In F19, the gdm-fallback.session file, and the IsRunnableHelper and
FallbackSession lines from the gdm-shell.session file are absent.

This is how I understand the situation: the fallback session was
removed, that is why the dependency on gnome-shell was introduced so
that gdm can work.  So my assertion that it is a packaging bug was
wrong.  It is more of a packaging choice that was made.  It is still not
a compiled in dependency.  This is confirmed by the commit message:

  commit 23b99629db196fe80b0ae83b1c005f862b484f8a
  Author: Ray Strode <rstrode at redhat.com>
  Date:   Mon May 20 08:04:16 2013 -0400
  
      Require gnome-shell
      
      We stopped shipping the fallback greeter session file
      a while ago, so we really should have the Requires: right.
      
      Eventually the fallback stuff is going to move to its own module.

I guess then the solution for Ben Greear is easy (since he is using
MATE): install a gdm-fallback.session file, add the two lines I mention
above at the end of gdm-shell.session and everything should be good.

I do not use any parts of Gnome/MATE, so I do not know if MATE uses
gnome-shell somehow.  If it does, then sadly I cannot help anymore.
Hope the above helps someone.

Cheers,

-- 
Suvayu

Open source is the future. It sets us free.