Random themed gdm bug

Thanks for your bug. Do you have the issue if you use the "Style: plain" for the login? What version of Ubuntu do you use? Do you have anything to /var/log/syslog about the issue?

Hi Sebastien,

First a all: I had this bug on a amd64 laptop, using Ubuntu Dapper Drake
with all things updated to the most recent versions, the kernel version
is: 2.6.15-27-amd64-k8

These are the steps taken to help you debugging...
1) changed the gdm greeter back to GraphicalThemeRand=true in
the /etc/gdm/gdm.conf-custom file in order to check if I still have the
problem. Result: Messages popup with the texts
 "There was an error loading the theme circles" (Can't open
file /usr/share/gdm/themes/circles/circles.xml)
 "There was an error loading the theme, and the default theme could not
be loaded. Attempting to start the standard greeter"

I checked and cicrles is not among the themes present in that directory,
so this error is correct.

2) After changing it back to GraphicalThemeRand=false I changed the
Style to "plain" and rebooted. Result: The Username field text is
editable now, so no bug in here!

3) I set the Style back to Themed greeter and selected it to be random
again. This time I didn't reboot, but just logout (since the changes
take immediate effect). Result: Same effect as in step 1 (as expected of
course, since GDM is restarted just like after a reboot), so no editable
username text field.

4) I tried step 3 again, but this time on my normal PC (which is also
Ubuntu Dapper Drake, kernel 2.6.15-27-k7, updated to all latest
versions). Result: just as with my laptop, first the error messages,
then the GDM username text field isn't editable.

5) I looked in the /var/log/syslog file of my PC and I saved the
situation before I logged out with GraphicalThemeRand=true and I saved
it after I logged in with GraphicalThemeRand=true. (see attachments)

So far my steps. As you can see both computers have the same issue. My
guess is that it some gdm programmer just forgot to let set a parameter
like "UsernameField.Writable=false" to true after testing some security
issues. :-)

Apart from that I discovered that I have to select one or more themes in
order to let GDM be able to randomly choose one (Duh!). Stupid as I was
I forgot to do this! So here's my step 6:

6) I selected some themes that should be randomly chosen. Result: after
logging out a theme was selected and displayed and I am able to login.

My conclusion: regarding randomly choosing a theme, there IS NO bug.
Regarding the fact that the plain GDM greeter is displayed when no
random theme can be retrieved I'd say there is NO BUG too.

However, when the plain GDM is supposed to make the username field
writable after the occurence of an error (regarding the abcense of any
themed greeter, random or not), THERE IS a bug because it doesn't do
this.

I hope I still make sense and I hope it is useful for you to base your
conclusion on. Please excuse me for not reading (the f*cking manual)
that themes should be selected for the random-theme option!

Greetings,
Ruud

On Thu, 2006-10-19 at 10:34 +0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Thanks for your bug. Do you have the issue if you use the "Style: plain"
> for the login? What version of Ubuntu do you use? Do you have anything
> to /var/log/syslog about the issue?
>
> ** Changed in: gdm (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Ubuntu Desktop ...

Le jeudi 19 octobre 2006 à 14:31 +0000, Ruudiculus a écrit :

> "There was an error loading the theme circles" (Can't open
> file /usr/share/gdm/themes/circles/circles.xml)
> "There was an error loading the theme, and the default theme could not
> be loaded. Attempting to start the standard greeter"
>
> I checked and cicrles is not among the themes present in that directory,
> so this error is correct.

The dapper and edgy gdm packages ship that file, did you install gdm
from somewhere else? You might want to reinstall it

> However, when the plain GDM is supposed to make the username field
> writable after the occurence of an error (regarding the abcense of any
> themed greeter, random or not), THERE IS a bug because it doesn't do
> this.

Right, that happens on dapper. It works fine on edgy so it has probably
been fixed by a gdm new version. Marking as fixed according to that. The
fix is not likely to be backported to dapper, that's a corner case when
a broken theme is listed and easy to fix

On Thu, 2006-10-26 at 09:41 +0000, Sebastien Bacher wrote:
> Le jeudi 19 octobre 2006 à 14:31 +0000, Ruudiculus a écrit :
>
> > "There was an error loading the theme circles" (Can't open
> > file /usr/share/gdm/themes/circles/circles.xml)
> > "There was an error loading the theme, and the default theme could not
> > be loaded. Attempting to start the standard greeter"
> >
> > I checked and cicrles is not among the themes present in that directory,
> > so this error is correct.
>
> The dapper and edgy gdm packages ship that file, did you install gdm
> from somewhere else? You might want to reinstall it
OK, good to know!
>
>
> > However, when the plain GDM is supposed to make the username field
> > writable after the occurence of an error (regarding the abcense of any
> > themed greeter, random or not), THERE IS a bug because it doesn't do
> > this.
>
> Right, that happens on dapper. It works fine on edgy so it has probably
> been fixed by a gdm new version. Marking as fixed according to that. The
> fix is not likely to be backported to dapper, that's a corner case when
> a broken theme is listed and easy to fix
OK, good to know too :-) It is not that it was a life-threatning bug,
but it is good that it's fixed now!

Thanks!
Ruud
>
>
> ** Changed in: gdm (Ubuntu)
> Importance: Undecided => Medium
> Status: Needs Info => Fix Released
>