Changing user session does not work

[Elfy]

Change

user-session=xubuntu

to

user-session=fluxbox

in /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

Does not change the desktop session on reboot with autologin set.

Renaming xubuntu.desktop and xfce.desktop in/usr/share/xsessions/ appears to force the system to use the only remaining xsession.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: lightdm 1.2.1-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-25.40-generic 3.2.18
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-25-generic i686
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 84cfaee623c9c4c3fbe2be58fb422c92
CheckboxSystem: 6ce041aeed0a2c17b3343b66d157175d
Date: Thu Jun 14 12:39:38 2012
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_GB:en
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: lightdm
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

thank you for your bug report, do you have a /usr/share/xsessions/fluxbox.desktop?

[Elfy (elfy)]

Yes I do.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

what does it contain? could you add your /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log after login?

[Elfy (elfy)]

Content of /usr/share/xsessions/fluxbox.desktop is

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Fluxbox
Comment=Highly configurable and low resource X11 Window manager
Exec=/usr/bin/startfluxbox
Terminal=false
TryExec=/usr/bin/startfluxbox
Type=Application

[X-Window Manager]
SessionManaged=true

lightdm.log attached

However - that log is after I have logged into Xubuntu.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> However - that log is after I have logged into Xubuntu.

well if you log in xubuntu you will get xfce, the point of the settings is the session you get by default for new account...

[Elfy (elfy)]

I know that. I was just saying I was in xubuntu then.

This bug is about changing /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf this making no difference to what boots.

Changing that file for this account does not change what I get when it boots - it boots to xubuntu regardless of the user-session=

Running sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults -s fluxbox - changes the file, doesn't change what I get on reboot.

Logout and login to fluxbox and it will boot to fluxbox next time - even if the user-session=xubuntu

It seems to take absolutely no notice of the lightdm.conf and instead just goes to whatever the last session was.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

right, if you selected a session for your user it's associated to your user and used ... user preferences always take over system defaults otherwise you would have no way to change the setting, that's not a bug

[Elfy (elfy)]

That sounds completely illogical to me.

Why then

sudo /usr/lib/lightdm/lightdm-set-defaults -s

or editing

/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

allow root to set what root wants the session to be if a user can override it.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the command it call set-*default* not "mandatory", that's what users will get by default, they are free to use another session (like Ubuntu defaults to unity but let you use xfce...)

[Elfy (elfy)]

Ok thanks :)

Still not seeing it how you are - but thanks for coming back.

But ...

How could a user who is set to autologin change their default session - without logging out, changing to the new session, logging back in and hoping it works on reboot?

Should they not expect that setting the default with either the sudo command or by editing the lightdm.conf file to do that for them?

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> How could a user who is set to autologin change their default session - without logging out, changing to the new session, logging back in and hoping it works on reboot?

if you never changed the session in a specific way for your user the default will be used, if you changed it you need to do what you describe yes, no need of the "hoping it works", lightdm will just keep using the session you selected until you change it

> Should they not expect that setting the default with either the sudo command or by editing the lightdm.conf file to do that for them?

no, if the default was overwriting the choices, since there is only 1 system default possible it would mean that all users have to use the same session ... what if you use KDE and your roomate on the same computer XFCE? why shouldn't you both be allowed to have a different default?

[Elfy (elfy)]

ok - I understand what you are saying - thanks for time :)

I'll let you get on with other bugs now - and thanks for your time with those as well. It is appreciated by those of us who can't :)