[SRU] Please backport to Karmic GDM fix for bug #463376

[edu jose]

Binary package hint: gdm

Hi, when time permits, could you please backport from Lucid to Karmic GDM's patch for bug #463376?

The bug is about GDM's PostLogin/Default script.

In Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) when you log in as, say, "somename", you get proper values inside /etc/PostLogin/Default for these vars.:

$USERNAME --> somename
$LOGNAME --> somename
$HOME --> /home/somename

But in Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic) you get instead these values:

$USERNAME --> gdm
$LOGNAME --> gdm
$HOME --> /var/lib/gdm

It seems that this is fixed in Ubuntu 10.04 too, but I haven't tested it yet.

Having these vars. and others set up correctly for using them in the script /etc/PostSession/Default is badly needed for admins that want to clear $HOME upon login, for example in a shool computer lab (as is our case here).

Bug #463376 is where the patch for Lucid was posted; bug #506972 is where the request to backport to Karmic was originally done by Manuel Iglesias.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the bug has been fixed in lucid, closing it, a karmic task can be opened if somebody is interested to work on the change for this version though but it seems low priority now than the new lts is available especially that karmic users either worked around this issue or moved to something else if they really need this to work now

[edu jose (pepinmore)]

Thanks for your promptly reply Sebastien.

I see that now that Lucid fixes this bug, it makes sense a Karmic --> Lucid upgrade.

I'll try tomorrow evening after work hours to update one of our lab's computers to Lucid and see if env vars work properly inside /etc/PostLogin/Default (not now because I'm outside work).

I was trying to avoid the upgrade because we use several scripts in our computer's classroom that must be tested separately for each new Ubuntu version.

Anyway, who said a part-time sysadmin's work would be easy :-)

[edu jose (pepinmore)]

(Erm, I meant a Jaunty --> Karmic upgrade, then a Karmic --> Lucid upgrade. Though it sems too many upgrades, maybe I'll try a fresh Lucid install too.)

[Artur Rona (ari-tczew)]

Eduardo, I can prepare a package fix for karmic, but I need a tester for this. Could you use a 1 machine to test fixed package?

[edu jose (pepinmore)]

Sure, I can test it at work (though in around 8 hours, after work hours) and at home.

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

The verfication-needed tag has a specific meaning as part of our SRU process - please don't use that. In addition, this isn't the correct place to do this anyway. You should rather nominate the original bug (bug 463376) for karmic, although it's debatable whether this is worth a SRU anyway

[John Dong (jdong)]

ACK from SRU.

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Accepted gdm into karmic-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback here. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!

[edu jose (pepinmore)]

I've just tested the new gdm package in my home's computer (running Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic) and it works!

(i.e. everything is ok plus now you get proper values from env. vars. $HOME, $USER, $USERNAME, $LOGNAME inside script /etc/gdm/PostLogin/Default)

I'll test tomorrow morning at work (when classes end).

Oh and many thanks Artur, Martin and everyone! You rock guys!

[edu jose (pepinmore)]

Also tested the new gdm package in one of school's computers, and it works too.

In an unrelated note, would it be ok if I add a comment in the other bugs (#463376, #506972) so that the other persons who reported the bug against Karmic know it's now fixed? I did add a comment there before opening this bug, but seems no mail was generated. What do you think?

(Oh and did I say you definitly rock guys? :-))

[Artur Rona (ari-tczew)]

Hello Eduardo,

Sure, feel free to add a comment about bug fixes in karmic.
If you want to backport other fixes to older releases, security bug fix or whatever related to packaging, you always can e-mail me. I will help if I can.

Thanks for testing,

Artur

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gdm - 2.28.1-0ubuntu2.2

---------------
gdm (2.28.1-0ubuntu2.2) karmic-proposed; urgency=low

  * debian/patches/26_echo_variables_postlogin.patch: (LP: #574262)
    - Fix incorrect variables discarded by echo in /etc/PostLogin/Default
 -- Artur Rona <email address hidden> Wed, 05 May 2010 21:33:11 +0200