"Replace the customized configuration file '/etc/gdm/custom.conf'?"

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

1. Upgrade from Ubuntu 12.04 to Q.

What happens: Partway through the upgrade, an alert appears: "Replace the customized configuration file '/etc/gdm/custom.conf'?" - "You will lose any changes you have made to this configuration file if you choose to replace it with a newer version."

I'm not even using GDM (since Ubuntu now uses LightDM instead), so I have no idea why I'm being prompted about a GDM configuration file.

--- /etc/gdm/custom.conf 2012-04-27 15:05:03.798471592 +0100
+++ /etc/gdm/custom.conf.dpkg-new 2012-08-30 21:23:09.000000000 +0100
@@ -1,4 +1,32 @@
+# GDM configuration storage
+#
+# See /usr/share/gdm/gdm.schemas for a list of available options.

 [daemon]
-AutomaticLoginEnable=False
-AutomaticLogin=mpt
+# Enabling automatic login
+# AutomaticLoginEnable = true
+# AutomaticLogin = user1
+
+# Enabling timed login
+# TimedLoginEnable = true
+# TimedLogin = user1
+# TimedLoginDelay = 10
+
+# Reserving more VTs for test consoles (default is 7)
+# FirstVT = 9
+
+[security]
+
+[xdmcp]
+
+[greeter]
+# Only include selected logins in the greeter
+# IncludeAll = false
+# Include = user1,user2
+
+[chooser]
+
+[debug]
+# More verbose logs
+# Additionally lets the X server dump core if it crashes
+# Enable = true

[Jeremy Bícha (jbicha)]

mpt, according to the diff you posted, you set up autologon at one point. It's normal behavior for apt to prompt when system configuration files have been modified because it's not easily possible for the upgrade script to know how to handle customized configurations. Of course in this case, it was the system that modified the file and not you.

A workaround is to uninstall gdm if you're not using it any more. Or you could purge gdm and reinstall it; that will reset the configuration back to the default.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Firstly, I have never used auto-login on this computer. Secondly, even if I had, the "AutomaticLoginEnable=False" line reflects that auto-login was not turned on when I performed the upgrade. And thirdly, even if it was turned on, there shouldn't be a configuration file conflict during upgrade for everyone who has auto-login turned on.