Unable to change options on passwordless login

[lumbricus]

Binary package hint: gdm

There is a problem with passwordless logins and the default configuration of Lucid: you can't change the language (and whatever you'd like to configure in GDM), because all options are hidden until you choose a user, and obviously once you've clicked on it it's too late.

Is it possible to display the buttons also before selecting a user?

(See Bug 393854 about the new password-less login feature in Lucid.)

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

I've updated a little the description since the feature is only officially available in Lucid, so no need to disturb people with Karmic issues.

I guess one way of fixing this would be, as you say, to show the options before an user is chosen. Not sure that fits well in the code's design.

[lumbricus (lumbricus)]

Yeah you are right, thanks!

For desperate Lucid users who stumble across this bug report: if you need to change the settings for your passwordless account only once, you can do so in ~/.dmrc. This file looks like this:

[Desktop]
Session=gnome
Language=cs_CZ.UTF-8
Layout=de

[Guram Z. Savinov (savinov-guram)]

I post duplicate bug report #652813.
As I say in my post: I think
setting DE, language and layout must be independently of authentication
method(with password, without password).
Method of editing .dmrc is not good, because before you change it, you must login, edit file, logout. I think it must be by clicking in gdm GUI, isn't it?

I try write a patch in source code, but need help: where in source code execution is when we clicking to user, and where in source code checking for group nopasswdlogin is?

[Milan Bouchet-Valat (nalimilan)]

Guram: I'm not sure the solution is to change the login screen's behavior. Since you can't guess that the user is going to click on an account with password-less login, you would have to see the options all the time. This means you cannot know what language and keyboard layout are the default for this account, so you're screwed!

A better solution would be to add this to the accounts configuration tool, allowing administrators to change these settings (and of course the user himself when logged in). The new users management tool, accounts-dialog, has made some steps in that direction, e.g. by showing the language for the user. See http://git.gnome.org/browse/accounts-dialog and http://blogs.fedoraproject.org/wp/mclasen/2010/01/30/first-release/.

Of course, you can also try to find another solution in GDM, for example adding a small button/icon allowing to tweak settings before logging in, but it would have to suit well with the current design to be accepted upstream.