lightdm does not start without the package unity-greeter installed

[Reinhard Tartler]

lightdm does not start without the package unity-greeter installed.

Therefore, unity-greeter should probably be a dependency. Currently, it is just a 'Recommends', so default installations are not affected.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug report, it's likely because your /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf configuration lists that greeter

There are already some bugs about handling better the case where the configured greeter is not available so closing this one

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

see bug #812170 for example

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Here is my lightdm.conf. There is no specific reference to any greeter.

Removing the greeter-session line does not help, it breaks lightdm even with with unity-greeter being installed.

Bug #812170 may sound related from the subject line, but the report itself is about a very different (and specific) usecase.

I disagree that this was an 'invalid' bug. It seems to me that lightdm does require some greeter package to be installed, which should be reflected by package dependencies.

As all greeter packages Proivde the virtual package 'lightdm-greeter', I think the the part "unity-greeter | lightdm-greeter" shoulbe promoted from Recommends to Depends to ensure that at least one greeter package is installed, with 'unity-greeter' being the preferred greeter.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

> Removing the greeter-session line does not help, it breaks lightdm even with with unity-greeter being installed.

Could you add your /var/log/lightdm/lightdm.log to the bug? The unity greeter is the default in Ubuntu either you should install or change your config to list a greeter you use

How did you land with lightdm installed but not unity-greeter since it's a recommends?

> I disagree that this was an 'invalid' bug. It seems to me that lightdm does require some greeter package to be installed, which should be reflected by package dependencies.

It doesn't no, it's the usual config but you could decide to have a light client config and connect to a display over vnc or xdmcp without needing a local greeter

> "unity-greeter | lightdm-greeter" shoulbe promoted from Recommends to Depends to ensure that at least one greeter package is installed, with 'unity-greeter' being the preferred greeter.

No, I did change to a Recommends during Oneiric and robert_ancell said the Recommends want on purpose to allow people to just use the server part of lightdm locally and use remote displays...

Note that there are some bugs on the topic, yours might be a duplicate of https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/842194

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

"on the topic" = "how should broken config, or config where the defined greeter is not installed" should be handled, from bug #842194

"In this case lightdm should quit, and the failsafe X mechanisms should kick in (i.e. fix your configuration)."

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

Indeed, I agree that this a duplicate of #842194. Marking this as such.