Customizing the login screen (sound, default desktop environment)

[BowlerHat]

Hello all,

I have just installed Fedora (13) for the first time. It's great ! So thanks to all its developers !

I managed to do many tweaks I wanted to, in no small part thanks to this forum, but here's one that eludes me and my google-fu.

I'd like to customize the login screen (if I grokked correctly, that's gdm). I already saw how to change the background or how to enable automatic login, but what I'd like to do is this :


1. Disable that rather annoying "pong" sound when I select a user,


2. Set a default desktop environment. Gnome seems to be the default environment selected in the drop-down menu, but me, I'd like for it to be XFCE.


Any help on this will get you my eternal gratitude* !

* Our eternity comes with a one-year warranty

[GoinEasy9]

1) If you don't have Configuration Editor in your Applications-->System Tools Menu do "yum install gconf-editor", then
Applications-->System Tools-->Configuration Editor-->apps-->gdm-->simple greeter-->settings manager-->sound, then, uncheck active.
2) I'm assuming you already have XFCE installed. At the log in screen there should be an icon that will let you choose which DE you want to be default. I haven't done it in ages, look for it when the user login comes up after booting. You may or may not have to click on the user first to see the icon. Maybe someone else can confirm this.

[stevea]

Good stuff from GoinEasy9, wrt to the gdm greeter,but there is one additional config to consider.

The file /etc/sysconfig/desktop is included into the script /etc/X11/prefdm at startup, and you can use this file to select which greeter is used. The Fedora default (for example is the 'desktop' file doesn't exist) is gdm, but kdm (the KDE greeter), lxde (the LXE greeter) and /usr/bin/xdm (the basic X greeter) and others also exist.

For most of these programs you can choose any desktop (gnome, kde, xfce, lxde, enlightenment, ....) from any greeter. So useing the gdm greeter does not restrict you to the gnome desktop. The list of desktops is generally described in the directory /usr/share/xsessions, and you can add a descriptor for a new desktop there. Also see this link, but it *should* already be done for xfce.
http://www.xfce.org/documentation/in...setting-up-gdm

==
So if you haven't tried another greeter you should,. They each have somewhat different configuration methods with gdm being the most complex and mysterious to configure. The others typically have a text file to configure somewhere under /etc.

The greeter (display manager) names, executable location and package names are:
gdm - /usr/sbin/gdm, gdm (Gnome greeter)
kdm - /usr/bin/kdm, kdm (KDE greeter)
xdm - /usr/bin/xdm, xorg-x11-xdm (basic X11 greeter)
lxdm - /usr/sbin/lxdm, (LXDE desktop greeter)
olpc - /usr/sbin/olpc-dm, olpc-util, (One Laptop per Child)
noadm - /usr/sbin/nodm, nodm, (simple trivial greeter)
ldm - /usr/sbin/ldm, ldm, (LTSP Display Manager, Linux Terminal Server)
There may be others, but I don't see an XFCE flavor.

For example to try the kdm login program/greeter etc, you must install the pacakge and then configure the /etc/sysconfig/destop file.

Example:
su -
<passwd>
yum install kdm
echo " DISPLAYMANAGER=KDE" >> /etc/sysconfig/desktop
exit

The prefdm has "hooks" for gdm, kdm, xdm so you can specify these in the desktop file as:
DISPLAYMANAGER=GNOME
DISPLAYMANAGER=KDE
DISPLAYMANAGER=XDM
For the other greeters you have to set the variable to point at the binary
DISPLAYMANAGER=/usr/sbin/lxdm
DISPLAYMANAGER=/usr/sbin/ldm
and so on.

FWIW I find the kdm greeter to be pretty straightforward and the lxde desktop is a similar lightweight desktop to xfce. enlightenment is a very pleasant lightweight desktop too IMO, Sometime when you feel like experimenting - give it a spin.

[BowlerHat]

Thanks GoinEasy9 and stevea for your advice !

I tried to do what GoinEasy9 said and unchecked the "active" box in Applications-->System Tools-->Configuration Editor-->apps-->gdm-->simple greeter-->settings manager-->sound.

However, I didn't find any menu or option in GDM to set XFCE as the default environment.

Then, I followed stevea's advice and did

echo " DISPLAYMANAGER=KDE" >> /etc/sysconfig/desktop

(after installing kdm of course)

However, this seemed to cause a problem. As soon as I booted with KDM, I got an error message "cannot access home directory, using ./ instead" and I couldn't do anything, except as root. So, I reversed the previous manipulation by

echo " DISPLAYMANAGER=GNOME" >> /etc/sysconfig/desktop

Things got back to normal (and to GDM).

However, I still get sound in GDM, even though the "active" box is still unchecked. I tried to set it as "mandatory", but (after entering my root password) I get :

Could not set value. Error was:
Failed: Could not make directory `/home/lkl/.gconf': Permission denied

Also, when I try to launch gconf-editor from console in root mode, I get several instances of :

GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details — 1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

I'm rather at a loss regarding what to do from there. I did try solving that "GConf error" issue by searching these forums, but nothing worked so far. So, if anyone has any advice, I'll offer another round of eternal gratitude

(Yes, that's two eternities - I'm like Chuck Norris !)

[sonoran]

Originally Posted by BowlerHat

Also, when I try to launch gconf-editor from console in root mode, I get several instances of :

GConf Error: Failed to contact configuration server; some possible causes are that you need to enable TCP/IP networking for ORBit, or you have stale NFS locks due to a system crash. See http://projects.gnome.org/gconf/ for information. (Details — 1: Failed to get connection to session: Did not receive a reply. Possible causes include: the remote application did not send a reply, the message bus security policy blocked the reply, the reply timeout expired, or the network connection was broken.)

I'm rather at a loss regarding what to do from there. I did try solving that "GConf error" issue by searching these forums, but nothing worked so far. So, if anyone has any advice, I'll offer another round of eternal gratitude

(Yes, that's two eternities - I'm like Chuck Norris !)

This comes up fairly often, and one of the more knowledgeable users posted an explanation for it, but at the moment my searches are coming up empty.

It seems to depend on how you gain root privileges. Running "su -" in the terminal allows you to then run gconf-editor without problems or warnings, but su -c 'gconf-editor' opens an empty gconf-editor interface and the terminal is full of errors. Can't test sudo because I don't have it set up.

[BowlerHat]

Thanks a ton sonoran ! By using su - I was able to access gconf-editor normally.

However, the mystery remains unsolved, since I did uncheck the "active" case for sound, and set the value as "mandatory" and "default", yet I still hear that "pong" sound when I select a user...

Quoth the login, nevermore!

(Yeah, I wish)

[sonoran]

Under System/Preferences/Startup Applications there is a program called "GNOME Login Sound" that "Plays a sound whenever you log in" (hard to believe, but true) that can be deactivated. Can't hurt.

I somehow managed to disable my pc speaker when I installed, but I cannot recall where that setting is. The sound effects used to get my dogs barking in the middle of the night, particularly that login "thump".

[GoinEasy9]

I noticed some things aren't working recently on gconf-editor, like, I used to set the geometry up for gnome-terminal there and that's not working either, so, there may be another dead spot in gconf-editor. The gnome-login sound in Statup-Applications that sonoran referred to is another good idea. That should work.

[BowlerHat]

Damn, I really thought that would be it... But no, I removed the aforementioned application - and the sound's still there.

My guess is, this app plays a sound when you login to the Gnome desktop environment, but has nothing to do with GDM, which comes before you actually login to Gnome.

No matter, my quest shall continue !

[GoinEasy9]

LOL... I never let it get to me, but now I'm curious ... if you come up with anything, post back ... I'll do the same.

BTW - the gnome login sound was a series of notes that played when desktop was finished logging in, so, that wasn't it, and, I just remembered that there is no sound file for the login sound, I think since F11. The sound we are trying to find is some kind of a notification sound, and should be in /usr/share/sounds folder. It might be the sonar.ogg file in /usr/share/sounds/gnome/default/alerts, but sounds more like the bell.oga file in the /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo folder. Do a mouse over the files and see if you can match the sound. It should be as easy as renaming or deleting the file to make the sound go away (I'd rename instead of delete, just in case it breaks something), but take into consideration the fact that that sound might be used for other notifications.

[BowlerHat]

GoinEasy, you are a genius ! The solution indeed lies with /usr/share/sounds More specifically, it is indeed /usr/share/sounds/freedesktop/stereo/bell.oga which causes that annoying pong sound. I deleted it and it was gone !

While I was at it, I deleted the whole content of the /usr/share/sounds/ folder because really, who needs noisy notifications ?

Thanks again! Now I'll focus in the other object of my quest, the default desktop environment....

[GoinEasy9]

Hey BowlerHat, glad you worked it out. I knew where to look because I missed the Login Sound after it went away, heh, different strokes for different folks.
BTW - about your default desktop environment. Did do know that if you used the DVD for the install you could have chosen XFCE instead of Gnome?

[BowlerHat]

Yeah, I did know about that. But I thought it wasn't worth the hassle of downloading that ginormous .iso, since I could always install XFCE afterwards.

[BowlerHat]

Quick follow-up. Creating a second user (previously there was only one) enabled the "previously used environment as default" function, for both users (whereas it previously did not work for the "old" user). That's quite strange, probably a bug in fact. Dunno if it would be replicable. I do remember that in a previous Fedora install (same version : Fedora 13), the "previously used environment as default" did function, even if there was only one user.

Go figure. But hey, it works now, so...

If anyone else encounters the same bug, perhaps creating a new user then deleting it would solve the problem. I didn't try it.

[wraith01]

Remove greeter and allow login without the user listing on LXDM F16 a solution:
[root@somethingwicked ~]# diff /usr/share/lxdm/themes/Industrial/greeter.ui.bak-good /usr/share/lxdm/themes/Industrial/greeter.ui
64,75d63
< <object class="GtkIconView" id="user_list">
< <property name="visible">True</property>
< <property name="can_focus">True</property>
< <property name="item-padding">1</property>
< </object>
< <packing>
< <property name="expand">False</property>
< <property name="fill">False</property>
< <property name="position">1</property>
< </packing>
< </child>
< <child>
[root@somethingwicked ~]#