GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 386655
Possibility to choose a default user
Last modified: 2010-06-17 02:47:39 UTC
I use a theme with an userlist. There are two users on my system. One of these users are logged in on more than 50% of the times. It would be nice to have an option like "MarkDefaultUser=value" in the configs. If I then add the user that I want to be the default, it gets marked(highlited) automatically in the userlist. I would not have to click on that user, just type in the password. Also the times when the other user needs to log in, he/she could just use the arrow keys to change the user and would not need to use the mouse to mark the desired username. There could be a setting that would mark the last logged in user instead of having a default. KDM has these two features. I miss them in GDM. I have searched the config files and could not find them.
I would accept a patch to add such a feature. I'm guessing it would only work with the Face Browser, or would it do something if the Face Browser is not turned on? Perhaps add a new key called DefaultFaceBrowserUser and make the Face Browser select it if present.
I could imagine that if I was the only user on this machine, I would have a "default user" regardless if I had a face browser or not. I don't like to type in anything that is excessive. In this case just the password, since the username is the same every time. But in this case there should be something that makes it possible to go back one step so that it is possible to change the user, if that is needed. But all I am requesting right now is with the face browser, since that is what I use now.
It seems like a good feature, but I'd like to explore a bit more how this should work. What about a system where 99% of the time one user logs in, but sometimes there is a desire to login as a different user. Sometimes there is a desire to login as a different user that doesn't showup in the face browser, such as the root user (since MinimalUID is normally set to a higher UID than the root user). Obviously users can select different users in the face browser just by clicking on a different user, but if you want to login as a user that isn't in the face browser you can use the "Start Again" button to unselect the Face Browser and the can then enter a different username by hand. I assume that it would work the same with your concept of a default user being pre-selected. For example, if the user wanted to login as root, they could hit the "Start Again" button to get back to "username entry". This would work, but the label on the "Start Again" button might be confusing in this situation. Since the default user is pre-selected, the user isn't really "Starting Again" they are "unselecting the face browser user". Perhaps the label of this button should say "Unselect Face Browser" if there is currently a user selected in the face browser to make things more clear? This might be a nice label change regardless of whether a "default user" is being used or not. Likewise, if this feature were to work without the face browser, the "start again" button might need a different label, like perhaps "Enter a different username". Previously the purpose of the "Start Again" button is to allow the user to "start again" if they realize they entered the wrong username and didn't want to have to type a pointless invalid password to get back to username entry. But when you have the concept of a "default user", the purpose of this button changes. What do you think? Do you have better suggestions about how this should work or how the buttons should be labelled when this feature is used?
It seems that the theme that I am using right now, which I like, doesn't have this "start again" button. I use the Avio-GDM that is the highest rated theme in gnome-look: http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=37395 The way KDM handles this, is by having both the username and password field visible at any time. GDM has only one field that changes from username to password when the username is entered. The GDM way maybe looks better, or more clean, but in this case I think that I prefer the KDM way of doing things. I understand that this is quite a big part of GDM, and probably never getting changed. But for usability I think it would be better to have two fields visible. The username field being automatically filled with the username when the face of that user is clicked on (or automatically selected by default). I don't know really which way is the best to do to solve this. Would be nice to get some input from other users also. I changed to GDM from KDM because I like the themes and the feel of GDM better. But I really miss this one part from KDM.
Hmm. I'd recommend telling the maintainer of the Avio-GDM theme that a Start Again button is very useful when using the Face Browser. Without this button, you cannot unselect the Face Browser to enter a user that might not be in the list. The problem with showing both the username/password field at the same time is that this breaks the way PAM works. The display manager should be driven by PAM and simply show whatever request PAM asks for, and then the display manager provides whatever response the user enters. Showing both at the same time makes assumptions about how PAM is working behind the scenes and will likely break if a PAM module is being used that doesn't have the assumptions (such as a SmartCard PAM module that doesn't need to ask for username since the username is implied by the SmartCard). Many people ask for username/password to be on the screen at the same time because it would look cleaner. But this isn't possible without breaking assumptions about how PAM works. It's better, I think, to not break PAM assumptions. As I said, I think adding a "Start Again" button to the Avio-GDM theme (and any theme that shows a Face Browser) is the right fix here for this theme. I also would be happy to accept a patch that makes GDM support a default username.
That is true that the theme should have a start again button. I just noticed that there is nothing else to do than restart the computer if I accidentally choose a face that I don't know the password to. If there is no magic key combination, which I don't know, that takes me back to the previous state of choosing user again. Too bad that almost every theme using the face browser is based on the Avio-GDM. I would have to change theme if the feature of a default user would be added, I think. Because as it is now, it is not possible to change the user without the button. I agree with you that the PAM assumptions should not be broken. How does KDM solve this? Am I the only one that have suggested something like this?
Well, you can pick a different user in the face browser. You don't have to unselect the face browser to pick a different face. So as long as the face you want is in the face browser, it should work okay. The missing "Start Again" button is only a hassle if you pick a face and then realize that you want to login as a user that isn't in the face browser (such as root or some other user that isn't configured to be in the face browser if IncludeAll is not used or has a UID below MinimalUID). Probably doesn't happen often. I guess the workaround in this case is to login to a user you know the password to and logout again, sort of a hassle. Not sure how KDM addresses the fact that the username/password on the same screen breaks PAM assumption. I'm guessing that certain PAM modules just won't work right, unless it is configurable and you can turn on/off the feature. To my knowledge you are the first to ask for this feature - you are the first to file an enhancement request for it.
I just came up with an idea that might be easier to implement, and maybe nicer. Let the up and down arrow keys select user. Something like this: GDM is loaded and no user is selected. If I press up arrow, the last user is selected. If I press down arrow, the first user is selected. The arrow keys could be used to navigate through the rest of the users in the list. This would make my life easier. If I know that my user is the first one on the list, I could just press arrow down and type my password without ever using the mouse. What do you think?
*** Bug 522965 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Well, what about the usual implementation of this? Just simply put the given username to the username input field (if any), the text selected. IMHO this is quite easy to implement and comfortable to "default users" (they just press an enter here).
If a default user were set, and feature request 501011 were included sometime, the wallpaper could be set to default to the default users wallpaper.
Thanks for taking the time to report this bug. However, you are using a version that is too old and not supported anymore. GNOME developers are no longer working on that version, so unfortunately there will not be any bug fixes for the version that you use. By upgrading to a newer version of GNOME you could receive bug fixes and new functionality. You may need to upgrade your Linux distribution to obtain a newer version of GNOME. Please feel free to reopen this bug if the problem still occurs with a newer version of GNOME.