GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 77335
using tcsh as shell
Last modified: 2003-01-17 18:28:11 UTC
When using tcsh as shell and thus setting the search PATH in the ~/.login file the PATH is not used by the GNOME desktop. This means that when using the desktop menus for starting programs, Netscape emacs and so they will not follow the PATH in the ~/.login file. If using a shell(GNOME terminal) the PATH is correct and used. When searching for the reason for this, it seams like gdm is always forcing a bash login and the creating a tcsh shell but no tcsh login shell (tcsh -l) which is the only tcsh process that reads the ~/.login file. gdm should ofcourse always use the users login shell, not forcing bash as login shell which is very missleading and confusing. Thanks Michael Laajanen
Which version of GDM are you using? If you have upgraded since then, have you found that there is still a problem? Thanks for your time, TC
I believe this problem is still present in gdm-2.4.0.7, affecting all shells afaict.
Since you're using 2.4.0.7 I presume you are using redhat8, they have changed their startup and it won't run tcsh. I actually think that it's probably pointless to do this anyway, I think a bash or some such should be in the default session so that the X startup works the same for all users. Dealing with different shells just creates a mess. It also has other issues with systems where users have no shell but you want a gui access ... etc ...Marking NOTGNOME as this is really an issue with redhat currently.
HI, I just read the respond to my reported bug concerning using tcsh when doing a gdm login. The comment "Dealing with different shells just creates a mess" does only show a little understanding of realtime use (- If you have 1000 users running everything from SUN/HP to Linux it would not make you longlived by switching to bash! One must simple be aware of that there are more than hobby people living in a sandbox using UNIX, we are professional people and UNIX is not the kind of OS that we say "convert" and redo all the time. This IS a critical BUG as should be address with the understanding of realtime use of systems. regards Michael
However gdm currently does allow tcsh as shell, but RedHat doesn't and likely won't. If you install the current standard gdm (not RedHat modified package) you get tcsh. RedHat doing this is part of the reason I don't care about supporting it in perhaps some new version. It is much more preferable to have one accross the board solution. Basically on RedHat it will be whatever redhat uses. Other distros/UNIXes will be able to set it to whatever they want to. But I wish to leave this upon the system integrator. Basically an Xsession like file would do the login stuff. It should be possible to then redo your startup to run any shell you wish by just editting that file. In any case, again marking as NOTGNOME, because this "bug" doesn't exist in 2.4.1.1 as released by me, but only in the gdm as released by RedHat.