GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 592976
No option to launch XDMCP chooser from login screen
Last modified: 2011-03-04 14:45:35 UTC
The post 2.20 GDM does not appear to have support logging into a remote system via XDMCP. This makes the new GDM unsuitable for use in thin client machines.
I believe this bug is about the fact that you can no longer launch the XDMCP chooser from the login screen, as you could with older versions of GDM (2.20 and earlier). However, GDM does have some support for XDMCP. The new GDM does, for example, support running as an XDMCP server so that other clients can connect to it via XDMCP.
Yes, that is the issue but I'm not sure of the correct lingo. Does it make sense to call this "Cannot act as a XDMCP client"?
No, that isn't quite accurate either. I believe the way the new GDM works is that you can configure it to either launch the login GUI or the XDMXP chooser on a given display. I believe the new GDM requires some configuration to make a display show the chooser instead of the login program. I haven't tested this, but I believe you can make the new GDM act as an XDMCP client. You just can't switch between login and chooser programs. I believe that is the real bug here. I've updated the synopsis so this is more clear.
The documentations states: GDM 2.20 and earlier supported the ability to manage multiple displays with separate graphics cards, such as used in terminal server environments, login in a window via a program like Xnest or Xephyr, the gdmsetup program, XML-based greeter themes, and the ability to run the XDMCP chooser from the login screen. These features were not added back during the 2.22 rewrite. I can't work out how to make it act as a XDMCP client - does anyone know how to do this?
I believe the new GDM only supports running the chooser when XDMCP indirect is being used. I'm guessing that probably isn't what you want. However, there is some XDMCP client integration in the new GDM. This bug is probably just a matter of exposing that functionality so it is again available in more situations. Like it would be useful if the new GDM supported switching between the login screen and the chooser by just clicking a button or something, like the old GDM supported.
Well if it helps push it through I second the reintroduction of this feature so that future versions of Ubuntu can remotely login to an XDMCP session from the login screen.
This is causing real heartburn over in the Ubuntu forums. http://www.peppertop.com/blog/?p=671