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Bug 609774 - Ensure at minimum a user has a way out
Ensure at minimum a user has a way out
Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 645251
Product: gnome-session
Classification: Core
Component: gnome-session
git master
Other Linux
: Normal normal
: ---
Assigned To: Session Maintainers
Session Maintainers
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
 
Reported: 2010-02-12 19:02 UTC by William Jon McCann
Modified: 2011-03-20 05:13 UTC
See Also:
GNOME target: ---
GNOME version: ---


Description William Jon McCann 2010-02-12 19:02:11 UTC 
I was testing out gnome-shell and control-c'd the process.  Normally it restarts the panel and metacity when it exists.  But it did not - for whatever reason.

Sure this is a weird case but it is far too easy for it to occur I think.

It is particularly bad when both the panel (or the thing that provides app launching and logout) and the window manager (the thing that let's me use the windows I have) aren't present.

I think at minimum we should always have a WM and something that let's me get out of the session.  In a normal GNOME desktop I can get out of the session by logging out, rebooting, or switching users.  In GDM, I can login or reboot.  I think most sessions should have something like this.  Possibly specially designed kiosk type things excluded.

In the old days geeks used to just C-A-Backspace in this case.  Maybe C-A-Del can be one way out.  However, I don't think we can rely on a hidden hotkey for this.  It is just too scary to be stuck in a session without any visible controls.

Thoughts?
Comment 1 Vincent Untz 2010-02-12 19:09:29 UTC 
Just wondering: with a default config, shouldn't it be enough to press the power button? g-p-m will then do something (whatever the default is).
Comment 2 William Jon McCann 2010-02-12 19:10:03 UTC 
Maybe try to restart the WM once and then do something like:

"Your session has encountered a problem and cannot continue."
[Logout]


One advantage over just logging the user out is that if they are away from the screen they at least have some idea what has happened when they return.
Comment 3 William Jon McCann 2010-05-20 18:45:14 UTC 
As another data point today I discovered that I was able to login to a blank (jhbuild) session with no WM, panel, or nautilus.

.xsession-errors had the following:
gnome-session[19267]: WARNING: Unable to find provider 'metacity' of required component 'windowmanager'
gnome-session[19267]: WARNING: Unable to find provider 'gnome-panel' of required component 'panel'
gnome-session[19267]: WARNING: Unable to find provider 'nautilus' of required component 'filemanager'


Perhaps we should make the login fail if at least a WM and panel fail to start?
Comment 4 Ray Strode [halfline] 2010-05-21 14:18:10 UTC 
arguably login should fail if any "required components" fail.  They are "required" after all...
Comment 5 William Jon McCann 2011-03-20 05:13:49 UTC 
I guess we can merge this with bug 645251.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 645251 ***