[ale] no user/password fields on gnome logins screen

John Heim john at johnheim.net
Tue Jul 12 13:25:54 EDT 2011


That is correct. 'Xorg -configure' creates a file named xorg.conf.new in 
your home directory (for root that would be /root). It does remind you of 
that but it doesn't tell you what to do with the file. It used to be you 
could copy it to /etc/X11/ but who knows now? In fact, you don't need an 
xorg.conf file at all and I've seen messages out there in googleland that 
say it is recommended that you do not have an xorg.conf.  But I was just 
trying it out of desperation.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jim Kinney" <jim.kinney at gmail.com>
To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 12:07 PM
Subject: Re: [ale] no user/password fields on gnome logins screen


>I think that Xorg -configure will not put the xorg.conf file in the proper
> location. I've always had to manually move it to /etc/X11 when I created 
> it
> manually. It seemed to drop it in root's home directory.
>
> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 12:52 PM, John Heim <john at johnheim.net> wrote:
>
>> There is no /etc/X11/xorg.conf file on the machine. Although, 'man
>> xorg.conf' says that X looks for an xorg.conf file in about 100 different
>> locations under about 100 different names. And I haven't checked them 
>> all.
>> I guess I'll have to do that.
>>
>> Anyway, I created an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file according to that page and 
>> it
>> didn't work. I found lots of messages out there about that technique not
>> working. What does work is to run 'setxkbmap -optionn
>> terminate:cntrl_alt_bksp'. So then I get the hotkey for killing X. But I
>> still have the original problem of not having a proper login window.
>>
>> I also tried generating an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file by running
>> 'Xorg -configure' but that didn't help either.
>>
>> Well, another thing is that I left something out of my original 
>> description
>> of the problem. I am installing linux via FAI (Fully Automated Install). 
>> So
>> I have about 20 machines with this problem right now.
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Charles Shapiro" <hooterpincher at gmail.com>
>> To: "Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts" <ale at ale.org>
>> Sent: Tuesday, July 12, 2011 9:53 AM
>> Subject: Re: [ale] no user/password fields on gnome logins screen
>>
>>
>> I can't necessarily help you on your gdm3 login fields trouble, but
>> ctrl-alt-backspace is probably disabled in your
>> X config file ( /etc/xorg.conf I think ).  You can set "dontzap" to
>> false I believe to re-enable it, as detailed here (
>> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XorgCtrlAltBackspace ).  I've done this on my
>> personal box without ill effect. I have no experience with gdm or
>> gdm3, since I login exclusively in text mode and then explicitly start
>> X from the command line. Call it an idiosyncracy from my years of
>> using a green screen.
>>
>> -- CHS
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:37 AM, John Heim <john at johnheim.net> wrote:
>> > Anybody have any idea why the gnome login screen would come up without
>> the
>> > boxes to enter your user ID and password? Obviously, that makes it kind
>> of
>> > difficult to log in. I can switch to a text console and restart gdm3 
>> > and
>> > then I get a normal login window. But if I reboot, it goes back to not
>> > having places to type in your user ID and password. Alternately, 
>> > anybody
>> > know of how you can restart gdm3 at the login window? You used to be 
>> > able
>> > to
>> > do that by pressing control+alt+backspace but it doesn't work anymore.
>> >
>> > I see in the syslog error messages from gtk that say that something is
>> > creating widgets "not in a window". I presume that's the problem and 
>> > that
>> > the user ID and password widgets are being created outside a window (or
>> > something). But I can't figure out why it would do that or why 
>> > restarting
>> > gdm3 would fix the problem.
>> >
>> > PS: I'm blind but sighted people have told me that the screen 
>> > resolution
>> > looks the same before and after restarting gdm3. Everything looks the
>> same
>> > (according to them) except that after restarting gdm3, the login window
>> > contains places to put your ID and password.
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
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>
>
>
> -- 
> -- 
> James P. Kinney III
>
> As long as the general population is passive, apathetic, diverted to
> consumerism or hatred of the vulnerable, then the powerful can do as they
> please, and those who survive will be left to contemplate the outcome.
> - *2011 Noam Chomsky
>
> http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/
> *
>


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