Ticket #215 (closed defect: fixed)
debathena-cluster on Jaunty doesn't give you a window manager
| Reported by: | jdreed | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority: | blocker | Milestone: | Summer 2009 Deployment |
| Component: | -- | Keywords: | |
| Cc: | Fixed in version: | ||
| Upstream bug: |
Description
Apparently users do not get a window manager when they log in.
Change History
comment:4 Changed 15 years ago by geofft
- Component changed from login chroot to --
- Summary changed from debathena-cluster login chroots don't work on Jaunty to debathena-cluster on Jaunty doesn't give you a window manager
There was discussion on #ubuntu-devel today about an Intrepid window manager setting in .gconf, on upgrade to Jaunty, resulting in you getting no window manager.
-cluster machines currently use GConf to override your window manager to Metacity, because of a compiz bug.
Assuming the people on IRC weren't totally confused, I bet their bug is our bug. We may have to do something more clever about migrating Intrepid .gconf profiles to Jaunty.
http://irclogs.ubuntu.com/2009/05/18/%23ubuntu-devel.txt
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xmonad/+bug/378111
If this is in fact the reason, it's easy to test: on an Intrepid non-cluster (not even necessarily Debathena) machine, set some window manager other than xmonad via the gconftool commands listed in that bug, upgrade to Jaunty, and see if you still get a window manager.
And then on a cluster system, punt the configuration we have to force metacity, and see if that gives you Compiz.
comment:5 Changed 15 years ago by geofft
I'm correct. If we stop setting the gconf defaults to make metacity instead of compiz the window manager, then you do get a window manager on login. (In this case, we got metacity anyway, because the video drivers didn't support Xgl / compiz, but...)
One option is to fix our gconf override to be correct for Jaunty; another is to use some other mechanism (like alternatives) to make compiz not the default. Or we could just put work towards solving LP:336932, so we no longer want to prevent compiz from running.
We should also consider making our code that copies .gconf-debathena-intrepid to .gconf-debathena-jaunty appropriately fix the user's .gconf in case they've chosen their own window manager there (instead of in .dmrc). I'm not sure if the Appearence control panel makes this change.
comment:6 Changed 15 years ago by jdreed
Alternatives is kind of a neat idea, especially since that would be configurable enough that we could think about doing this for workstation, too, but I wonder how difficult that would be, given the gnome-wm layer of indirection as well.
Solving the upstream bug is fine, but even if it's fixed, it'll take a while for it to make it into Jaunty. So let's either go the gconf route or alternatives for now, and then revisit the upstream bug in Aug/Sept?.
