New GDM and wallpaper question

annafil · #1 28th April 2008, 08:23 PM

Hello all!

I was reading about the new GDM features here http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/NewGdm, and as far as I understand, there is no longer any theming capability because the gdm greeter is supposed to sort of preload your gnome settings.

This works in Preview noticeably for sounds, but doesn't work for the wallpaper.

Anyone else having this issue? Or am I misunderstanding something?

Quite a bummer for me, as I I'm not a huge fan of the new artowork and would like to be able to change the gdm background somehow.

AltGrendel · #2 28th April 2008, 08:51 PM

No, you aren't the only one with this issue. I'm still trying to find the answer myself. Not a good choice as far as I'm concerned.

annafil · #3 28th April 2008, 09:11 PM

It sounds like we won't have a choice but to use the default distro wallpaper - from what I can tell there needs to be a sane default for all users to see before individual settings can be applied.

And this is not an easy default to change.. I think we'll be seeing a lot of gdm downgrades and hacks in Fedora 9.

AltGrendel · #4 29th April 2008, 03:23 AM

Well, my biggest issue with that is that (to me, at least) it violates the spirit of Fedora. That you can change anything, anytime.

What a shame.

stevea · #5 29th April 2008, 04:09 AM

They also removed the gdmsetup tool. I understand they've removed much of the configurable functionality - but what about the chooser and the daemon for nested session ?

Not just a shame, a but tiresome.bore.

DCOH · #6 29th April 2008, 05:58 AM

From what I've seen of Fedora 9 thats been on the extra Hard drive F8 is going to be on this computer for a long time.

muep · #7 29th April 2008, 06:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AltGrendel

Well, my biggest issue with that is that (to me, at least) it violates the spirit of Fedora. That you can change anything, anytime.

What a shame.

Is this the spirit of Fedora? From fedoraproject.org:

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute.

Gdm 2.21 is the latest release. I don't know much about it myself, but I hear it introduces some very welcome architectural improvements and enables the developers to enhance its functionality beyond the old Gdm, once it matures.

As far as I can tell, changing the Gdm wallpaper is a nice ability, but far from a critical feature. The login manager still works fine, and at least I think it is as easy to use as the old Gdm.

I think Fedora is more about the rapid progress of free software than about including every possible configuration setting ever conceived. This is not the first time that Fedora introduces a piece of software well before any other distribution is willing to adopt it. Adopting programs that have a lot of potential helps them to mature faster and maybe be adopted by other operating systems, too.

The gdmsetup utility may be missing because it is not yet compatible with Gdm 2.21.

#8 29th April 2008, 06:17 AM

im not looking forward to using the new GDM myself,,i just hope by fedora10 they improve on an unfinished GDM

cgrim · #9 29th April 2008, 06:50 AM

I agree with you - previous version of GDM was better and had nice themes.
The F9 theme is horrible, gray login dialog moves design of the Fedora distro back somewhere on RedHat Linux version 5 or 6

#10 29th April 2008, 07:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cgrim

I agree with you - previous version of GDM was better and had nice themes.
The F9 theme is horrible, gray login dialog moves design of the Fedora distro back somewhere on RedHat Linux version 5 or 6

im not worried about the themes.. its GDM that needs improving,,, cant please everybody with the themes

AltGrendel · #11 29th April 2008, 01:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by muep

Is this the spirit of Fedora? From fedoraproject.org:

Fedora is a Linux-based operating system that showcases the latest in free and open source software. Fedora is always free for anyone to use, modify, and distribute.

Gdm 2.21 is the latest release. I don't know much about it myself, but I hear it introduces some very welcome architectural improvements and enables the developers to enhance its functionality beyond the old Gdm, once it matures.

As far as I can tell, changing the Gdm wallpaper is a nice ability, but far from a critical feature. The login manager still works fine, and at least I think it is as easy to use as the old Gdm.

I think Fedora is more about the rapid progress of free software than about including every possible configuration setting ever conceived. This is not the first time that Fedora introduces a piece of software well before any other distribution is willing to adopt it. Adopting programs that have a lot of potential helps them to mature faster and maybe be adopted by other operating systems, too.

The gdmsetup utility may be missing because it is not yet compatible with Gdm 2.21.

You are missing my point. But that's ok, I have my opinion and you are entitled to yours.

I found the gdm background info in /usr/share/backgrounds/waves The waves.xml file is an interesting read.

Ymir · #12 29th April 2008, 03:06 PM

Interesting, I somehow didn't notice that the background changes, I login so rarely I guess. Cool find, AltGrendel. I'm guess then that we can change that, a simple pl/py script should be able to change them out just fine on command. Now we just need people to make backgrounds that change naturally with the day. :-P

rpgbilder · #13 11th August 2008, 05:23 AM

This works to change the gdm wallpaper in fedora 9

http://hacktux.com/fedora/9/gdm

wvn · #14 15th September 2008, 08:00 AM

i personally like the gdm wallpaper