KDE logout options with F8

[Kevin Kofler]

Christopher Aillon <caillon <at> redhat.com> writes:
> If your first reaction had been to ask for more information instead of 
> add complaints, I might have mentioned that the plan is to have this for 
> F9 (I think so at least, someone can correct me if I'm wrong?).  Not 
> sure if that counts as long term...

Even if somebody implements a KDE frontend for the GDM backend, that won't make 
KDM go away. There's no way KDM is going away for KDE 4.0 which realistically 
will be what F9 will be shipping. (And of course, it's even less likely that 
said thing would happen in 3.5. Chances that KDE 4.1 will be anywhere near 
ready at F9 release are essentially nil, 4.1 might quite possibly not even make 
F10.)

> It is a reasonable request.  Can you accept reasonable answers?  Notting 
> and jkeating have already replied with technical analysis explaining why 
> it is not possible.

I have suggested at least 2 technical solutions, none of which needs any 
changes to Anaconda:
1. revert the default login manager in Base X to XDM. As much as you 
(plural "you") hate that, it's the most logical solution and some other people 
in this thread are defending it too.
2. change the fallback logic to pick KDM over GDM. As I said, I think we can 
easily put KDM in a subpackage so it doesn't accidentally get installed by a 
dependency on kdebase, kde-redhat used to do that in FC6 times.

There's another one, which is even less invasive (and doesn't change the 
behavior for the neither-GNOME-nor-KDE case as 1. nor for the 
both-GNOME-and-KDE case as 2., but really only affects KDE-but-not-GNOME which 
is what needs fixing), but has to be implemented as a specialized Anaconda 
hack. Pseudocode:
if (! upgrade && KDE selected && ! GNOME selected)
  echo 'DISPLAYMANAGER="KDE"' >/mnt/sysimage/etc/sysconfig/desktop

> Besides, we already know it's not going to happen for F8.  And F9 we 
> could in theory have a better all around solution....

"better" is subjective. If upstream KDE isn't going to drop KDM or recommend 
against it, IMHO that fact shouldn't be ignored.

        Kevin Kofler