[K12OSN] RE: K12ltsp login

[Rob Owens]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 10:52:09AM -0800, Bob Mead wrote:
> From: Rob Owens <rowens at ptd.net>
> Subject: Re: [K12OSN] Re: K12ltsp login
> To: "Support list for open source software in schools."
> 	<k12osn at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <20090115000245.GJ18672 at junker.owens.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> 
> On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 03:20:06PM -0800, Bob Mead wrote:
> 
> >> 2009/1/14 Bob Mead <bmead at lane.k12.or.us>:
> >> 
> >  
> >>>> >> I'm working on a new k12ltsp 5EL installation. So far I have the 
> >>>server
> >>>> >> loaded, its mounting users' /home dirs from a remote machine via 
> >>>nfs,
> >>>> >>  authenticating via our remote ldap server (FINALLY!!!, thanks Dan 
> >>>and
> >>>> >> others) and now when I login as a user I get "User's $Home/.dmrc 
> >>>file is
> >>>> >> being ignored (etc)" I googled the answer to this error and found 
> >>>that I
> >>>> >> need to login as me and chmod the permissions to 644. I tried to do 
> >>>this
> >>>      
> >>> >  
> >>    
> >> Try adding this to the [security] stanza of /etc/gdm/custom.conf:
> >> 
> >> RelaxPermissions=1
> >> 
> >> Might also try this in /etc/gdm/custom.conf:
> >> 
> >> CheckDirOwner=false
> >> 
> >> Do you find any .dmrc files with this command?
> >> 
> >> updatedb && locate .dmrc
> >> 
> >> 
> >> Dan Young <dyoung at mesd.k12.or.us>
> >> Multnomah ESD - Technology Services
> >> 503-257-1562
> >> 
> >> Dan:
> >> I tried adding the Relax line and restarting gdm - did not fix the 
> >problem. > I added the CheckDir line and again restarted gdm  (using gdm 
> >stop and gdm > restart - both of which return "GDM already running. 
> >Aborting!" so its > probably not working. I ran the update & locate - it 
> >found a large number > of .dmrc files all except mine being in the user's 
> >/home directory. Mine is > located in /oldhome and it will not let me copy 
> >or move it, seemingly no > matter what I do to the permissions or 
> >ownership - either as myself or as > root. Any further thoughts on what I 
> >might try?
> >  
> Dan: I tried changing to relaxpermissions=2 and rebooted, no change. Why 
> does gdm restart (or gdm stop) return "GDM already running. Aborting!" 
> .  I tried the gdmflexiserver cmd as detailed in custom.conf, i.e. - 
> gdmflexiserver --command="UPDATE_CONFIG security/Relax Permissions=2" 
> returned 'OK' so I think that got it, but I'm a little confused by the 
> above error(s).
> 
> >> 
> >  
> The root user may not be allowed to change permissions of the files on an 
> nfs-mounted /home directory.  NFS defaults to the "root_squash" option.  
> You could try exporting /home with the "no_root_squash" option. 
> -Rob
> 
> Thanks Rob, that fixed it! Unfortunately it brought up another problem: now 
> my login screen goes blank after I enter my username and password and 
> eventually returns to start all over again, i.e.- asking for username and 
> password. Any help would be greatly appreciated. 
> Thanks,
> 	~bob
> 
I don't know why that would happen, but...

If you have completed all the permissions/ownership changes that you think you need, and you don't need to create users' home directories on login, then you may no longer need the "no_root_squash" option.  I don't think that option is required for "normal" LTSP usage.  Try removing that option and restarting the nfs server, then see if your server behaves normally.   Note that in the future instead of setting the "no_root_squash" option to change permissions on the nfs mounted files, you could ssh into the nfs server as root and change them there.

-Rob