Evolution problem

[Rick Stevens]

Graeme Nichols wrote:
> Hello Folks,
> 
> I have a small problem with Evolution 1.0.9-11 on RH8, the version that
> RH supplied as a security update for RH8 not long after RH8 was
> released. The problem has been around for a long time and I couldn't be
> bothered fixing it as updating Evolution is a labourious exercise
> involving gnome.
> 
> However, I noticed a curious thing, if I ssh into my desktop machine
> from my laptop to run evolution (so as to keep things in one place on
> one machine) and I do a search on my inbox the resulting matches
> highlight the word searched on in the emails. If I then go to my desktop
> machine and do the same the search word is again highlighted but if I
> exit Evolution and re-start it and do the search again the search word
> is completely missing, no blank space in place of it just a single space
> character. This missing highlight is the problem I've had all along and
> I simply thought it was a bug in the Evolution version I have.
> 
> The question is: Why does it work when I ssh in from my laptop and why
> does it still work when I go back to my desktop machine but NOT after
> killing Evolution and re-starting it on the desktop. Anyone have an
> answer? Both machines are running RH8 but the version of Evolution
> installed on the laptop is the original version from the distribution
> CDs, it hasn't had the security fix applied. But that shouldn't make a
> difference as when I ssh into my desktop machine to run Evolution on the
> laptop I am running the Evolution installed on the desktop, Aren't I?

Yes and no.  When you ssh in, you get the UID and GID of the person
you're SSHing as, but you don't get the environment (ssh doesn't do a
"login" unless you set it up do do so in /etc/ssh/sshd_config (the
"UseLogin" option).  As a result, there are a number of enviroment
things that don't get set up the same as if you did an actual login.
This may cause Evolution to store it's state info in a totally different
spot than it does when you're on the machine locally.

So, you ssh in and do your thing and evolution stores its state info
somewhere.  You log in locally and evolution looks for its state info,
doesn't find it and works as it did via ssh. You run it a second time,
and _this_ time it DOES find its state info and Poof!  Your problem
shows up.  I'll bet you find that if you do do:

	su - user-you're-sshing-as

and run evolution, THEN get on locally and do it, your problem will show
up immediately.  Now, just what the problem is, I don't know.  I don't
use Evolution much, so I can't speak to that.  I'm just trying to
explain why the thing is behaving the way it does between ssh and local
sessions.

NOTE: Using the "UseLogin yes" option in /etc/ssh/sshd_config will break
X11 forwarding. I recommend using "su - user-you-are-sshing-as" rather
than "UseLogin yes" to get the user's enviroment.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-  Jimmie crack corn and I don't care...what kind of lousy attitude  -
-                 is THAT to have, huh?   -- Dennis Miller           -
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