| Authors: | Giulio Bottazzi |
|---|---|
| Contact: | <giulio.bottazzi@libero.it> |
| Date: | 13 March 2008 |
Contents
Since I tend to use lightweight Windows Managers and Desktop Environments (like xfce4) I usually prefer not to bloat my system with behemoth Display Managers (like GDM or KDM) but to use the simpler (and smaller) XDM, which is typically distributed together with xorg.
The default setup of this program does however produce a pretty ugly (minimalistic, somebody would say) login graphic interface, and after a while one might be tempted to switch to one of its largest cousins just to have some color on the screen.
The purpose of this little document is simply to show that this is not necessary. With some minimal configuration effort, you can obtain an acceptable, colorful (and, to some extent, feature-full) login interface using XDM.
Disclaimer: I'm not a Desktop artist nor a X Window hacker. So don't expect to find here hyper-advanced and hyper-specialized hints on how to create the Ultimate Display Manager Configuration. This is not the purpose of this document.
The configuration files and the scripts used by XDM can be found in /etc/X11/ xdm/. If you inspect this directory, you see that there is a number of them.
They are all described in the XDM man page:
$ man xdm
but for the present purpose we are going to modify only one of them, namely / etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config. This is the main configuration file. It defines which files are used by xdm to perform its different activities. Edit the file and modify these three lines (if you want, you may comment the original lines so that everything can be more easily recovered)
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/xdm-config |
|---|
... DisplayManager._0.setup: /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my ... DisplayManager._0.startup: /etc/X11/xdm/GiveConsole_my ... DisplayManager*resources: /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my ...
in this way we instruct XDM to use a different set of files to display the graphic login. In order to reduce the interactions with portage and its automatic management of configuration files it is better to write new files and leave the default ones untouched.
Three files have to be written. /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my is a script, run by XDM, to setup the various application which populate the login screen. /etc/X11/xdm/GiveConsole_my is a file run by XDM when a user successfully logs in; we will use it to clean the screen from all applications before passing the command to the user.
Finally, in /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my are listed the resources which affect the behavior of the various programs run by XDM. We will use it to tune the windows appearance.
/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my starts various programs that will appear on the graphic login screen. Its typical use is to display an image on the root window. But you can, in principle, do all the things you do inside an X session. We will stick here to a bare minimum. This is the file I use
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my |
|---|
#--- set a fullscreen image in background xloadimage -onroot -quiet -fullscreen /etc/X11/xdm/background_my.jpg #--- log messages in background root-tail -f -geometry 500x150-10+10 -fn fixed /var/log/messages,purple #--- set Shutdown/Reboot buttons ( xmessage -buttons Shutdown:20,Reboot:21 "" ; case $? in 20) exec /sbin/poweroff;; 21) exec /sbin/reboot;; *) echo "Xmessage closed on `date`";; esac )&
First, it places the image /etc/X11/xdm/background_my.jpg on the root window (background) using xloadimage. Modify this line to point to the image you intend to use. xloadimage is rather common but alternatives exist such as xsri. Second, it uses root-tail to display a running log of the system messages in the background. Notice that this is a possible security weakness, so use it only in relatively safe environment. Third, it spawns a sub-shell (this is the meaning of (...)&) which uses the simple utility xmessage to display a couple of buttons on the screen. This utility is in general not included in xorg by default. Check it and in case install it using the software management system provided by your distribution of choice. All these programs are highly configurable and possess a lot of options. Please refer to their manual pages for further details.
In addition to the programs explicitly started by /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my, XDM will also place on the screen an authentication widget, that is a window where users can enter their username and password to authenticate themselves. That's all for the first file. Let's now move to /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my. This file is extremely important, because it defines the way in which the various windows generated by the previous programs are actually displayed.
The default configuration file distributed with xorg is quite complicated, since it must fulfill the requirement to be generic, i.e. to provide a consistent configuration of the login screen for X servers with different characteristics.
In particular, it contains different sections (separated by #if... statements) that apply to different screen resolutions and color depths. Since we are building a customized version of it, we can avoid these complications and simply tune the configuration to our particular needs. In what follows I will assume that a color monitor is in use with a resolution of 1600x1220 (that was my home monitor resolution when I drafted this document). If this is not your case, please apply the necessary modifications.
Let's start with the configuration of the authentication widget, called xlogin. First, you have to configure the capability of the widget as an editor. It is a good idea to just cut-and-paste from the default configuration in /etc/X11/xdm/ Xresources to have
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! bind actions to particular keys sequences
! -----------------------------------------
xlogin*login.translations: #override \
Ctrl<Key>R: abort-display()\n\
<Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Delete: delete-character()\n\
<Key>Left: move-backward-character()\n\
<Key>Right: move-forward-character()\n\
<Key>Home: move-to-begining()\n\
<Key>End: move-to-end()\n\
Ctrl<Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>KP_Enter: set-session-argument() finish-field()\n\
Ctrl<Key>Return: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field()
Then we have to decide the position and color, in my case I did
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! position xlogin.geometry: 430x200+180+10 ! colors xlogin*background: white xlogin*foreground: darkgray xlogin*greetColor: darkgray xlogin*promptColor: darkgray xlogin*failColor: red
to have a login widget of 430 pixels width and 200 pixels height placed near the upper left corner (+180+10). The background color is white while all the text (greetings and prompts) are displayed in dark gray. If the user fails the authentication, a message is displayed in red.
The next stanza configures the text of the different messages (greetings and prompts) and the font used to display them
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! prompts Xlogin*titleMessage: Xlogin xlogin*greeting: Welcome to CLIENTHOST! Authentication required xlogin*namePrompt: Username:\040 xlogin*passwdPrompt: Password:\040 xlogin*fail: -- Permission Denied -- ! fonts xlogin*font: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15 xlogin*greetFont: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15 xlogin*promptFont: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15 xlogin*failFont: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15 xlogin*greetFace: Comic Sans MS-16 xlogin*face: Comic Sans MS-16 xlogin*promptFace: Comic Sans MS-16 xlogin*failFace: Comic Sans MS-16
I used an homogeneous font, 16pt comic sans, but you can of course choose whatever font you want. In addition to the canonical specification of X fonts, I have also added the xft version using the *Face resources. These resources are used by the most recent version of XDM (ver. >= 1.1.4).
Notice the particular sequence 040` in the prompts definition. It stands for an empty character and I use it to separate by one space the cursor from the colons at the end of the prompts. Finally, you can customize the external borders and the internal frames of the widget. I choose simplicity, with
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! shape xlogin*borderWidth: 0 xlogin*frameWidth: 0 xlogin*innerFramesWidth: 0
There are many more options you can decide to set, for a long list see the XDM man page, but this is enough for me. The next step is to tune the apparence of the xmessage windows, where the Shutdown and Reboot buttons are displayed. The property of this window (that is size, position, colors and fonts) can be again specified using a list of resources. My choice is
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! xmessage resources ! ================== Xmessage*geometry: 150x30+1100+1160 Xmessage*background: white Xmessage*foreground: darkgrey Xmessage*Font: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15 Xmessage*borderWidth: 0 Xmessage*message.scrollVertical: Never Xmessage*message.scrollHorizontal: Never Xmessage*Text*background: white Xmessage*Text*foreground: darkgrey Xmessage*Text.borderColor: white Xmessage*Text.borderWidth: 0 Xmessage*Text*font: -microsoft-comic sans ms-medium-r-normal--16-*-100-100-p-*-iso8859-15
Notice that I removed both horizontal and vertical scrollbars (with Never) and, for consistency, I set the font to the same used by the xlogin window. Finally, if you use XDM also for remote connections, you should provide some configuration for the chooser window. Remote connections can be a thorny issue, and it is clearly outside the scope of this document, so I just cut-and-paste from the default resource file
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
! chooser resources ! ================== Chooser*geometry: 700x500+300+200 Chooser*allowShellResize: false Chooser*viewport.forceBars: true Chooser*label.font: *-new century schoolbook-bold-i-normal-*-240-* Chooser*label.label: XDMCP Host Menu from CLIENTHOST Chooser*list.font: -*-*-medium-r-normal-*-*-230-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1 Chooser*Command.font: *-new century schoolbook-bold-r-normal-*-180-*
After a successful login, the control of the X server is given to the user. Before this, however, we have to clean the screen from the application we started before. This is the job of the last file we have to write /etc/X11/xdm/ GiveConsole_my. The idea is simple: take the default file /etc/X11/xdm/ GiveConsole_my and just add kill statements to remove all the applications started by /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/GiveConsole_my |
|---|
#remove root-tail killall root-tail #remove the xmessage buttons killall xmessage chown $USER /dev/console
I have seen more sophisticated things around, like storing the PID of the different programs and use a more selective kill statement to kill them, but, for me, this script does perfectly the job.
You should also set permissions to /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my and /etc/X11/ GiveConsole_my:
chmod 755 /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my chmod 755 /etc/X11/xdm/GiveConsole_my
When all this editing is over, you can restart XDM:
#/etc/init.d/xdm restart
and enjoy the result. This is a screenshot of what I got on my laptop with the configuration above
as you can see, in my case the xmessage windows contain some extra buttons. I'll explain how to add them below. The rest of the image should be similar to what you obtain on your computer (apart the background window, of course).
The simple login screen described above can be easily extended in several ways. It is quite strighforward to start new programs by adding them to /etc/X11/xdm/ Xsetup_my. Just remember to add the necessary configuration (X resources) in /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my and maybe to stop them in /etc/X11/xdm/ GiveConsole_my. Another possibility, which I want to briefly explain, is to add more buttons to the xmessage windows in order to perform simple tasks directly from the login windows.
By adding more buttons to the xmessage windows and linking them to simple actions, it is possible to manage the system before logging in to it. I'm going to show you how to do that with an example I found rather useful: switching the network interfaces from the login screen. Doing it this way is in general faster then logging in to the system and starting a root console. Basically, we are going to exploit the fact that any command issued by the /etc/X11/xdm/ Xsetup_my is executed with root privileges.
The first step is to modify the way in which we call xmessage. In order to have it permanently on the login screen, we insert it in a while loop. At the same time we add to it two new buttons. This is the code snippet
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my |
|---|
(
EXIT=0
while [[ "$EXIT" == "0" ]]; do
xmessage -buttons Shutdown:20,Reboot:21,eth0:23,eth1:24 "" ;
CONTROL=$?;
if [ "$CONTROL" = 20 ] ; then
/sbin/shutdown -h now 2>/dev/console >/dev/console;
elif [ "$CONTROL" = 21 ] ; then
/sbin/shutdown -r now 2>/dev/console >/dev/console;
elif [ "$CONTROL" = 23 ] ; then
if /etc/init.d/net.eth0 status > /dev/null ; then
#double quotes prevent pathname expansion
xmessage -geometry 600x90 -center "$(/etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop)"
else
xmessage -geometry 600x90 -center "$(/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start)"
fi
elif [ "$CONTROL" = 24 ] ; then
if /etc/init.d/net.eth1 status > /dev/null ; then
#double quotes prevent pathname expansion
xmessage -geometry 600x90 -center "$(/etc/init.d/net.eth1 stop)"
else
xmessage -geometry 600x90 -center "$(/etc/init.d/net.eth1 start)"
fi
else
EXIT=1
echo "Xessage closed on `date`";
fi
done
)&
which replaces what was previously inserted between the ( and )&. Notice that we use xmessage to display, inside a window, the output of the invoked programs. The name of the network interfaces is probably different on your system, so don't forget to tailor this script to your needs. Finally, we have to reset the X resources of the program to make room for the new buttons. I modified /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my in the following way
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
Xmessage*geometry: 240x30+1100+1160
It is possible to select wich Window Manager to use during the login session by remapping special function keys. This is done in the file /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources by adding extra lines to the xlogin*login.translations definition. Add the following lines (the dots stands for already exiting lines; left them untouched)
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources_my |
|---|
xlogin*login.translations: #override\ ... <Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F2: set-session-argument(wmaker) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F3: set-session-argument(afterstep) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F4: set-session-argument(startkde) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F5: set-session-argument(fvwm) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F6: set-session-argument(enlightenment) finish-field()\n\ <Key>F7: set-session-argument(blackbox) finish-field()\n\ ...
To select a particular Window Manager, you write your name and the password and, instead of pressing 'return', you press the corresponding function key.
To take an screenshot of the login screen, add the following line in /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my
| File: | /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my |
|---|
sleep 15 && import -w root /tmp/xdm.jpg &
This document was originally posted in the Gentoo Wiki site. Following the crash of the said site, and since I was the original author, I decided to move it on my personal web page. Even if I removed several later additions made by people on the Gentoo wiki version, it is quite possible that the present text contains many improvements by different people. I'm not able to give proper credit to single contributors, nevertheless I want to express my gratitude for their corrections and suggestions.