(In reply to Bill Sanford from comment #0)
> Description of problem:
> When I use the dconf-editor, org -> gnome -> login-screen, and enable
> "banner-message-enable" and edit the "banner-message-text" to something with
> characters, this does not save the change to the 00-upstream-settings or any
> new file it might create.

I see that you would like to have the setting saved in textual form. Have you configured this as in https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-US/Red_Hat_Enterprise_Linux/7/html/Desktop_Migration_and_Administration_Guide/store-user-settings-over-nfs.html ?
After setting this you'll see the changed settings in ~/.config/dconf/user.txt.


> If I create a file '/etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/99-site-defaults' with the following:
> 
> [org/gnome/login-screen]
> banner-message-enable=true
> banner-message-text='WARNING: Use of this system is restricted and
> monitored. Only authorized personnel have access to this machine'
> 
> Run 'dconf update' as root.
> 
> Log out and log back in and select my username, I see the banner.
> RHEL-7.1-20150108.0

GDM uses profile gdm for its configuration. Looking at /etc/dconf/profile/gdm it tries user database at first but since the dconf-service runs under gdm user and gdm user doesn't has its ~/.config/dconf/ directory, it tries next databases. These are local, site, distro and gdm. Changing the settings for any of these will do what you want.
Have you tried to change the settings using dconf-editor when logged to your personal account?

I did the steps in the link.

I do see the changed settings in ~/.config/dconf/user.txt.

I still don't see the banner.

You have to set this manually in gdm database in "/etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/0*-something" because you need to set it for "gdm" profile (or you can set it in local, site or distro databases but the gdm database is more preferred since we have it).

Have you tried to set the banner-message-* manually in gdm database as written in comment #4?

Moving this to gdm

Some more related scenarios:

"dconf update" after the following implementation also does not update gdm DB:

1. Extracting a tar bal which creates: /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
2. # cat some_file > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
3. # echo "some content" > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen

The following  /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen was created in all these scenarios:

[org/gnome/login-screen]
disable-user-list=true
disable-restart-buttons=true
banner-message-enable=true
banner-message-text='Welcome'

and after running 'dconf update' - nothing is updated.\

The only thing which seems to work is editing with vi. so for running updates in script I'm required to simulate vim editing by running:
vim -c ":q" /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen

The answer to my question from comment #5 is still important for this bug.

(In reply to Adi from comment #7)
> Some more related scenarios:
> 
> "dconf update" after the following implementation also does not update gdm
> DB:
> 
> 1. Extracting a tar bal which creates: /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> 2. # cat some_file > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> 3. # echo "some content" > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> 
> The following  /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen was created in all these
> scenarios:
> 
> [org/gnome/login-screen]
> disable-user-list=true
> disable-restart-buttons=true
> banner-message-enable=true
> banner-message-text='Welcome'

The scenario #2 works for me here. What permissions and owner does the file have?


> and after running 'dconf update' - nothing is updated.\

How did you verify that the values were not updated?


> The only thing which seems to work is editing with vi. so for running
> updates in script I'm required to simulate vim editing by running:
> vim -c ":q" /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen

What does your '/etc/dconf/profile/gdm' file contain?

(In reply to Marek Kašík from comment #9)
> (In reply to Adi from comment #7)
> > Some more related scenarios:
> > 
> > "dconf update" after the following implementation also does not update gdm
> > DB:
> > 
> > 1. Extracting a tar bal which creates: /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> > 2. # cat some_file > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> > 3. # echo "some content" > /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> > 
> > The following  /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen was created in all these
> > scenarios:
> > 
> > [org/gnome/login-screen]
> > disable-user-list=true
> > disable-restart-buttons=true
> > banner-message-enable=true
> > banner-message-text='Welcome'
> 
> The scenario #2 works for me here. What permissions and owner does the file
> have?
> 

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 105 May 19 16:43 /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen

> 
> > and after running 'dconf update' - nothing is updated.\
> 
> How did you verify that the values were not updated?
> 

The login screen remained as is until after I used vi, then the restart button disappeared, banner was displayed, etc..

> 
> > The only thing which seems to work is editing with vi. so for running
> > updates in script I'm required to simulate vim editing by running:
> > vim -c ":q" /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/01-loginscreen
> 
> What does your '/etc/dconf/profile/gdm' file contain?

/etc/dconf/profile/gdm:
user-db:user
system-db:local
system-db:site
system-db:distro
system-db:gdm

almost certainly the below dconf bug.

workaround is to run touch on the directory after you put the config data in place (or copy the files over instead of using the redirection operator)

*** Bug 1223301 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Let's clean this a little.

The original description in this report is not a bug because reporter wanted to set a global setting using his local account which he can't (I see now that he already answered my question from the comment #5 in the description).

The problem Adi mentioned here is a different bug but a valid one.

I'm closing this bug as NOTABUG and reopening the #1223301 for dconf.

Thank you all for your help