Red Hat Bugzilla – Bug 590669
gdm-restart does nothing, no indication which tool replaces it
Last modified: 2015-01-14 18:25:13 EST
Description of problem: gdm-restart does nothing, but I have not found any information concerning a possible replacement. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): gdm-2.28.2-5.el6 How reproducible: 100% Steps to Reproduce: 1. run gdm-restart 2. 3. Actual results: output: "Not supported" Expected results: X11 restarted Additional info: the script has been deprived off all functionality, it just spits out 'Not supported'. I can't find any hint indicating which tool is supposed to replace gdm-restart. Either a man page should be added, or gdm-restart should tell the user which tool to use instead.
This request was evaluated by Red Hat Product Management for inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux major release. Product Management has requested further review of this request by Red Hat Engineering, for potential inclusion in a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Major release. This request is not yet committed for inclusion.
There isn't a replacement. That script was retained (perhaps mistakenly) in order so that scripts and spec files wouldn't break. GDM is the parent process for every user login session and can't really be restarted simply. Changing the behavior and output of the script at this point would be inconsistent with the reasons for the its existence - and mean we should just remove it. I'd prefer to remove it.
I have spec file fix ready to commit to remove the obsolete utilities. Just need a rhel6 flag it seems.
I want to make sure I understand this. gdm-restart is being removed because you should not restart gdm because it would kill all sessions. Is that correct? My only use case for ever using gdm-restart directly was when testing gdm or when X hung and I needed to get back to a gdm greeter easily. Is simply killing gdm the equivelent now? I know this is a corner case but just want to make sure I understand the consequences of removing gdm-restart. It was also implied that other scripts used gdm-restart. What were those and why do they not need that utility anymore.
gdm-restart has been a no-op for quite a few Fedora releases now. We kept it around mostly because we were lazy and didn't want to check for spec files that used it. The gdm.spec uses it. But there is value in not supporting commands that do nothing (or worse, confuse) in RHEL I think. Simply killing gdm should cause it to be restarted, yes. This is in the domain of the init system. The init system is responsible for keeping services like this running. If you want to stop the gdm service altogether you can do something like init 3 (or maybe there is some other upstart command).
(In reply to comment #6) > gdm-restart has been a no-op for quite a few Fedora releases now. We kept it > around mostly because we were lazy and didn't want to check for spec files that > used it. The gdm.spec uses it. Just to clarify, is gdm.spec is the only place this is currently used?
This should be fixed now (although I forgot to mention it in the changelog)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 is now available and should resolve the problem described in this bug report. This report is therefore being closed with a resolution of CURRENTRELEASE. You may reopen this bug report if the solution does not work for you.