Created attachment 596620 [details] Patch to make lxdm.conf %config(noreplace) Description of problem: lxdm.conf gets rewritten on update. This can be a major problem if you want lxdm to default to a non-lxde session and don't have lxde installed. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): lxdm-0.4.1-1.fc17.x86_64 How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install lxdm 2. Change lxdm.conf 3. Reinstall lxdm Actual results: /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf reverts to original Expected results: /etc/lxdm/lxdm.conf shouldn't be modified Additional info: At our school, we use lxdm for logging in, but use gnome-shell as our session. The main reasons we don't use gdm is (at least as of Fedora 16), there was no way to remove the user list (which is a bit bulky when you have 1000+ usernames) and there was no way to show a proper screensaver in our login screen. Lxdm supports both features. However, a few months ago there was an lxdm update that wiped out our custom lxdm.conf and left our systems unusable (as they don't actually have lxde installed). I've finally taken the time to track down the problem and it's that lxdm.conf isn't a %config(noreplace). It seems that there was a reason for this back in 2010, but I'm not sure that it's still needed. I've attached a patch that will make lxdm.conf %config(noreplace) again.
lxdm.conf file format has changes several times in the past and each change broke lxdm if the file was not updated. Even with the latest update we needed to change lxdm.conf again. I agree that %config without (noreplace) is bad, but until lxdm development settles a bit I cannot add it. To solve your gdm problem, there is a gsettings key called org.gnome.login-screen.disable-user-list. For more info see https://live.gnome.org/SysAdminGuide
Ok, if the old lxdm.conf file breaks an updated lxdm, that's a fair enough reason to replace it. However, if that's the case, I would argue that lxdm should probably not be updated then during a stable release as per https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Updates_Policy#Stable_Releases. I think replacing users' config files counts as changing the user experience. As for the gsettings key, it was definitely ignored in Fedora 16 when I switched over to lxdm. I'll take another look at that (and the screensaver issue) sometime during the summer. And I do really appreciate the work you've done with lxdm. Thanks much.
You are probably right that this does not go well with our update policy, but trust me, I am not rolling out updates for fun or just to always have the latest and greatest version. All updates do fix serious bugs and backporting the changes between 0.3.x and 0.4.x was not possible, at least not for somebody who doesn't work full time on the code.