What Is The Proper Place For GDM Related Dconf Settings Now?
Hello,
It seems that with CentOS 7.6 and Gnome 3.28, a clean install of a Workstation package profile does not build the /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/
directory tree. I have several desktops in operation which we kickstart built with an older 7.3/4/5 version of CentOS as the base install media. These all have a dconf directory for gdm, and I assume a dconf profile directory for gdm as well (though I admit it always worked so I never cared about looking for it). These existing machines are all running 7.6 today, and still have the
/etc/dconf/db/gdm.d directory settings applied (like disable-user-list=true).
A newly built machine from the same kickstart but with 7.6 install media doesn’t provide the gdm.d directory. I seem to recall, I admit it’s been a long while, that with older versions of Gnome 3, dconf couldn’t set things for gdm properly unless the settings were located in a special dconf db just for gdm. I can edit the kickstart %post%
to make the directory(s) before dropping files in them, but I’m hesitant to do so if the files won’t be honored because there’s a more appropriate place now.
I can take this up with the gnome list, if necessary, but CentOS is my platform so I’m not sure if it’s a distribution specific configuration or functional change to Gnome. I tried searching through gitlab.gnome.org to see if I can dig up any issues, release notes and such, but I didn’t find anything that seemed relevant.
Thanks!
–Sean
3 thoughts on - What Is The Proper Place For GDM Related Dconf Settings Now?
Sean wrote:
This is a known issue – see:
https://access.redhat.com/solutions/3599341
You will need some sort of Redhat support account to see the above page
– but the ‘Resolution’ given is:
“Create the /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/ directory manually. Files in this directory are still taken into account.”
.. and the “Root Cause” is given as:
“This is by design and as a result of gnome/gdm rebase in RHEL 7.6.”
James Pearson
Mr. Pearson,
Thanks for that, I do not have a RH support account. I will put in the scripting to ensure the directory is there. I can confirm that after putting it in there manually everything seems to work correctly.
That said, I guess I’m interested in the “design” choice and if there isn’t a more appropriate place to stick this type of config under the new “design”. Again, I tried to hunt through release notes, issues, etc. in Gnome’s gitlab code tree, but didn’t find anything that jumped out at me as relevant to changing the behavior or otherwise noting a
“design” change between Gnome versions.
–Sean
Sean wrote:
I have a feeling Redhat might not be telling the whole story here ?
If you have a look at the Redhat SRPM spec file for gdm with 7.5, in the
%build section, it explicitly does:
mkdir -p $RPM_BUILD_ROOT%{_sysconfdir}/dconf/db/gdm.d/locks
and then in the %files section:
%dir %{_sysconfdir}/dconf/db/gdm.d/locks
%dir %{_sysconfdir}/dconf/db/gdm.d
i.e. Redhat add /etc/dconf/db/gdm.d/ to their packaging of gdm – which has nothing to do with the upstream gnome/gdm release
The above bits are missing from the 7.6 gdm spec file …
I would say that this is a strange thing to do, as Redhat are usually quite good at keeping things as compatible as possible between minor releases – but I guess they must of had their reasons?
James Pearson