Hello! I'd like to request an SRU for unity-greeter that contains a new feature. Since this is a feature and not a bug fix, the TB was mentioned as the appropriate place to request an SRU.
== The bug == https://launchpad.net/bugs/1155157 == The rationale == A Canonical customer asked for some new features in unity-greeter. Specifically: * The ability to add new indicators to the greeter session * The ability to change which user is selected in the greeter (done over DBus) These changes are only really useful for administrators. This customer is using them for automatically selecting a user based on an inserted smartcard. Both these features landed in raring. But for them to be truly useful to the customer, they would ideally see the light of day in precise. == The details == The patch in that bug adds a new gsettings key "/com/canonical/unity-greeter/indicators" which lists indicators to load. Note that this is pulled from the gsettings database under the "lightdm" user, not your everyday desktop user. So a system administrator would likely add a system gsettings override file to modify it. Or call "sudo -u lightdm gsettings". It also adds a DBus interface with just one function (SetActiveEntry) to set the currently selected user. This is exposed only on the session bus. Since arbitrary processes cannot be started under the greeter, there is currently no real consumers for the interface. But that's where a custom indicator can come into play. Such an indicator could call SetActiveEntry. == The impact == Precise users should theoretically see no changes. In order to use new fancy indicators, you'd have to have an administrator specifically add them. In order to use the new DBus API, you'd have to have your fancy new indicator specifically start using it. No one else should be able to access the session bus. Thanks for your consideration, -mt -- technical-board mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/technical-board
