kdebase (4:3.4.2-3) unstable; urgency=low *** Changes to KDM conffiles: * Users upgrading KDM from 3.3.x, will find that KDM no longer uses the /etc/trinity/kdm/Xservers file, if /etc/trinity/kdm/kdmrc was updated to the version shipped with KDM 3.4.x. The package upgrade scripts will not remove Xservers even if kdmrc has been upgraded, if they detect local modifications. This should allow administrators to merge their Xservers changes into kdmrc before themselves removing Xservers. The new ServerArgsLocal key in kdmrc is where most old Xservers customizations should be placed. * Irrespective of the removal of the Xservers file, we highly recommend that all administrators accept the installation of the updated kdmrc file during the package upgrade. Many important changes to KDM's defaults have been made, and KDM is exceedingly bad at handling anything but the latest kdmrc format, so the nuissance of re-customizing KDM will likely prove less than the nuissance of dealing with a KDM that isn't working properly. If you have already upgraded KDM package without accepting the new kdmrc, purging and reinstalling the package should achieve the desired result. *** Changes to user login script handling: * Another important change that users upgrading from KDM 3.3.x may notice is that KDM's ability to source personal login scripts, long disabled, has been restored. The exact files sourced on login will depend on the user's choice of shell. For users of bash, KDM will source /etc/profile, followed by ~/.bash_profile or, if that is not present, ~/.profile. Note that KDM is NOT spawning a login shell, but is merely mimicking the behaviour that popular shells would exhibit if they were login shells, by manually sourcing the customary login scripts. /etc/trinity/kdm/Xsession controls this behaviour. * The important downside of the above approach is that KDM will utterly fail to start a user's session if the newly sourced files contain certain types of commands. For instance, many commands will cause the login attempt to fail because they expect an interactive shell, or because you are trying to "exec" something that cannot provide an X session. For instance, "exec ksmserver" will launch KDE, but "exec bash" will fail. Thus if you are unsure why KDM is refusing to start your session, try commenting out elements of the newly sourced login scripts, and you may find the problem resolved. -- Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers Thu, 8 Sep 2005 11:13:41 -0400 kdebase (4:3.3.2-1) unstable; urgency=low * Users upgrading from KDE 3.2 might find that their keyboards seem no longer to work in KDM. This problem is caused by a change in KDE's handling of virtual terminals. The setting which puts KDM on vt7, which was contained in /etc/trinity/kdm/Xservers, has changed, and is also now located in /etc/trinity/kdm/kdmrc. * Users who, when upgrading to KDE 3.3, opted to replace their Xservers file with the version shipped by the package, but chose to retain their /etc/trinity/kdm/kdmrc file, will thus have a KDM configuration which nowhere contains a setting which properly places KDM on vt7. This can result in a race condition which has the end effect of breaking the keyboard when using KDM. * The solution to the problem is either to replace both of Xservers and kdmrc, or neither, when upgrading to KDE 3.3 for the first time. * Users already stuck can, after killing KDE, purge and re-install the kdm package, ensuring that the latest, fresh copies are installed. Alternatively, they can edit /etc/trinity/kdm/kdmrc and add the following line: ServerVTs=-7 in the [General] section of the file. -- Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers Sun, 23 Jan 2005 16:11:07 +0100