LightDM password field focus

[SteveRiley]

Steve mentioned reverting back to KDM, how?

With this:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure kdm

[capt-zero]

Thanks, Steve. Now back to the snazzy and out with the milquetoast.

[capt-zero]

Steve, Tried your suggestion and this is the result:

dpkg-query: package 'kdm' is not installed and no information is available
Use dpkg --info (= dpkg-deb --info) to examine archive files,
and dpkg --contents (= dpkg-deb --contents) to list their contents.
/usr/sbin/dpkg-reconfigure: kdm is not installed

Thanks, though. It's not a major issue with me, but the thing that has always kept me in Kubuntu is the ability to customize everything whithout having to be a master of the terminal window. I will keep trying things.

capt-zero

[SteveRiley]

Ah, that's easy to fix. I should have anticipated this, actually. You need to install KDM first:

sudo apt-get install kdm

The package configuration script with perform the switch from LightDM to KDM for you. I think it actually pops up a window asking you to choose it.

I still can't figure out all the fuss about LightDM. KDM is fine just the way it is.

[capt-zero]

Yes, Steve. I appreciate it. Actually I discovered that they (the devs) put an icon for changing the background already. Just didn't notice it until I looked closer. Oh well, nobody ever accused me of being A&OX3 and got away with it!
Thanks for your help!

[d_ed]

Author of LightDM-KDE here.

Holy crap! I never tried to type. I was just looking for the blinking cursor to have focus. Thanks for pointing that out.

Any way I can make this clearer? I don't want to give the password field focus directly so you can still press left and right to switch user. The move to typing anything moving to the password box seemed like a clever solution which I added in 0.3.0, which (IMHO) works great but it's not easily discoverable.

Is there any way to customize the login screen? The one thing that bothers me the most about the defaults since 12.04 are the gray on gray default backgrounds. In 12.04 you could customize the KDM screen, but I haven't found a way to customize LightDM in 12.10

Making customisation easier was in fact one of the main goals I had. I'm a bit worried by this. Again, if you could explain where you tried looking or what could be improved, let me know.

[SteveRiley]

Author of LightDM-KDE here.

Hi, thanks for joining our forum.

I've read some of the various postings around the 'net regarding LightDM. Since you're working directly with the project, I'd be interested in your thoughts as to why a replacement for KDM is needed. I'm open to having my opinion changed

[Snowhog]

Author of LightDM-KDE here.

Welcome David!

Just read your Web Log on the release of LightDM-KDE 0.3.0. So KDM is 'likely' on its way out? Didn't know that. Nice blog by the way.

[SteveRiley]

Just read your Web Log on the release of LightDM-KDE 0.3.0. So KDM is 'likely' on its way out? Didn't know that. Nice blog by the way.

Well, that's one bit that I hadn't seen until just now.

...writing a front end on top of LightDM was easier than KDM. KDM is very dated, and has a _lot_ of legacy X specific code in there. It probably won't even survive the Qt5 port (when some low level X code ) let alone moving to Wayland. Plus the bindings were a lot easier.

Given the moves Qt5 and Wayland, then indeed LightDM appears to be the right choice.

[capt-zero]

d_ed,

"Is there any way to customize the login screen? The one thing that bothers me the most about the defaults since 12.04 are the gray on gray default backgrounds. In 12.04 you could customize the KDM screen, but I haven't found a way to customize LightDM in 12.10 "

My bad! Failed to check out the window completely. I guess I was looking for the same customization window we got with KDM. Love the new look. Like I said earlier, I frequently fail the test for Alert and Oriented times three.

capt_zero

[67GTA]

Author of LightDM-KDE here.



Any way I can make this clearer? I don't want to give the password field focus directly so you can still press left and right to switch user. The move to typing anything moving to the password box seemed like a clever solution which I added in 0.3.0, which (IMHO) works great but it's not easily discoverable.



Making customisation easier was in fact one of the main goals I had. I'm a bit worried by this. Again, if you could explain where you tried looking or what could be improved, let me know.

I will join with the others and thank you for your input here. It isn't often we get to chat with the people that make these things happen. The customization options are nice. The idea for the password focus is really nice, but years of mental conditioning to always look for the cursor prompt for focus affirmation kept me from seeing the obvious. My brain told me I could not type anything unless the cursor was in the entry field. I really don't think there is any way to make it any clearer. Maybe just some brain reconditioning I think it will be a feature people will like once they get used to it.

[SteveRiley]

What if the password field contained a brief light gray instruction? Such as "Type your password, no mouse click needed" or "Don't click, just type" or something similar.