kdm.options (5)

/etc/kde4/kdm/kdm.options contains a set of flags that determine some of the behavior of the X display manager kdm(1).

/etc/kde4/kdm/kdm.options may contain comments, which begin with a hash mark and end at the next newline, just like comments in shell scripts. The rest of the file consists of options which are expressed as words separated by hyphens, with only one option per line. If an option is present with the \(oqno-\(cq prefix, or absent, it is disabled, otherwise it is considered enabled.

Available options are:

ignore-nologin

Normally, the contents of the /etc/nologin file will be displayed using xmessage(1x) (if xmessage is available), and the user will be returned to the kdm login screen after the xmessage is dismissed. If this option is enabled, kdm starts a session as usual (after the xmessage is dismissed, if xmessage is available).

restart-on-upgrade

Enable this option with caution on \(oqproduction\(cq machines; it causes the kdm daemon to be stopped and restarted on upgrade, even if the process has children (which means it is managing X sessions). Typically when a package that contains a daemon is being installed or upgraded, its maintainer scripts stop a running daemon process before installing the new binary, and restart it after the new binary is installed. Stopping kdm causes immediate termination of any sessions it manages; in some situations this could be an unwelcome surprise (for instance, for remote kdm users who had no idea the administrator was performing system maintenance). On the other hand, for machines that stay up for long periods of time, leaving the old daemon running can be a bad idea if the new version has, for instance, a fix for a security vulnerability (overwriting kdm's executable on the file system has no effect on the copy of kdm in memory). The kdm pre-removal script checks to see if the kdm process has any children; if it does, it is possible that someone's session would be killed by stopping kdm, so a warning is issued and an opportunity to abort the upgrade of kdm is provided. If this option is disabled (the Debian default), kdm will be not be stopped or started during an install or upgrade; the administrator will have to do so by hand (with \(oq/etc/init.d/kdm restart\(cq, or by rebooting the system) before the newly installed kdm binary is used.

Users of older versions of the Debian system should note that the \(oqrun-xconsole\(cq option has been removed. Shell scripts named /etc/kde4/kdm/Xsetup and /etc/kde4/kdm/Xreset can be edited to disable or modify the running of xconsole on the kdm greeter screen; see the kdm manual page for more information.

This manpage was written by Branden Robinson for the Debian Project.

xmessage(1x), kdm(1x)