Bug#683345: task-lxde-desktop: please don't force the gdm3 dependency

[Bob Bib]

Package: task-lxde-desktop
Version: 3.12
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

please don't force the gdm3 dependency;
I use LightDM, so I have tried to check what's pulled by installing 'gdm3', and it's 30 packages (see the long text below);
instead of that, I suggest you to make it like this:

Depends: gdm3 | lightdm

(because of previous versions' dependency on 'xdm', 'gdm3 | x-display-manager' isn't a very good option).

BTW, I've previously written that in comments to the "gdm3 enforcing request" bug #680519:
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=680519#64
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=680519#71

---

# apt-get install gdm3
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
app-install-data at-spi dconf-tools gnome-session-bin gnome-settings-daemon
gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio libasound2-plugins libatspi1.0-0
libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk0 libgail-common libglib2.0-bin
libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd7 libmetacity-private0a libpackagekit-glib2-14
libsystemd-daemon0 libwacom-common libwacom2 libwebrtc-audio-processing-0
metacity metacity-common pulseaudio pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils
python-aptdaemon.pkcompat python-packagekit rtkit xserver-xephyr
Suggested packages:
gnome-mag gnome-orca gok gnome-shell gnome-screensaver gnome-control-center
xdg-user-dirs pavumeter pavucontrol paman paprefs
Recommended packages:
packagekit-system-interface packagekit
The following NEW packages will be installed:
app-install-data at-spi dconf-tools gdm3 gnome-session-bin
gnome-settings-daemon gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio libasound2-plugins
libatspi1.0-0 libcanberra-gtk-module libcanberra-gtk0 libgail-common
libglib2.0-bin libgnomekbd-common libgnomekbd7 libmetacity-private0a
libpackagekit-glib2-14 libsystemd-daemon0 libwacom-common libwacom2
libwebrtc-audio-processing-0 metacity metacity-common pulseaudio
pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils python-aptdaemon.pkcompat
python-packagekit rtkit xserver-xephyr
0 upgraded, 30 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 22.3 MB/23.1 MB of archives.
After this operation, 57.3 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

[Ben Armstrong]

On 07/30/2012 08:19 PM, Bob Bib wrote:
> please don't force the gdm3 dependency;

I have had some discussion this morning with the Debian lxde maintainers and we agree the gdm3
dependency explosion (a fairly recent thing, looking at gdm3's Debian changelog) renders it much
less desirable to use in task-lxde-desktop than before, so we're looking at the alternatives.

> I use LightDM, so I have tried to check what's pulled by installing 'gdm3', and it's 30 packages (see the long text below);
> instead of that, I suggest you to make it like this:
>
> Depends: gdm3 | lightdm
>
> (because of previous versions' dependency on 'xdm', 'gdm3 | x-display-manager' isn't a very good option).

While my brief testing of lightdm indicates it is a possible candidate, but there is also slim to
consider. We're considering the merits of each before requesting a change to task-lxde-desktop.

Thanks,
Ben


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[Ben Armstrong]

On 07/31/2012 11:42 AM, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> While my brief testing of lightdm indicates it is a possible candidate, but there is also slim to
> consider. We're considering the merits of each before requesting a change to task-lxde-desktop.

We have concluded our testing and discussion and agree that lightdm is the lesser of two evils here
(slim having a slightly more tarnished security record compared to lightdm, although its record
isn't entirely clean either). Also, we would be following where the rest of the lemmings are going
(task-xfce-desktop uses it too, and so does the lubuntu project) so if we've chosen badly, at least
we'll be in good company. :p

So please consider this a vote by the Debian LXDE team to replace gdm3 with lightdm.

[Per Olofsson]

2012-07-31 20:45, Ben Armstrong skrev:
> Also, we would be following where the rest of the lemmings are going
> (task-xfce-desktop uses it too, and so does the lubuntu project) so if we've chosen badly, at least
> we'll be in good company. :p

Even regular Ubuntu uses lightdm:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LightDM

--
Pelle

[Christian PERRIER]

Quoting Ben Armstrong (sy...@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca):
> On 07/31/2012 11:42 AM, Ben Armstrong wrote:
> > While my brief testing of lightdm indicates it is a possible candidate, but there is also slim to
> > consider. We're considering the merits of each before requesting a change to task-lxde-desktop.
>
> We have concluded our testing and discussion and agree that lightdm is the lesser of two evils here
> (slim having a slightly more tarnished security record compared to lightdm, although its record
> isn't entirely clean either). Also, we would be following where the rest of the lemmings are going
> (task-xfce-desktop uses it too, and so does the lubuntu project) so if we've chosen badly, at least
> we'll be in good company. :p
>
> So please consider this a vote by the Debian LXDE team to replace gdm3 with lightdm.

Committed. Last word, right? :-)

[Ben Armstrong]

On 07/31/2012 05:51 PM, Christian PERRIER wrote:
> Committed. Last word, right? :-)

Damn, I sure hope so. :)