ANNOUNCE: GDM 2.2.3.2, the "Bugfree and Usable" release

[George <jirka 5z com>]

UNGLUN FLUMBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRFGHT

Security?  We don't need no stinking security!  This release has two security
related fixes.  First, syslog usage is now more correct, so that users
logging in can't try to crash gdm by embedding format characters in things.
All gdm versions prior to this one are affected.  However versions prior to
the 2.2 series didn't really need much help to crash to begin with.  The
second fix is that on some setups if the user typed in a non existant
username, gdm wouldn't ask for password.

Usability?  We don't need no stinking usability!  This release also has a
usability patch by Heeten Choxi, implementing a lot of the recomendations
from the sun usability report.  I've also changed the titlebar to be a lot
cooler looking (yes I'm being very subjective here).  Plus there are some
other fixes and improvements of course.

And now for the standard part of the release announcement:

Ahh, so you have no clue what gdm is?  Well if you've read this far ... let's
not get into that.  Gdm is GNOME Display Manager, the little daemon that lets
you log in to your computer.  It allows xdmcp multiple login displays,
selection of languages, multiple login sessions and generally is much cooler
then any xdm clone out there, mostly cuz it isn't an xdm clone to begin with.
I mean heck, it's even got a graphical configurator, so you don't have to use
the command line to hose your system anymore.

News:
=====

2.2.3.2 is again an IP number, and yet again doesn't respond to pings.  Here
is the output of traceroute for this version:
  jirka monique:~% /usr/sbin/traceroute 2.2.3.2
  traceroute to 2.2.3.2 (2.2.3.2), 30 hops max, 38 byte packets
   1  vicious (192.168.34.1)  2.763 ms  2.854 ms  0.953 ms
   2  204-210-7-1.san.rr.com (204.210.7.1)  25.447 ms  77.594 ms  37.382 ms
   3  ubr6-FastE0-0.san.rr.com (24.25.192.105)  47.215 ms  32.860 ms  70.563 ms
   4  24-25-192-102.san.rr.com (24.25.192.102)  21.370 ms  27.543 ms  31.086 ms
   5  7507-POS0-0-0.san.rr.com (24.25.192.10)  52.895 ms  9.955 ms  41.855 ms
   6  * * *
And it refuses to go further.  Damn it.

Highlights of 2.2.3.2:

- printf/syslog format bugs fixed which fixes possible security
  problems (Cyril Diakhate, Abel Cheung, Havoc, me)

- Some fixes coming from the Gnome usability report (Heeten Choxi, me)

- Nicer titlebar

- Run /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d from the Gnome session

- RUNNING_UNDER_GDM defined for init scripts (Owen)

- Embrace and extend XDMCP so that choosing works nicer.  No worries, still
  100% compatible with XDMCP 1.0

- In the redhat package don't use the GiveConsole/TakeConsole since they're
  not kosher, pam does this for us, for standard, non rpm build this was
  never done

- s/Halt/Shut down/

- Don't ask to save Failsafe sessions

- When user doesn't exist, ask for a password anyway

- Various minor fixes (Owen, me)

- Translation updates (Stanislav Visnovsky, Zbigniew Chyla, Christian Rose,
  Faith Demir, Abel Cheung, Christian Meyer, Kjartan Maraas,
  Christopher R. Gabriel, Yukihiro Nakai, me)

Note:  Gdm2 was originally written by Martin K. Petersen <mkp mkp net>, and
is now maintained by the Queen of England.  Although when she's not answering
her email, me or Lee Mellabone usually cover for her.

Note2:  If installing from the tarball do note that make install overwrites
most of the setup files, all except gdm.conf and gnomerc.  It will however
save backups with the .orig extention first.

Note3:  Distributors, packagers.  Please, PLEASE use the standard Gnome
script when setting things up as gnome, or at least equivalently working
scripts.  It should never be OK to just exec gnome-session, that is
considered bad form.  The script needs to read (if available) the ~/.gnomerc
and otherwise read the <sysconfdir>/gdm/gnomerc file.  This allows users and
administrators to setup custom startup for gnome.  Another thing is that if
your distro doesn't have gnome-core 1.4.0.3 or later you should probably
disable the Gnome Chooser stuff until that happens (you should update
gnome-core anyway).  Third thing is make sure to set up the X servers to run
on the correct virtual terminals if you start the gdm process before the
other login thingies.  See the end of the gdm.conf sample file.

Downloading:
============

To waste your bandwidth to download this new 1.75megs of stinking dung, go to
(for the gnome.org site you might have to wait for your mirror to update, but
you may get better performance):

ftp://ftp.5z.com/pub/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/sources/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/redhat/i386/gdm/
http://download.gnome.org/GNOME/stable/redhat/SRPMS/gdm/

(Note: I've also made an Alpha/Linux rpm, which is available at the 5z site)

Have fun,

George

PS:  I think I have figured out why the coding for sex thing doesn't work.  I
believe it is because nobody reads these announcements to the end.  I want to
test this theory.  If you have read this announcement all the way here,
please send a mail to jirka 5z com with the subject of "READ GDM ANNOUNCEMENT"
Inside the body of the message indicate your sex in some standard notation.

-- 
George <jirka 5z com>
   As long as people will accept crap, 
   it will be financially profitable to dispense it.
                       -- Dick Cavett, in "Playboy", 1971