Help Configure lightdm-gtk-greeter [Solved]

[JmaCWQ]

@operadude No probs.
Just for the record I was using a regular install of 23.6 but had the same LightDM permissions message you got.

Seems there's now a couple of apps have had similar things changed with MX-23.
Earlier today I installed imwheel and found there was no longer the file ~/.imwheel.rc created when installed.
Searching I found what appeared to be the only copy of it in the /etc/X11/imwheel/ folder, and it didn't seem to do anything.
Setting imwheel to run at login in Session and Startup and rebooting nothing changed.
So I copied the ~/.imwheelrc file from my MX-21.3 to ~/ in 23.6 logged out and back in again and all is well, it now works as expected.

Code: Select all

System:
  Kernel: 6.1.0-37-amd64 [6.1.140-1] arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-6.1.0-37-amd64 root=UUID=<filter> ro quiet nosplash
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.20.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.38 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm v: 4.20.0 vt: 7
    dm: LightDM v: 1.32.0 Distro: MX-23.6_x64 Libretto October 15  2023 base: Debian GNU/Linux 12
    (bookworm)
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Hewlett-Packard product: HP Pavilion dv6 Notebook PC
    v: 0595100000244710000020100 serial: <superuser required> Chassis: type: 10
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Hewlett-Packard model: 1658 v: 10.31 serial: <superuser required> BIOS: Hewlett-Packard
    v: F.1B date: 10/05/2011
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 48.8 Wh (100.0%) condition: 48.8/48.8 Wh (100.0%) volts: 12.5 min: 11.1
    model: Hewlett-Packard 4400 type: Unknown serial: <filter> status: full
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M215 serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored)
    rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
  Info: model: Intel Core i7-2630QM bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Sandy Bridge gen: core 2 level: v2
    built: 2010-12 process: Intel 32nm family: 6 model-id: 0x2A (42) stepping: 7 microcode: 0x2F
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache: L1: 256 KiB
    desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB L3: 6 MiB desc: 1x6 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 1504 high: 2343 min/max: 800/2900 scaling: driver: intel_cpufreq
    governor: ondemand cores: 1: 1575 2: 1215 3: 962 4: 2143 5: 2343 6: 1045 7: 1074 8: 1682
    bogomips: 31927
  Flags: avx ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: gather_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: indirect_target_selection status: Not affected
  Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
  Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
  Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT vulnerable
  Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
  Type: reg_file_data_sampling status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_rstack_overflow status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines; IBPB: conditional; IBRS_FW; STIBP: conditional; RSB
    filling; PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected; BHI: Not affected
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: i915 v: kernel arch: Gen-6 code: Sandybridge process: Intel 32nm built: 2011 ports:
    active: LVDS-1 empty: DP-1,HDMI-A-1,VGA-1 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:0116 class-ID: 0300
  Device-2: Bison HP TrueVision HD Webcam type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus-ID: 1-1.2:4
    chip-ID: 5986:02ac class-ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 1.21.1.7 compositor: xfwm v: 4.20.0 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa dri: crocus gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0 screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1366x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 362x204mm (14.25x8.03") s-diag: 416mm (16.36")
  Monitor-1: LVDS-1 model: LG Display 0x02f2 built: 2010 res: 1366x768 hz: 60 dpi: 101 gamma: 1.2
    size: 344x194mm (13.54x7.64") diag: 395mm (15.5") ratio: 16:9 modes: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL v: 3.3 Mesa 22.3.6 renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 3000 (SNB GT2)
    direct-render: Yes
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio vendor: Hewlett-Packard 6
    driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:1c20 class-ID: 0403
  API: ALSA v: k6.1.0-37-amd64 status: kernel-api tools: alsamixer,amixer
  Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.0.0 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse status: active
    2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin 4: pw-jack type: plugin
    tools: pactl,pw-cat,pw-cli,wpctl
Network:
  Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: Hewlett-Packard
    driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: 4000 bus-ID: 01:00.0
    chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
  Device-2: Intel Centrino Wireless-N 1000 [Condor Peak] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel modules: wl
    pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:0084 class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: HP Broadcom 2070 Bluetooth Combo type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8 bus-ID: 3-1.6:4
    chip-ID: 03f0:231d class-ID: fe01
  Report: hciconfig ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: N/A rfk-block: hardware: no
    software: no address: <filter>
  Info: acl-mtu: 1021:8 sco-mtu: 64:1 link-policy: rswitch hold sniff park
    link-mode: peripheral accept
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 465.76 GiB used: 78.33 GiB (16.8%)
  SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
  ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Seagate model: ST500LM000-1EJ162 size: 465.76 GiB
    block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 5400 serial: <filter>
    rev: DEM6 scheme: MBR
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 465.76 GiB size: 457.38 GiB (98.20%) used: 78.33 GiB (17.1%) fs: ext4
    dev: /dev/sda1 maj-min: 8:1
Swap:
  Kernel: swappiness: 15 (default 60) cache-pressure: 100 (default)
  ID-1: swap-1 type: file size: 3 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 file: /swap/swap
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Repos:
  Packages: pm: dpkg pkgs: 2405 libs: 1270 tools: apt,apt-get,aptitude,nala,synaptic pm: rpm
    pkgs: 0 pm: flatpak pkgs: 0
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-updates main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
    1: deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
    2: deb http://security.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security main contrib non-free non-free-firmware
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
    1: deb http://mx.debian.nz/mx/repo/ bookworm main non-free
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list
    1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 238 Uptime: 3h 25m wakeups: 14 Memory: 7.7 GiB used: 1.72 GiB (22.4%) Init: SysVinit
  v: 3.06 runlevel: 5 default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 alt: 12
  Client: shell wrapper v: 5.2.15-release inxi: 3.3.26
Boot Mode: BIOS (legacy, CSM, MBR)

[operadude]

@JmaCWQ Thanks for that!

I think I'm gonna open-up a new thread about the whole lightdm issue on my MX-Minimal install.

I DO NOT have any problems with lightdm on my other distros, all MX23.6 (Fluxbox, KDE, Xfce).

At this point I'm assuming my issue is that, as advertised, MX-Minimal comes with...wait for it...a "Minimal" number of installed packages. That still doesn't explain it to me, since I checked my Minimal install, and "lightdm" IS installed. So...yeah...a CONUNDRUM; or, an opportunity to learn more about Linux

[JmaCWQ]

Yeah it is a mystery and the message we both received seems to indicate a permissions issue of some type.
I only have the one install of MX-23 Xfce and this is the first install of any MX version I've seen this permissions message when changing the background image of the greeter, usually it's open the settings, enter password, edit whatever then Save.

With all my previous MX installs, during the install process I have always filled in the password etc. for both user and root accounts.
I'm pretty sure when I installed MX-23 that I didn't do that, and left the password etc. for root blank.
I wonder if that may have something to do with it?

[operadude]

Yeah it is a mystery and the message we both received seems to indicate a permissions issue of some type.
I only have the one install of MX-23 Xfce and this is the first install of any MX version I've seen this permissions message when changing the background image of the greeter, usually it's open the settings, enter password, edit whatever then Save.

With all my previous MX installs, during the install process I have always filled in the password etc. for both user and root accounts.
I'm pretty sure when I installed MX-23 that I didn't do that, and left the password etc. for root blank.
I wonder if that may have something to do with it?

Great Minds Think Alike :

At some point I wondered the same thing

My Minimal install is the ONLY one (of the 4 MXs) where I DO NOT have a "root" account...

It still seems strange to me that I get that error, even though I have to open the LightDM GTK+ Editor with root privileges.

What's even more perplexing to me is that it seems, based on @fehlix's solution (post I marked as "[SOLVED]"), that I enabled "lightdm" to read my home directory. And, even more perplexing than that, IT WORKED!-- I now have the background and user image that I selected, even though the lightdm dialog box says that it has no permission to read my home directory !?!

You reminded me that I was going to ask Fehlix if the CLI command that he gave me should INCLUDE write permissions, not only read and execute permissions. I guess I could try and see what happens.

Although, for now, it is "fixed" (enough) for me, since I don't plan on changing those images.

To be continued...

[fehlix]

It still seems strange to me that I get that error, even though I have to open the LightDM GTK+ Editor with root privileges.

Hmme, what "error" do you referring to?

What's even more perplexing to me is that it seems, based on @fehlix's solution (post I marked as "[SOLVED]"), that I enabled "lightdm" to read my home directory. And, even more perplexing than that, IT WORKED!-- I now have the background and user image that I selected, even though the lightdm dialog box says that it has no permission to read my home directory !?!

Nothing to be confused. the lightdm-settings-editor simply checks only standard read permissions ( those which you see with ls -l as "rwx------+" on the home-directory,
and assume user "lightdm" does not have read-permissions. They simple miss to check the POSIX ACLs (indicated by the "+" sign) , which is a standard feature of ext4. So kind of "bug" of the lightdm-settings-editor.

You reminded me that I was going to ask Fehlix if the CLI command that he gave me should INCLUDE write permissions, not only read and execute permissions. I guess I could try and see what happens.

lightdm does not and will not write anything into users home. So setting read permission in order to access wallpaper-pictures is enough, either through ACLs or by adjustin this fairly protecting "rwx------", which is default in MX-23 for some time now.

[operadude]

@fehlix Thanks for the reply !!!

I'm in Xfce right now; will logout, and log back in with my Minimal install, so I can paste an image of the error.

It is not an error, per se; rather, in the LightDM GTK+ Greeter dialog box, pulled-up via the Whisker menu, when I try to change the Background image, or the User image, there is a little "i" (for information) in the dialog box (next to the words "Bacground" & "User image").

When I hover over the "i", it shows the error (lightdm does not have permission to read /home/opera-dude).

Logging out now, and will be back with a pic !

[fehlix]

@fehlix Thanks for the reply !!!

I'm in Xfce right now; will logout, and log back in with my Minimal install, so I can paste an image of the error.

It is not an error, per se; rather, in the LightDM GTK+ Greeter dialog box, pulled-up via the Whisker menu, when I try to change the Background image, or the User image, there is a little "i" (for information) in the dialog box (next to the words "Bacground" & "User image").

When I hover over the "i", it shows the error (lightdm does not have permission to read /home/opera-dude).

Logging out now, and will be back with a pic !

Ah,, that was explained already, it's a "bug" (or limitation) of the lightdm-greeter-settings editor, to not "properly" check permissiosn the user "lightdm" has, as they do "wrongly" not check the "real" permission provided by both the classical + ACL permissions. So just ignore that shown info line, as we know that false positive.

[operadude]

@fehlix OK, will ignore it.

BTW, I took some screenshots of that "error". I DO NOT get this "error" on my other installs of MX23.6 (Fluxbox, KDE, Xfce).

Now that I look at it, I can change the background image, and I think the User image, if it's formatted correctly (small enough).

Anyway, here are the screenshots I took:
Look for a "message" under where it says "Background" in the dialog box:


Look for a "message" under where it says "Default user image" in the dialog box:


Like I said in my earlier post, I consider this issue "[SOLVED]".

Thanks for your help