Bug 232011 - re-design interface
Summary: re-design interface
Status: RESOLVED UNMAINTAINED
Alias: None
Product: kdm
Classification: Miscellaneous
Component: general (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: unspecified All
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: kdm bugs tracker
URL:
Keywords:
: 88014 208927 212079 222652 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-03-24 16:06 UTC by Oswald Buddenhagen
Modified: 2018-04-17 07:23 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-03-24 16:06:18 UTC
the current interface is centered around the login credential input elements (the "talker"). if a user list is enabled, it is only an add-on which feeds data into the talker. this model leads to a sub-par visual interaction (bug 208927). additionally, in particular in the unthemed greeter mode, the user list is constrained in its size, which limits its usefulness (bug 88014). on top of that, the user list (and the greeter as a whole) provides no real integration into the fast user switching.

following the example of other login managers, the greeter should be a full-screen dialog. the list should be able to expand over the whole screen. only once a user (or the "other user" entry) was selected from the list, a talker area should appear in direct proximity of the selected entry. additional controls should be at the bottom of the screen.

what to do if no user list is wanted? win xp has a "standard" mode where the old dialog is used - however, this is ugly. the alternative would be just directly displaying a talker instead of the list, i.e., essentially preselecting the "other user" entry from an otherwise empty list. of course this may lead to the tiny talker looking a bit lost in the middle of nowhere - some design talent is needed here.

what to do about alternative authentication methods? PAM (theoretically) makes it possible to use arbitrary methods of identifying and authenticating a user. such a mechanism typically presents a prompt like "please swipe your finger", "please insert your id card", "please look into the camera", etc., but textual prompts are possible as well. to accomodate this, kdm has a "conversation plugin" architecture which makes it possible to make a tailored UI for every method (from just displaying an image next to the prompt, to actually providing the input method for the token, e.g., a signature canvas) just as well as providing a generic UI to cover (most) not directly supported methods. the plugins provide complete talker widgets which kdm embeds into the greeter, not knowing what the talker actually does. of course, this may not work particularly well for a list-centered UI:
- if the method only authenticates a pre-identified user, the talker can be just placed in the list, like the normal password prompt.
- if the method is used to identify the user, then the prompt somehow needs to be "at the same level" as the user list. if the method requires further tokens (e.g., a pin or password), the identified user should be selected in the list and the password prompt presented as usual. however, that already means that the talker is split: the first prompt is outside the list, the second prompt is inside.
- it gets even more interesting if the talker provides a way to specify a domain (like the winbind plugin does), as that would not only split the talker, but could also affect the contents of the user list.
- another challenge is presenting multiple authentication methods in parallel. a typical scenario would be an alternative method (e.g., fingerprint scanner) and the classical username+password as a fallback.

what to do about the themed greeter? it gives the designer too much freedom: even though the greeter is full-screen in this mode already, most themes create a "fake" dialog which contrains the user list too much, and many even do away with the list entirely. on top of that, the themed greeter poses significant accessibility issues as it stands (lack of keyboard navigation, and some themes even lack keyboard shortcuts).
consequently, "kdm themes 2.0" should be probably just a bunch of style sheets which cannot be used to cause too much damage. in a plasma-integrated kdm (bug 197581), the list + talker area would be a plasmoid, giving maximal flexibility to those with some clue.
Comment 1 Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-03-24 16:07:53 UTC
*** Bug 88014 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 2 Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-03-24 16:08:34 UTC
*** Bug 208927 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 3 Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-03-24 17:26:17 UTC
*** Bug 212079 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 4 Oswald Buddenhagen 2010-03-24 17:26:49 UTC
*** Bug 222652 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 5 Kai Uwe Broulik 2010-09-02 03:54:59 UTC
Oh, I tested Ubuntu with Gnome and GDM is sooooo much more elegant then KDM.
Well I like the idea of a window, but having a list of users available would be a significant improvement.

A step further would be: Place plasmoids on the logon screen :P But this is not possible due to plasma not running and things.
Comment 6 Todd 2010-09-02 16:30:16 UTC
There is a list of users on openSUSE.

Someone did a GSOC project this year that implements a plasma-based KDM interface.
Comment 7 Nate Graham 2018-04-16 20:26:37 UTC
KDM is unmaintained and not used in KDE Plasma 5.

SDDM is the login manager used in KDE Plasma 5. If you still have this same issue with SDDM, please file an issue on the SDDM bugtracker (after doing a search for existing issues first!): https://github.com/sddm/sddm/issues/