Logon Banner 17.10

Since unity is no longer being used. Does anyone know how to set up a logon banner message? We need to set up a “EULA” before the user logs on.

Hi.
If you edit this file:

/etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults

there is a section for banner text.

cat /etc/gdm3/greeter.dconf-defaults

# These are the options for the greeter session that can be set 
# through GSettings. Any GSettings setting that is used by the 
# greeter session can be set here.

# Note that you must configure the path used by dconf to store the 
# configuration, not the GSettings path.


# Theming options
# ===============
#  - Change the GTK+ theme
# [org/gnome/desktop/interface]
# gtk-theme='Adwaita'
#  - Use another background
# [org/gnome/desktop/background]
# picture-uri='file:///usr/share/themes/Adwaita/backgrounds/stripes.jpg'
# picture-options='zoom'
#  - Or no background at all
# [org/gnome/desktop/background]
# picture-options='none'
# primary-color='#000000'

# Login manager options
# =====================
#[org/gnome/login-screen]
#logo='/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/emblems/emblem-debian-white.png'
#fallback-logo='/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/emblems/emblem-debian-white.png'

# - Disable user list
# disable-user-list=true
# - Disable restart buttons
# disable-restart-buttons=true
# - Show a login welcome message
# banner-message-enable=true
# banner-message-text='Welcome'

Update: Don’t forget to run ‘systemctl reload gdm’ after making any changes to this file.

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I tried that, didn’t seem to have any effect on the logon screen. I tried to look at a log, but there’s noting under /var/log/gdm3

And restarted systemd? I’m sure you’ll have a log file somewhere.

Just for clarity and no offense meant - you did uncomment the relevant string, right?

Yes sir, here is the file.

… cat greeter.dconf-defaults

These are the options for the greeter session that can be set

through GSettings. Any GSettings setting that is used by the

greeter session can be set here.

Note that you must configure the path used by dconf to store the

configuration, not the GSettings path.

Theming options

===============

- Change the GTK+ theme

[org/gnome/desktop/interface]

gtk-theme=‘Adwaita’

- Use another background

[org/gnome/desktop/background]

picture-uri=‘file:///usr/share/themes/Adwaita/backgrounds/stripes.jpg’

picture-options=‘zoom’

- Or no background at all

[org/gnome/desktop/background]

picture-options=‘none’

primary-color=’#000000

Login manager options

=====================

[org/gnome/login-screen]
#logo=’/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/emblems/emblem-debian-white.png’
#fallback-logo=’/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/emblems/emblem-debian-white.png’

- Disable user list

disable-user-list=false

- Disable restart buttons

disable-restart-buttons=false

- Show a login welcome message

banner-message-enable=true
banner-message-text=‘Welcome’

Hm OK
Run the following commands and check to see if anything is relevant:

systemctl  status gdm.service

journalctl  -xe

Maybe one of the Canonical Desktop guys/gals can jump in here too?

gdm.service - GNOME Display Manager
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/gdm.service; static; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2017-11-01 10:15:31 EDT; 1min 49s ago
Process: 631 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/gdm/generate-config (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 652 (gdm3)
Tasks: 3 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/gdm.service
└─652 /usr/sbin/gdm3

Nov 01 10:15:31 don-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Starting GNOME Display Manager…
Nov 01 10:15:31 don-VirtualBox systemd[1]: Started GNOME Display Manager.
Nov 01 10:15:32 don-VirtualBox gdm-launch-environment][672]: pam_unix(gdm-launch-environment:session): session opened for user gdm by (uid=0)
Nov 01 10:15:45 don-VirtualBox gdm-password][936]: pam_unix(gdm-password:session): session opened for user don by (uid=0)

Interesting. If I make any changes to that file, and reboot, the system forces a fsck and dumps me in low graphics mode forcing me to use terminal login. This is on Wayland of course. Didn’t try it with Xorg.

I think something must be unique to the changes that have been made to Gnome. I don’t have a Debian box running any DE or X, so can’t check if Debian Vanilla Gnome does the same.

I think at this point, we should get Canonical involved or file a bug. I’ll leave that up to you, as I’m not affected personally. I also notice you’re running in a virtual environment. That’s a pretty pertinent fact that probably should have been mentioned.

Thank you Stephen! How would I get Canonical involved?

Well, there are Canonical employees on this forum, so look around. I’m sure they’ll guide you. This forum isn’t really for technical support.

Update: Sorry for the short response, busy morning for me. I’m relatively new to Ubuntu myself, (a long time Debian user) so the support avenues aren’t familiar to moi. From another post I noticed this link https://community.ubuntu.com/t/community-support/709 HTH you out.

Exactly.

Correct.
@dewiii
There you will find more people to assist with the technical problem you have.

1 Like