Bug#368818: x11-common: insufficient error checking in Xsession can prevent users from logging in
Hi, I am trying to see what to do with this old bug, but I don't see yet why COLUMNS would be set to 0 and why we should support this (buggy?) case. Do you guys know any valid use of COLUMNS=0 ? Brice -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#368818: x11-common: insufficient error checking in Xsession can prevent users from logging in
On Wed, Aug 15, 2007 at 12:10:10AM +0200, Brice Goglin wrote: Hi, I am trying to see what to do with this old bug, but I don't see yet why COLUMNS would be set to 0 and why we should support this (buggy?) case. Do you guys know any valid use of COLUMNS=0 ? No, there is no valid reason for COLUMNS=0. There have been versions of 'resize' which incorrectly reported sizes of 0 on various terminals, but such buggy version are hard to find these days (as are actual terminals, :) so it may simply be a matter of those bugs no longer being triggered). As I noted in my original report, this behaviour was some underlying bug which I was never able to find. I don't entirely understand the whole logic of Xsession and Xsession.d, so I'm not sure what, if anything, in the scripts was causing COLUMNS=0. Perhaps some version of my shell was buggy. (I think tcsh users were _not_ affected, but I no longer recall). I, personally, think the error check is trivial and worth it, but of course the final decision is up to you. I've just tested removing COLUMNS=80 from the script, and it seems to be working fine, so I'm OK with the bug being closed. -- Itai Itai Seggev, Knox College In 1997 a group of programmers started writing a desktop environment to fix a travesty they didn't create. Their program promptly found its way onto un*x systems everywhere. Today, still opposed by a software monopolist, they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you share their vision, if you know you can help, and if you can connect to internet, maybe you can join... the K-Team. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of unsubscribe. Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bug#368818: x11-common: insufficient error checking in Xsession can prevent users from logging in
Package: x11-common
Version: 6.9.0.dfsg.1-6
Severity: normal
If fold is given zero columns as an argument, it dies with the error
message below. If the $COLUMNS enivornment variable is for some reason
set to zero, then the command fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} in
Xsessions's message functions will cause xinit to die with only the
following output in .xsession-errors:
Xsession: X session started for iseggev at Wed May 24 23:51:20 CDT 2006
fold: invalid number of columns: `0'
The result is that the user cannot log in. This can be fixed by
setting COLUMNS=80 by hand in Xsession.
Clearly the ultimate cause is some underlying bug which I have yet to
identify. I would appreciate help in tracking down that bug as well,
but given the ugly results for X and simple work around, (test
COLUMNS and set it to 80 if it equals zero), I'm filing this bug.
This never happened to me in the past; it started happening today
after an upgrade. Kdm and curses seem like the most likely culprits of
the packages upgraded today. The really wierd thing is that it only
happens for some accounts and not others. I don't entirely understand
the X login process, which makes it difficult for me to figure out
exactly why this is happening. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Itai
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers testing
APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (110, 'unstable'), (10, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.16cavy1
Locale: LANG=he_IL.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=he_IL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Versions of packages x11-common depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.1 Debian configuration management sy
ii debianutils 2.16 Miscellaneous utilities specific t
ii lsb-base 3.1-5 Linux Standard Base 3.1 init scrip
x11-common recommends no packages.
-- debconf information:
x11-common/experimental_packages:
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