Environment with konsole and kdm

[Stefan Petersen]

Hi,

I have made some testings with kdm, konsole and the PATH variable.
kdm is compiled with PAM-support, authentication has pam_env support.

1) PATH not set in pam_env.conf

The kdm-logged in user has the PATH variable set as shown in kdmrc under UserEnvironment.
If logged in with root, KDE doesn't start with kdm, because the PATH variable is neither set 
from UserVariable nor from the entry of SystemEnvironment in kdmrc.
To get root logged in with kdm, I need to set PATH in pam_env.conf

How does kdm handle the PATH variable exactly ? Why is there a difference between root and
other users ?

2) PATH set in pam_env.conf
Both, root and users have the entries from this file.

2) su to root from konsole, typing 'su'
Try to su from konsole, PATH of root-user is set to entries in login.defs (ENV_SUPATH) plus the extension set in
~/.bashrc
The same if su'ing to another, unprivileged user.

Why are the entries in /etc/profile not read, but /etc/login.defs is read ?
Neither pam_env.conf nor the SystemEnvironment/UserEnvironment in kdmrc does match one of these settings, why?

3) su - to root from konsole, typing 'su -'
With the hyphen, /etc/profile is read, also ~/.bashrc is read
And again, those settings does not match pam_env.conf or the entries in kdmrc.

To get things working properly, I decided, when logging into the system with kdm,
I have to set pam_env.conf with the correct pathes.
If I try to su from konsole, I use the version with the hyphen to get a clean environment.

At the moment I don't understand, how  kdm and konsole handle with the environment.
Hopefully somebody can help me clearing up my mind, and answer the above questions.

Thanks in advance


Stefan



 



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