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178 lines
8.6 KiB
178 lines
8.6 KiB
TDE session manager (ksmserver)
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--------------------------------
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Matthias Ettrich <ettrich@kde.org>
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Lubos Lunak <l.lunak@kde.org>
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ksmserver is TDE's new session management server. It talks the
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standard X11R6 session management protocol (XSMP). Thus, in theory,
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it should be compatible with all session managment compliant X11R6
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applications. Unfortunately, there aren't that many of them. To be
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precise, I have never seen a single commercial application that
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supports it and even within the official X11R6 distribution, 'xclock'
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is the only exception. Nevertheless we've chosen to support XSMP
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despites the complexity of the protocol in order to provide TDE users
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more interoperability with applications that were not explicitely
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written with TDE in mind. XSMP, as an official X standard, promised to
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be more likely to be supported by third parties than even a superior
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TDE-specific protocol. Let's see whether we were right and more
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applications will actually talk XSMP. At least all TDE applications do
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now.
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Here's a short overview on how session management works.
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Starting the server
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-------------------
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The server is usually started from the 'starttde' script. It supports the following options:
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-r, --restore Restores the previous session if available
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-w, --windowmanager <wm> Starts 'wm' in case no other window manager is
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participating in the session. Default is 'twin'
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The default 'starttde' launches 'ksmserver --restore'. The
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'windowmanager' option is useful for users that prefer a window
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manager other than twin. Since the window manager has to participate
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in the session (it has to remember window positions and states), it is
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usually restarted when the session is restored. To be *really* sure
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that this happens, even if the wm might have crashed during the
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previous session, ksmserver ensures that. The option specifies, which
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windowmanager shall be launched for sure. But again: if the stored
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session contains a window manager, the restored one will be used, not
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the specified one. As a special feature, ksmserver always starts the
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specified window manager first, which results in a much nicer startup
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sequence (less flashy).
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TDE startup sequence
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--------------------
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Ksmserver controls the second part of the TDE startup sequence,
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after it gets control from the starttde script, which controls
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the first part of the startup sequence. All code related to startup
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should be in startup.cpp and going down in that source file should
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follow the startup order (but note that this is just a documentation
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which may get outdated, so in case of doubts the source wins ;) ).
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The starttde scripts already launches tdeinit, which in turns launches
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TDE daemons like dcopserver, klauncher and kded. Kded loads autoloaded
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kded modules, i.e. those that have X-TDE-Kded-autoload=true in .desktop
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files. The exact way autoloading works is controlled by X-TDE-Kded-phase=,
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which may be 0, 1 or 2 (the default). Kded phase 0 means the module is
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always loaded by kded, even outside of TDE session. It should used only
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by kded modules which must be always running. Kded phase 1 modules are
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loaded right after kded startup, but only during TDE startup, i.e. it is
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for modules that are always needed by the TDE session. Phase 2 modules
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will be loaded later.
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Startkde also launches kcminit, which performs initialization done by kcontrol
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modules. There are three kcminit phases, 0, 1 and 2, controlled
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by X-TDE-Init-Phase= in the .desktop file, which defaults to 1. Phase 0 kcminit
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modules should be only those that really need to be run early in the startup
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process (and those should probably actually use kstartupconfig in starttde
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to be done even before tdeinit and daemons). After executing phase 0
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modules kcminit returns and waits.
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When ksmserver is launched, the first thing it does is launching
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the window manager, as the WM is necessary before any windows are possibly
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shown. When the WM is ready, ksmserver tells klauncher to perform autostart
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phase 0 ($TDEHOME/share/autostart). There are 3 autostart phases, 0, 1 and 2,
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defined by X-TDE-autostart-phase, defaulting to 2. Phase 0 is reserved only
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for the actual visible base components of TDE, i.e. KDesktop and Kicker,
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in order to make the startup appear visually faster. Both KDesktop and Kicker
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use DCOP calls suspendStartup() and resumeStartup() to make ksmserver stay
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waiting for autostart phase 0 until both KDesktop and Kicker are ready.
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Next step is telling the waiting kcminit to perform phase 1 - all kcminit
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modules that should be executed before TDE startup is considered done.
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After that ksmserver tells klauncher to perform autostart phase 1,
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i.e. launching normal components of TDE that should be available right
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after TDE startup, and after this session restore is performed,
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i.e. launching all applications that were running during last session
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saving (usually logout).
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By this time TDE session is considered to be more or less ready and
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ksmserver does the knotify starttde event (i.e. plays the login sound).
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It also tells klauncher to perform autostart phase 2, kded to load all
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remaining autoload (i.e. kded phase 2) modules, kcminit to execute
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kcminit phase 2 (kcontrol modules that do initialization that can wait,
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like launching daemons) and kdesktop to execute the user Autostart folder.
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Technical note: There's a reason why kded modules and items in autostart
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default to the latest phase. Before you explicitly use a different phase,
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read and understand what's above. You should also consider whether something
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really needs to be launched during TDE startup and can't be loaded on-demand
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when really needed. Abusing the phases will result in public spanking
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for making TDE startup slower.
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Establishing the connection
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---------------------------
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As required by the XSMP specification, the session management server
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propagates its network address in the SESSION_MANAGER environment
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variable. Probably not the best way to do it, but it's the way it
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is. All TDE (and plain Qt) applications simply read this variable and
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try to establish a connection to an XSMP server at this address. If
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the variable is undefined, nothing happens.
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This means, if you want to start a program that should not participate
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in the session, simply undefine SESSION_MANAGER in your terminal
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window and launch the application. If you want to see an application
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desparately trying to connect to something, try setting it to some
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bogus value.
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In addition, ksmserver propagates both its network address and its
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process id in ~/.kde/socket-$HOSTNAME/KSMserver-$DISPLAY. A
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utility function KApplication::propagateSessionManager() reads this
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setting and sets SESSION_MANAGER accordingly, so that child processes
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can pick it up. The function is called by clients that are started
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outside the session ( i.e. before ksmserver is started), but want to
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launch other processes that should participate in the session.
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Examples are kdesktop or kicker, see below.
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Authorization
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-------------
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XSMP is, just like DCOP, built on top of the Inter Client Exchange
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(ICE) protocol, which comes standard as a part of X11R6 and later.
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Authorization is done using 'iceauth', with MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE as used
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by X. In order to be able to access the session management server, you
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need to be able to read ~/.ICEauthority. For security reasons, we do
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not provide any host-based authorization (neither does DCOP, btw.).
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Requesting a shutdown
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---------------------
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If an application wants to request a shutdown (i.e. a logout), it does
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this via an SmcRequestSaveYourself message to the server. In TDE, a
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utility function KApplication::requestShutDown() does exactly
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this. It's for example called by TDE's panel or by the context menu of
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the desktop.
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User Interface
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--------------
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ksmserver has a very straight-forward user interface. It mainly asks
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the question "Shutdown TDE Session?" and provides two obvious command
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buttons "Yes" and "Cancel". The interesting bit is the additonal
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checkbox that says "Restore session when logging in next time". The
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checkbox remembers state within session, so simply use whatever you
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prefer. For those who remember, this was one of the main questions
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with TDE-1.x ("How to get rid of session managment?"). With TDE-2.x,
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most users will probably prepare a session once, store it with the
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checkbox enabled and keep the checkbox disabled in the future. This
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way you get a proper and clean 'homesession' each time.
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Troubleshooting
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---------------
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If you experience trouble like 'logout does not work anymore' or 'I
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cannot start new applications', as a result of a previous crash,
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ensure that ksmserver is indeed not running anymore and remove the
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file ~/.kde/socket-$HOSTNAME/KSMserver-$DISPLAY. Shouldn't be necessry,
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but one never knows.
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