[CentOS] CentOS 5.5 dmrc weirdness

[Mike VanHorn]

I was trying to set the default desktop environment using
/etc/sysconfig/desktop. Originally, there was no /etc/sysconfig/desktop.

I have discovered that if my home directory does NOT have a .dmrc file (i.e.
If the account is brand new), then I get the following logged to the
.xession-errors file in my home directory:

 /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: Registering your session with utmp
 /etc/gdm/PreSession/Default: running: /usr/bin/sessreg -a -u /var/run/utmp
 -x "/
 var/gdm/:0.Xservers" -h "" -l ":0" "mvanhorn"
 localuser:mvanhorn being added to access control list
 No profile for user 'mvanhorn' found
 stty: standard input: Inappropriate ioctl for device

However, if I create a .dmrc file in my home directory, and it contains
either

 [Desktop]
 Session=gnome

or

 [Desktop]
 Session=kde

everything works fine.

So, what seems to be happening is that when the system needs to function
without a .dmrc file, it creates a new one (in my home directory which
contains)

 [Desktop]
 Session=default

but then the above error happens and it goes back to the login screen.

There doesn't seem to be any permission problem involved, and it's not
logging any error about not being able to write to ~/.dmrc. However, I can't
figure out why it needs to have a preexisting .dmrc file (which seems to go
against the idea of the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file).

Any insight or help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
 
---
Mike VanHorn
Senior Computer Systems Administrator 
College of Engineering and Computer Science
Wright State University
265 Russ Engineering Center
937-775-5157
michael.vanhorn at wright.edu
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http://www.engineering.wright.edu/~mvanhorn/