Quote:
Out of curiosity, how does KDE or Gnome handle automatic login? I know you can do it.

They use programs run -- as root -- from the inittab: kdm in the case of KDE, and I guess the Gnome one is probably called gdm. This is the program that puts up the graphical "please log in" screen (as opposed to login, which is the program which does the text-mode log-in). As kdm, like init, is running as root, it can skip the password entry if it chooses to and run startkde, or gnome-session or whatever, as any user of its choice, directly.

So I guess Bitt's position is that technically it's not "automatic login", but automatic starting of processes as a particular user without going via a log-in prompt. But that's a mighty fine line IMO: it sure looks like automatic login and quacks like automatic login.

Peter