This is a spin-off from bug #468576 comment #11. Starting with kde-base/kdebase-pam-9, KDE uses pam service system-local-login instead of system-auth. This is apparently intended as a fix for bug #422495. One consequence is the fact that pam modules which display messages to the user now cause dialog boxes to pop up during session initialization. The message about the last log-in was recently addressed in bug #468576. But another message remains about whether there is any mail for the user. This is generated by pam_mail.so. I'm not entirely sure I like the way pam_lastlog.so is handled, by moving the non-silent version of that module inside each individual service. I might prefer another file included for all text-based sessions, or some kind of message-grabbing facility on the KDE side as bug #468576 comment #3 suggested. But this is slightly off-topic. What I'm pretty certain about is that the non-silent pam_lastlog.so and pam_mail.so should be handled the same. If one is moved out of system-login and into individual service files, then the same should be done to the other. In analogy to the silent lastlog line, one could also use pam_mail.so with the "nopen" flag, to consistently set the MAIL environment variable. The goal should be that users on a terminal session see both messages, and KDE users no dialogs.
Does this still happen with latest pambase?
proposed patch: #if HAVE_MAIL -session optional pam_mail.so +session optional pam_mail.so quiet #endif
(In reply to SpanKY from comment #2) > proposed patch: > #if HAVE_MAIL > -session optional pam_mail.so > +session optional pam_mail.so quiet > #endif @pam-maintainer please provide a new version with the proposed patch.
I think pambase is nearly orphan for a long time, then, I think you could simply go ahead and apply the patch for now
@Martin could you please confirm that the patch works for you?
Plasma 4 removed from tree. https://gitweb.gentoo.org/repo/gentoo.git/commit/?id=b2fa0ea91a6726f62e98e5d8b93937d63dca1a80