how to change customer login page into 2 column page

Question

I am using Facebook connect and like plugin

On Login or Create an Account page, i want two columns page. currently its one column

<reference name="root">
            <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
        </reference>    
    <reference name="customer_form_login">
        <block type="verticalmenu/verticalmenu" after="-" name="ma.verticalmenuleft" template="magentothem/verticalmenu/verticalmenuleft.phtml" />

        <block type="customer/form_login" name="customer_form_login" template="customer/form/login.phtml">
            <action method="setTemplate" ifconfig="facebookfree/settings/enabled" ifvalue="1">
                <template>facebookfree/login.phtml</template>
            </action>
        </block>
    </reference>
</customer_account_login>

Answer 1

Most easiest way i found.

    <update handle="customer_account"/>
    <!-- Mage_Customer -->
    <reference name="root">
        <action method="setTemplate"><template>page/2columns-left.phtml</template></action>
    </reference>

Answer 2

The problem is, that there is a check, wether a template is applied

/app/code/core/Mage/Page/Helper/Layout.php:76
    if ($this->getLayout()->getBlock('root') &&
        !$this->getLayout()->getBlock('root')->getIsHandle()) {
            // If not applied handle
            $this->getLayout()
                ->getBlock('root')
                ->setTemplate($pageLayout->getTemplate());
    }

you have to remove the <action method="setIsHandle"><applied>1</applied></action>. I don't know what the best pratice is here. Changing the page.xml is not :-)

Answer 3

For some reason, default customer.xml updates contain

<remove name="right"/>
<remove name="left"/>

for almost all pages. That's why setting template for root isn't enough and you also have to remove the removes.