Hi,

How do I choose the session with the XDM login manager? I have TWM and
XFCE installed. In runlevel 3, when I login as a user, I can fire up XFCE
with 'startx', since I defined my window manager beforehand with
'xwmconfig'. But when I switch to runlevel 4 in /etc/inittab, XDM fires
up and wants to start TWM.

Any idea where I can define the X session? I leafed through the files in /
etc/X11/xdm, but to no avail, and unfortunately, the xdm manpage is
written in some remote klingon slang.

cheers,

Niki

Niki Kovacs <mickey@mouse.com> wrote:
> How do I choose the session with the XDM login manager?

I don't think it is possible to point and click to choose session with
xdm. With kdm and gdm you can point and click to choose session.

> I have TWM and XFCE installed. In runlevel 3, when I login as a user, I
> can fire up XFCE with 'startx', since I defined my window manager
> beforehand with 'xwmconfig'. But when I switch to runlevel 4 in
> /etc/inittab, XDM fires up and wants to start TWM.

Try to copy your .xinitrc to .xsession

regards Henrik
--
The address in the header is only to prevent spam. My real address is:
hc1(at)poolhem.se Examples of addresses which go to spammers:
root@localhost postmaster@localhost

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:36:35 +0100, Henrik Carlqvist wrote:

> Niki Kovacs <mickey@mouse.com> wrote:
>> How do I choose the session with the XDM login manager?
>
> I don't think it is possible to point and click to choose session with
> xdm. With kdm and gdm you can point and click to choose session.

If you don't need remote login through xdm, it's worth looking at slim as
a login manager, which is very lightweight and has a simple session
configuration.

>> I have TWM and XFCE installed. In runlevel 3, when I login as a user, I
>> can fire up XFCE with 'startx', since I defined my window manager
>> beforehand with 'xwmconfig'. But when I switch to runlevel 4 in
>> /etc/inittab, XDM fires up and wants to start TWM.
>
> Try to copy your .xinitrc to .xsession

That should work.

Incidentally, even the kllingon manpages often list useful cross-
references at the end of the page. Even the xdm page :-)

Le Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:09:58 +0100, Mark South a écritÂ*:

>
> If you don't need remote login through xdm, it's worth looking at slim
> as a login manager, which is very lightweight and has a simple session
> configuration.

Yeah, I know Slim, and I've been using it some time. Except it's supposed
to run in runlevel 3. Never managed to get the thing to work correctly in
runlevel 4. Which is a nuisance, when you have your users staring at a
blinking screen when they log out. Or once in a while, Slim won't even
fire up, and then there's just the console.

But I just spent the best part of a cold grey day trying to get a nice
configuration out of XDM, and heyyy, it's much better now. Even managed a
nice background PNG with qiv. In short, it looks now like a North Korean
edition of Mac OS X D

>
> Incidentally, even the kllingon manpages often list useful cross-
> references at the end of the page. Even the xdm page :-)

As usual, I ended up reading the whole load of it anyway. One thing that
confused me was that the config files in /etc/X11/xdm are hard-linked to /
usr/lib/X11/xdm.

cheers,

Niki

Bonjour encore, Niki.

On Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:34:12 +0000, Niki Kovacs wrote:

> Le Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:09:58 +0100, Mark South a écritÂ*:
>
>> If you don't need remote login through xdm, it's worth looking at slim
>> as a login manager, which is very lightweight and has a simple session
>> configuration.
>
> Yeah, I know Slim, and I've been using it some time. Except it's
> supposed to run in runlevel 3. Never managed to get the thing to work
> correctly in runlevel 4. Which is a nuisance, when you have your users
> staring at a blinking screen when they log out. Or once in a while, Slim
> won't even fire up, and then there's just the console.

Your description does not gel with my experiences of using slim, but it's
been a while, and my slackbox is now running kdm and KDE everything else
too.

> But I just spent the best part of a cold grey day trying to get a nice
> configuration out of XDM, and heyyy, it's much better now. Even managed
> a nice background PNG with qiv.

You must have a lot of patience. If you had that kind of time and energy
you could simply have themed twm to look like KDE :-)

> In short, it looks now like a North
> Korean edition of Mac OS X D

</modquote>

>> Incidentally, even the kllingon manpages often list useful cross-
>> references at the end of the page. Even the xdm page :-)
>
> As usual, I ended up reading the whole load of it anyway. One thing that
> confused me was that the config files in /etc/X11/xdm are hard-linked to
> / usr/lib/X11/xdm.

Oh don't, you're making me all nostalgic for the 20th century, when men
were men, X was spelt with a capital letter, and configuration files were
REAL configuration files.

Mark
--
Signature warning: HIGHLY INEFFABLE!

On 2007-12-17, Niki Kovacs <mickey@mouse.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> How do I choose the session with the XDM login manager? I have TWM and
> XFCE installed. In runlevel 3, when I login as a user, I can fire up XFCE
> with 'startx', since I defined my window manager beforehand with
> 'xwmconfig'. But when I switch to runlevel 4 in /etc/inittab, XDM fires
> up and wants to start TWM.
>
> Any idea where I can define the X session? I leafed through the files in /
> etc/X11/xdm, but to no avail, and unfortunately, the xdm manpage is
> written in some remote klingon slang.


Have a look at the actual content of /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession.
Once you look at the options of using $1 versus $HOME/.xsession
(see lines 104-110), then you can decide which is best for you.

-RW

Le Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:48:36 +0100, Mark South a écritÂ*:
>
> You must have a lot of patience. If you had that kind of time and
> energy you could simply have themed twm to look like KDE :-)
>

Look ahead for some new distros I'm working on:

- TWbuntu
- FVWbuntu
- Ratpobuntu

The crowd will love it.

Niki

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Hash: SHA1

On 2007-12-17, Mark South <mark.south@null.invalid> wrote:
> Oh don't, you're making me all nostalgic for the 20th century, when men
> were men, X was spelt with a capital letter, and configuration files were
> REAL configuration files.
</modquote>

*sniff* Takin' me back to the days of XFree86-3.something. Please
don't mention configuring X on VESA local bus. I'll cry.

- --
It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
Than for a man to hear the song of fools.
Ecclesiastes 7:5
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Mark South wrote:

>> As usual, I ended up reading the whole load of it anyway. One thing that
>> confused me was that the config files in /etc/X11/xdm are hard-linked to
>> / usr/lib/X11/xdm.
>
> Oh don't, you're making me all nostalgic for the 20th century, when men
> were men, X was spelt with a capital letter, and configuration files were
> REAL configuration files.

My old X programming books call it "X Window System". But I notice that
everyone nowdays calls it the X Windows System, which actually makes more
sense. Sometimes new things are not all that bad after all. Take
directories vs folders for instance[1]. I would call them directories
anyday but the folder analogy makes far more sense that the directory
analogy.

old) You store your files in this directory so that when you run your
program it can load them from the directory.

new) You store your files in this folder so that when you run your program
it can load them from the folder.

Most people associate directories as storage for information about people,
places or businesses. Whereas most people associate folders with cardboard
things you store your paper work in. It is easier to get a person trained
in the business world to relate to the folder analogy. For instance your
accounts are stored in this folder and your accounting program loads the
accounting files out of that folder.

Richard James
[1] Probably started some stupid thread about naming conventions.

On Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:14:07 +1000, Richard James wrote:

> Mark South wrote:
>
>>> As usual, I ended up reading the whole load of it anyway. One thing
>>> that confused me was that the config files in /etc/X11/xdm are
>>> hard-linked to / usr/lib/X11/xdm.
>>
>> Oh don't, you're making me all nostalgic for the 20th century, when men
>> were men, X was spelt with a capital letter, and configuration files
>> were REAL configuration files.
>
> My old X programming books call it "X Window System". But I notice that
> everyone nowdays calls it the X Windows System, which actually makes
> more sense.

Well, if you can draw one window you can draw more. We don't talk about
the "brakes system" or the "suspensions system" on your car. So the
first is better.

> Sometimes new things are not all that bad after all. Take
> directories vs folders for instance[1]. I would call them directories
> anyday but the folder analogy makes far more sense that the directory
> analogy.

I still think of them as directories, but when I'm speaking out loud I
always say "folder". Years of working with Mac and Windows people will
do that to one :-)