On Wed, 2007-09-12 at 17:23 +0300, Ioannis Vranos wrote:
OS: CentOS 5.0 x86.
Q1: Is it possible different users to have different language interfaces (menus etc) on the same machine under X.Org (GNOME or KDE)?
I'm not familiar enough with this to help, but I've done something that may help you find your way on the next question. I suspect the normal LC_* environmental stuff will be needed for the language solution.
Q2: Is it possible to have more than one X.Org sessions running on the same machine, so as different users to log in at the same time, and switch between users X.Org sessions (one using GNOME, other using XFCE) by using the usual Ctrl-Alt-Fx keys?
<soapbox> It may be redundant, but please be *aware* of the security implications of what you are seeking. "The law of unintended consequences" will certainly come into play if you are truly multi-user. Effects in social interactions, swap usage, system responsiveness can all be expected. You can expect to be asked to do an excessive numbers of restores of backup at a specific point in time (which you won't have) as user A destroys user B's stuff, by intent or accident.
</soapbox>
As root, from shell,
startx -- :1 # or 2, 3, ...
gets a session started as root. There are more params that can be passed.
For a login process, a basic process is
xdm -server ":1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1" # or 2, 3, ...
This gets a basic default layout session going. Other files and parameters may be needed to suit your needs.
Your friend is "man xdm" and *many* others: startx, X, ... follow the path in the "See Also" sections.
Many of the files are scripts. Viewing them can prove instructive.
I've not looked (no need) but I bet there are "primers" out on the web for this sort of stuff too.
Investigate also, this line from /etc/inittab. It may prove more useful to allow automatic start of the extra X instances.
x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon
I would have responded sooner, but I'm such a neophyte at this X stuff that I felt certain someone else would answer with better information.
Good luck.
<snip sig stuff>
HTH -- Bill