Ctrl-Alt-F7 automatically starts with a gdm greeter. I would like Ctrl-Alt-F8 to be the same, but I cannot figure it out. Would you offer some tips?
The purpose is to allow others to simply switch over and log into a machine without bothering the current X session and/or leaving me logged in the F8 so X is running and waiting for me.
On Fri, 2008-11-07 at 13:30 -0800, John Thomas wrote:
Ctrl-Alt-F7 automatically starts with a gdm greeter. I would like Ctrl-Alt-F8 to be the same, but I cannot figure it out. Would you offer some tips?
The purpose is to allow others to simply switch over and log into a machine without bothering the current X session and/or leaving me logged in the F8 so X is running and waiting for me.
Do you mean you want to have another X session started and waiting for another login by another user ID?
You want it on boot or just under some circumstances? I have this in my root user bin and run it when I want. This is on my CentOS 4.7. If you are on 5.x, it will be a little different.
# cat bin/XAgain xdm -server ":1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1"
I haven't run it for a _long_ time. If things changed since then, the above may not be exactly right now.
HTH
William L. Maltby wrote:
Do you mean you want to have another X session started and waiting for another login by another user ID?
Yes
You want it on boot or just under some circumstances?
boot
I have this in my root user bin and run it when I want. This is on my CentOS 4.7. If you are on 5.x, it will be a little different. # cat bin/XAgain xdm -server ":1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1"
I am running 5.x. I will test and if it works put it to run at boot.
I haven't run it for a _long_ time. If things changed since then, the above may not be exactly right now.
Thank you.
On Fri, 2008-11-07 at 13:59 -0800, John Thomas wrote:
William L. Maltby wrote:
<snip>
I am running 5.x. I will test and if it works put it to run at boot.
It won't. Check out /etc/inittab. Near the end is prefdm. That checks for preferences and starts it up. My 5.x has no xdm on it. I presume that the /usr/bin/Xorg or /usr/sbin/gdm-binary is what gets started. Do a ps long form and grep for X and dm for a big clue.
You'll probably need to read the info or man pages for that (if any: otherwise various local *docs* directories or the Xorg website or google will be needed) and set up whatever to specify a ":1" server instance. When you've tested it manually, then probably a good thing might be to invoke it from rc.local.
Opinions may vary on this. I wish I had kept up on this acould help more.
<snip>
HTH
I had done this a LONG time ago, but the rules changed a bit since then. It turns out it's VERY easy, but note that this is a fully-updated CentOS 5 system. The method varies somewhat with v4.
Open the file /etc/gdm/custom.conf with a text editor and go all the way to the bottom. You should see a section labeled "[servers]". Add the following lines after the [servers] header:
0=Standard 1=Standard
Save the file, restart X ( telinit 3 ; telinit 5 ) and you should have a GDM on both VC7 and VC8.
The default (stored in /usr/share/gdm/defaults.conf) is to start up only display 0 and run a greeter, so there is only a "0=Standard" line in the [servers] section there. Putting these lines in custom.conf overrides that section of the defaults.conf file. The comments in defaults.conf are pretty informative, so you might pick up some other tidbits there.
Hope that helps!
Jay Leafey wrote:
Open the file /etc/gdm/custom.conf with a text editor and go all the way to the bottom. You should see a section labeled "[servers]". Add the following lines after the [servers] header:
0=Standard 1=Standard
Save the file, restart X ( telinit 3 ; telinit 5 ) and you should have a GDM on both VC7 and VC8.
Works great, thank you!
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Jay Leafey -
John Thomas -
William L. Maltby