Re: X Windows

[Stephen Early <sde1000@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

On Thu, 16 May 1996, Craig Sanders wrote:

> i don't use xdm at the moment, just startx.
> 
> Is it possible to get xdm to put a login prompt on more than one vc?
> 
> e.g.  have xdm login screens on vc 3,4,5,6
> 
> so i can login on vc3 but let other people share my machine in X windows
> without having to log out...just press ctrl-alt-F4 to switch to another X
> login screen.

Yes, it's possible. Bear in mind that it will be necessary to run an X 
server for each VC, which will take a lot of memory.

Technically you can do it by adding extra lines to /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers. 
The default line says:

:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X

You can add more lines, of the form:

:1 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :1
:2 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :2
etc.

There may be a race condition involved in starting lots of X servers
simultaneously - I haven't checked yet. If this turns out to be the case,
you may be better off starting xdm without any X servers, and then
starting up the X servers at a later point in the boot sequence. You can 
tell an X server to ask xdm for a login window using the -query command 
line option. For instance, to start an X server with display number 1:

/usr/X11R6/bin/X :1 -query hostname

If you have set up your XF86Config file correctly, and your graphics card 
supports it, you can have X servers with different colour depths running 
as well. For instance:

/usr/X11R6/bin/X :3 -bpp 16 -query hostname
...would try to start up a 16bpp X server on display number 3.

NB display numbers are NOT VC numbers; when you start an X server it will 
grab the first free VT. For more details, see the Xserver(1x) manpage.

Steve Early
sde1000@cam.ac.uk