xdm -- Starting Multiple Servers

[Paul Serice <ugs@laci.net>]

I don't know if anyone else who uses xdm to manage multiple Servers
has run across the problem whereby starting all the servers
simultaneously can cause all sorts of problems, e.g., some of the
servers don't start because they are waiting to be told of an
available screen.

If you have solved the problem, I would be interested in your
solution.  My solution is to have xdm start the X servers one at a
time by using the SIGHUP signal.

They way I do it is to copy over /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers so that only
one server is listed.  Then I start xdm with the start-stop-daemon. 
Of course, xdm has no problem starting one server, and in about 10
seconds, the X server is up and running with xdm ready for more.

So, I oblige by copying over the etc/X11/xdm/Xservers file again, but
this time I add a second server to the list.  Then I send xdm the
SIGHUP signal via "kill -SIGHUP `cat /var/run/xdm-pid`".  This tells
xdm to re-read its configuration files.  It does so, and finds that
it is now responsible for starting exactly one more server.  Of
course, xdm has no problem starting one server, and all is well.

I just repeat the process until all the servers are up and running.


Paul Serice


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