Re: X server problems

[servis@purdue.edu]

*- Stefan Nobis wrote about "Re: X server problems"
| Kent West <kent.west@infotech.acu.edu> writes:
| 
| > Could Braden not simply try Ctrl-Alt-F2 to switch to a non-X virtual console?
| > I'm too new at Linux to know, but I'd at least try it.
| 
| No. If the X-Server isn't configured yet and you start xdm, xdm starts 
| the X-Server. The Server exits at once and returns control to xdm
| which then again tries to start the Server and so on. This happens so
| fast that no keystroke will work (i tried this serveral time - no
| way). If you have another computer at hand, connectd per TCP/IP you
| will be able to kill xdm (after login per telnet).
| 
| The other solution is to boot in single mode (init mode 1), but that
| method was described already.
| 

This behavior is supposed to be controlled by xresources but does not
seem to work.  I looked for a bug report but didn't find one.  Hmmm,
maybe I will submit one to add to the thousands that are already there
for xbase.

See the man page for xdm.

% man xdm
[snip]
       DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openDelay

       DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openRepeat

       DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openTimeout

       DisplayManager.DISPLAY.startAttempts
              These numeric resources control the behavior of xdm
              when   attempting  to  open  intransigent  servers.
              openDelay is the length of the pause  (in  seconds)
              between successive attempts, openRepeat is the num­
              ber of attempts to make, openTimeout is the  amount
              of  time to wait while actually attempting the open
              (i.e., the maximum time  spent  in  the  connect(2)
              system  call)  and  startAttempts  is the number of
              times this entire process is done before giving  up
              on the server.  After openRepeat attempts have been
              made, or if openTimeout seconds elapse in any  par­
              ticular  attempt,  xdm  terminates and restarts the
              server, attempting to connect again.  This  process
              is repeated startAttempts times, at which point the
              display is declared dead  and  disabled.   Although
              this  behavior  may  seem  arbitrary,  it  has been
              empirically developed and works quite well on  most
              systems.  The default values are 5 for openDelay, 5
              for openRepeat, 30 for openTimeout and 4 for  star­
              tAttempts.
[snip]


Brian 
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Never criticize anybody until you have walked a mile in their shoes,  
 because by that time you will be a mile away and have their shoes." 
							   - unknown  

Mechanical Engineering                              servis@purdue.edu
Purdue University                   http://www.ecn.purdue.edu/~servis
---------------------------------------------------------------------