Re: Two X questions

[Kent West <westk@nicanor.acu.edu>]

Alex Malinovich wrote:
> I'm sure that these both have simple answers, but as I really know next
> to nothing about X I'm left having to ask here.
>
> 1) Is there a way to run concurrent X sessions WITHOUT having to be in
> an X session to start a new one. In case that's not quite clear, Gnome
> gives you an option to log in as a new user while leaving the other user
> logged in. You can switch between them with F7-Fwhatever. But this
> requires the users to be IN a Gnome session (starting from the terminal
> doesn't work.) I keep my session locked (xscreensaver) since I'm always
> tinkering with various security related issues, but I need a way to let
> my roommates log in when I'm not around to unlock the screen.

I'm not entirely sure what you're saying. But what works for me is to 
start X on VT7 in whatever way is normal for the system I'm on (startx 
or [w|g|x]dm). Then I Ctrl-Alt-F2 to the second VT (or F1, or F3, 
whatever's free), login there, and do a "startx -- :1" to start X on the 
second free VT, in this case VT8.

> 2) Is there a way to connect to a running X session. I can run remote X
> programs through ssh with no problem, but I'd like to have a way to
> actually VIEW a remote X session locally. (i.e. Be able to access my
> currently logged in view on my desktop computer from my laptop.) With
> what little I know of X this looks like it SHOULD work, but I have no
> idea where to start.

I would like this capability also, but have never figured it out. I 
believe the docs for VNC say that VNC doesn't do this, but it should be 
"trivial" to rewrite VNC so that it would. Of course, as far as I know, 
no one has bothered to do this trivial tweak. So the short answer is, "I 
don't know of such a way to do what you want.

Kent