Caleb Shay <caleb@webninja.com> wrote:
Here's one for the X-perts. I have 3 machines on a private network. 2 linux boxes using gdm and 1 SGI using xdm/clogin. I would like to be able to log into any of the boxes from any one of the other boxes. This seemed like a perfect time for me to play with XDMCP. After all, isn't network transparency supposed to be one of the big selling points of X11? So, after much fruitless searching for info on XDMCP and the configuration of xdm and gdm, all I could come up with was that I needed to enable xdmcp in my gdm.conf files (done), enable broadcast in same (done) and also enable xdmcp broadcasts on all boxes (done). As far as I can tell from the manpages I should get (gdm)chooser popping up automagically on the all 3. Unfortunately, nothing like that happens. I just have my normal loginscreens. Anybody have any hints for me? Cheers,Caleb
I am NOT an "X-pert", but I have been playing around with XDMCP for several years at random times. I have not been able to find the "magic" to get several X-servers running on different terminals (vt7, vt8, etc) yet, so the steps below are restricted to a machine that has only ONE X-server session capability. I know it can be done, but just don't know how...:(
GDM and XDM are configured differently for XDMCP. KDM is quite similar to XDM, but ALL the config for GDM is done in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf. If you have a "mixed" network using any/all of these, you might want to refer to the following sites for some insights on how to get XDM or KDM going:
http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/XDMCP-HOWTO/index.html http://www.linuxgazette.com/issue27/kaszeta.htmlI found the second reference a bit more enlightening since it uses Debian and XDM and provides some very concrete steps to follow.
The normal GDM login screen (or XDM or KDM) and the "Chooser" screen cannot run at the same time if you have only a single X-server session capability. This means you will have to either "kill" the GDM process or "stop" it with "/etc/init.d/gdm stop" The bottom line is to get to a command prompt WITHOUT a X-server running.
Once you are at the command prompt without any X-server running you can then "test" your system out to see if the other comuters are setup correctly. I have found the following commands QUITE useful:
1. "X" (or startx) will start an X-session on the local computer.2. "X -quiet -query [remote computer} should bring up the login-screen of the remote computer... the GDM login screen if it uses GDM. 3. "X -indirect [remote computer] should bring up the "chooser" screen of the remote computer. Note.. you only have to have ONE computer enabled to provide a "chooser" function for the entire network. The gdmchooser DOES work!
If you have problems acessing remote computers, check both the [local compter] and [remote computer] /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc file and make sure that the "nolisten -tcp" part is removed. You should also probably do this in the server section of /etc/gdm/gdm.conf too. These entries are there by default for security reasons.
Once you test out your system and can connect to the various computers on the network, you can make some "permanant" changes in your initscripts. You should disable the /etc/init.d/gdm initscript. I do this by placing a "exit 0" as the second line. This preserves the initscript for future use. You also can create a NEW initscript that will implement either option 2 or 3 above. A sample initscript is included in the linuxgazette reference above.
This is a KLUDGE and very awkward to use! If you know how to get another X-session going at the same time, I would appreciate knowing it. One of the problems with the above is that the [local computer] doesn't have GDM/XDM running so it cannot participate in the XDMCP network except as a "dumb" terminal. Once again, I KNOW you can have GDM running without bringing up the login screen, but I don't know how to do it. I have done it using XDM in XFree86 version 3.3.6, but the 4.1 version has me stumped... all my familiar old files have been changed :(
HTH, -Don Spoon-