Re: Starting X without a Gnome session
"Balazs" == Balazs Javor <jb3@freemail.hu> writes:
Balazs> Hi, I'm trying to figure out the proper Debian way of
Balazs> chosing between different types of X sessions.
The easiest way is to use the session chooser at the gdm login
screen. Use the Session menu on the top right side of the window. You
can choose a bunch different sessions, and it's really nice when
switching between Gnome, KDE and straight xsessions.
Balazs> Basically, I'm looking for the right and hopefully easy
Balazs> way to experiment with X running Gnome or KDE or just some
Balazs> window manger.
Use gdm's session menu!
Balazs> I've been going through various X related documentation
Balazs> and howtos for a long time, but they all seem to focus on
Balazs> various other things. Is there some good guide related to
Balazs> this somewhere?
The X howtos and man pages are all I remember. They are confusing
though.
Balazs> I've read somewhere that gdm would provide something like
Balazs> this, but I would like to avoid using gdm or xdm etc. for
Balazs> now and just want to use startx.
Choose a run level. Look in /etc/inittab. Let's say you chose level
2. Then go into /etc/rc2.d/ and move all the files like S99gdm, S99kdm
etc. to K01gdm, K01kdm and so on (look in /etc/rc6.d/ to see what I
mean.
Basically, at run level 2 you've said you don't want to run X. Now
switch to that run level (you might already be there, see what the
default is in /etc/inittab) with 'init 2'. There you go, only a root
prompt.
Login, and set your .xsession file correctly. startx. You should be
ready to go. Looking for a .xsession file? Try
cp -i /usr/share/doc/xfree86-common/examples/xsession.gz $HOME/.xsession.gz
gunzip $HOME/.xsession.gz
Read the file. Specially the part about allow-user-xsession :-)
It's been so long since I done this I've probably missed someething
obvious, but give it a shot.
Balazs> Also I've tried to wade through the varoius Xsession.d
Balazs> scripts to find out if this is hidden there somewhere, but
Balazs> all I could decipher was that it looks for the existense
Balazs> of /usr/bin/x-session-manager, which in turn points to
Balazs> /etc/alternatives. But short of removing the link I don't
Balazs> know how to disable it. Also as said above, I want to
Balazs> keep somehow the possibility to have select each time I
Balazs> start X whether to run a gnome session, or a KDE session
Balazs> or a particular window manager...
gdm does it anyway.
Balazs> Any help would be greatly appreciated! Many thanks in
Balazs> advance!
Good luck!
Cheers!
Shyamal
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