Re: Xfree86 and Knoppix
On Tue, 13 Aug 2002, Eric G. Miller wrote:
[in response to what I wrote > > below]
> > I must be doing something wrong when I launch X, but whenever I do
> > Ctrl-Alt-F1, it takes me to the console I logged in from, OK, but no
> > prompt, just the most recent message from the X server. Ctl-Alt-F2 gets
> > me an open console to which I can login. But if you've installed xdm (as
> > I suspect Brian means he's done) then every console presents the xdm login
> > screen, because (at least as it installed on my box) S??xdm was in _every_
> > rc?.d directory. RH behavior is better here, imo, because it makes
> > runlevel 5 the xdm runlevel, so you can switch runlevels and escape
> > xdm. But this may just be me not understanding something basic!
>
> Unless something has drastically changed with XDM, that doesn't sound
> right. Having XDM run under most runlevels should not also translate to
> it running on every open terminal. Debian's default init scripts should
> have six "consoles" with any X display manager running on a seventh.
> Therefore Ctrl-Alt-F[1..6] should get you a console login in all regular
> run levels (i.e. not singular user or shutdown).
Except that /etc/inittab defines the runlevels so:
# Runlevel 0 is halt.
# Runlevel 1 is single-user.
# Runlevels 2-5 are multi-user.
# Runlevel 6 is reboot.
l0:0:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 0
l1:1:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 1
l2:2:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 2
l3:3:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 3
l4:4:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 4
l5:5:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 5
l6:6:wait:/etc/init.d/rc 6
and runlevels 2-5, the multi-user levels, all had, in their respective
rc?.d directories, the S..xdm script and thus spawned xdm on entry of
_each_ of those runlevels.
Combine that with these console/tty definitions:
# Format:
# <id>:<runlevels>:<action>:<process>
#
# Note that on most Debian systems tty7 is used by the X Window System,
# so if you want to add more getty's go ahead but skip tty7 if you run X.
#
1:2345:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty1
2:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty2
3:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty3
4:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty4
5:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty5
6:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty6
Note that _consoles_ 2-6 all allow (require? I'm not sure what the
significance is of specifying these runlevels is) runlevels 2, 3 - well,
_they_ both spawn xdm as defined above.
Moreover, the default runlevel is
# The default runlevel.
id:2:initdefault:
So, when Colin said in another post that runlevel and consoles are
unrelated, I don't think that's quite right. It seems to me that they are
made to be related by these definitions in the inittab.
So, when I said earlier that the RH default is better in this respect,
that's all I meant. RH spawns xdm only in runlevel 5. You can make
runlevel 5 your default and so boot into an xdm prompt, but you can then
escape it by Ctl-Alt-F2 to F4 or F6. You can't do that on a standard
Debian box (as now defined in /etc/inittab) without some reconfiguration.
So, it's not that xdm is doing something weird, it's that these
definitions in inittab cause xdm to be spawned in every console.
I'm making these claims largely from memory because I'm d*mned if I'm
going to reinstall xdm to confirm it and be stuck with it everywhere I go
again! I was frankly surprised to find that the S..xdm script was in all
the regular rc?.d directories.
Patrick
--
Patrick Wiseman
pwiseman@mindspring.com
Linux user #17943
*Google First, Ask Later*
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