Re: XDM can't shutdown
On Thu, Nov 27, 2003 at 03:19:49AM +0000, ben_foley@web.de wrote:
> use "update-alternatives --config x-window-manager" to get to a menu that
> will allow you to select between what you've got available. then use
> startx to fire it up.
No, no, NO. The alternatives system is not intended to facilitate a *user*
choosing a particular application binary, it is intended to provide a
mechanism for several application binaries to perform the same role
interchangeably. At a *system* level. Policy defines the operation of
that alternative, and the scoring method necessary to provide a sane and
safe default.
Messing with the alternative is of questionable benefit, even if the
machine is single user, and is usually of zero educational benefit as it's
a complete Debian-ism.
Further, the idea of Debian's X startup even paying the slightest bit of
attention to the alternative depends on a number of variables, including
but not limited to whether or not the user has provided any sort of
.xinitrc or .xsession file in $HOME.
If the user wants anything at all to launch at startup, any other X client,
he's going to have to write an .xinitrc/.xsession, and the alternative is
going to get *ignored*. His X session will start up, and just as nicely
shut down again because there's no client launching to hold it up.
Please, please, PLEASE... if you're going to tell people how to mess with
X, at least educate them PROPERLY. If you want a particular X client or
set of X clients to launch when X starts (and yes, the window manager is
just another X client, albeit one with a specific role), then write a
proper .xsession or .xinitrc and let things work the way they're intended
to.
How people hit on the esoteric method of modifying the alternative, which
requires that you be root, versus a simple user-level configuration (which
makes the alternative utterly irrelevant) is something I'll never
understand. I even met someone once who insisted the way to do things was
to set the alternative, then use 'exec x-window-manager' in .xinitrc...
--
Marc Wilson | Never frighten a small man -- he'll kill you.
msw@cox.net |
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