Noobe XDM questions

[Terrence Branscombe <tlbranscombe@shaw.ca>]

Kinda new to Debian, and Linux, so forgive me if this has been covered 
to death already, but the docs suggest that users can customize an X 
session simply by placing the '.xsession' file into their home 
directory.  This is not working for me; adding an .xsession file to my 
home directory simply causes the XDM login widget to disappear, then 
reappear.

I made the .xsession file readable and executable to the group and other 
users, and tried the simplest of contents:

#!/bin/bash
xterm &

When this occurs my /var/log/xdm.log file contains the following entries:

Mon Apr  2 17:16:54 2007 xdm info (pid 6634): starting
Mon Apr  2 17:17:19 2007 xdm info (pid 6634): starting X server on 
gondor.erebus.ca:0
Mon Apr  2 17:17:25 2007 xdm info (pid 6634): starting X server on 
gondor.erebus.ca:0
Mon Apr  2 17:17:25 2007 xdm info (pid 6727): not sourcing 
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup (No such file or directory)
Mon Apr  2 17:17:44 2007 xdm info (pid 6727): sourcing 
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xstartup
Mon Apr  2 17:17:44 2007 xdm info (pid 6754): executing session 
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession
Mon Apr  2 17:17:45 2007 xdm info (pid 6727): sourcing 
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xreset
Mon Apr  2 17:17:45 2007 xdm error (pid 6727): cannot remove process ID 
file /var/run/xdm.pid: Permission denied
Mon Apr  2 17:17:45 2007 xdm info (pid 6634): starting X server on 
gondor.erebus.ca:0

I can only assume that a normal user must be granted permission to 
delete the xdm.pid file, but that strikes me as odd.  Is there some good 
documentation I can read to set me straight, or some simple hints on 
what I should be expecting?  Thanks.

Terry
--
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Terry Branscombe
[skype me at 'tbranscombe']

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