$DISPLAY set when I log into virtual console

[Dale Harris <rodmur@gmail.com>]

So I don't run xdm or gdm, or similar display.  I like to come in via
regular getty to the virtual console and start up startx on my own.
However, I notice now that $DISPLAY is let to localhost:0.0 when I log
in, and I'm wondering... why?  And where it is set.  I would like to
turn it off.  I don't see this done in any config file in /etc, nor is
it in anything in my home directory... I tried strace'ing login and
getty to see if they were doing, but I haven't seen it.  Are we so
tied to X windows now that we can't live without $DISPLAY being set?
It's mildly annoying because if I want keychain to work correctly now,
I have to test to see if I'm logging in on a virtual console,
otherwise it tried to connect to $DISPLAY, which of course, doesn't
exist because there is no X server running.  keychain isn't smart
enough to figure that out, or wants me to set the --nogui option,
whatever.

So is there a reason $DISPLAY is set on a virtual console?

-- 
Dale Harris
rodmur@maybe.org
rodmur@gmail.com
/.-)