confused about running multiple WM's simultaneously (gnome, fluxbox, etc)

[keitho@strucktower.com]

I want to try running different window managers simultaneously. I had
originally been using gdm3, but edited the /etc/init.d/gdm3 file and added
the line "exit 0" as the first line just to eliminate it from working. Now
I just logon at the prompt when the system boots into tty1, so far so
good.
I do not have either a .xinitrc or a .xsession file in my home directory.
If I then run startx I get gnome, OK, it's runnning on display 0:0 .

If I want to run a second gnome I just do a C-A-F2 and issue the command:

startx -- :1

and now I have a second gnome shell running at C-A-F8 on display :1.0. So
far so good.

I close the second gnome session with C-A-backspace, go back to tty2 and
issue the command:

xinit startfluxbox -- :1
   OR
xinit fluxbox -- :1

and what I get is a partially functioning fluxbox- the default xterm in
the top left corner gives the error message:

BScreen::BScreen: an error occured while querying the X server
another window manager already running on display :1.0
etc

OK, so I check:

root@t520:/# ps aux | grep [f]luxbox
keith     2517  0.0  0.0  15728   856 tty2     S+   16:17   0:00 xinit
startfluxbox -- :1
keith     2523  0.0  0.1  60908  6556 tty2     S    16:17   0:00 xterm
-geometry +1+1 -n login startfluxbox
keith     2525  0.2  0.1 110260  6876 pts/0    Ss+  16:17   0:00 fluxbox
root@t520:/#

Looks like I am running two fluxbox sessions! How did that happen?

If I instead exit everything, reboot, and create an ~/.xinitrc file with
the only line being: exec fluxbox

Then I can run

xinit startfluxbox -- :0

with no problems, and then goto tty2 and run

xinit startfluxbox -- :1

with no problems. Both simultaneously.

But I then can't run gnome! Evidently because startx defaults to display 0:0

So I guess I am confused about the proper way to evoke multiple sessions
without a DM. Can someone straighten me out? I don't really want to use a
~/.xinitrc because then I would have to edit it each time I wanted to
change WM's, and besides, the whole point to this is to run multiple wm's
simultaneously.

And BTW- how to properly run gnome using xinit instead of startx? I have
tried:

xinit gnome-session

but that doesn't work...

I am currently running Wheezy with gnome2.

Thanks,
Keith