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The Answer Guy

By James T. Dennis, linux-questions-only@ssc.com
Starshine Technical Services, http://www.starshine.org/

The original message referred to was sent by Cesar Augusto Kant Grossmann.

LinuxGazette Mar 1998: xdm Login doesn't!

From Milton L. Hankins on Mon, 30 Mar 1998

Actually, it sounds like Cesar's .xsession script is exiting before he performs his usual "logout" action.

Cesar, does the user account have a .xsession file in the home directory? If not, create one. The simplest one would contain the line "fvwm" or "xterm".

Milton,

Wouldn't this show up as a problem when he ran 'startx' as well?

As I've said before my practical grasp of X is pretty weak -- but I do understand the concept of a 'session manager.' Most X clients in your start up script are started in the background (with trailing ampersand in shell script syntax). However one (usually the last item executed by the script) must be started in the "foreground." This client, whether it is a window managers, an 'xterm' or even 'xclock' will be the "session manager." When you exit or kill the session manager the X server takes that as a hint to close down (returning you to a shell prompt if you used 'startx' or to an xdm login screen if you started the session graphically.

Can you clarify the differences between ~/.xsession and ~/.Xclients (mine are just symlinked together)?

Milton Replied...

From Jim Dennis on Mon, Mar 30, 1998

Wouldn't this show up as a problem when he ran 'startx' as well?

Not necessarily, Jim. It all depends on the system scripts. Traditionally, startx uses "~/.xinitrc" and xdm uses "~./xsession".

It sounded like he was only having problems as a "normal user" -- that root was OK. You obviously know a lot more about xdmi than I do, but I went on a hunch that his xdm setup was fine.

As I've said before my practical grasp of X is pretty weak -- but I do understand the concept of a 'session manager.' Most X clients in your start up script are started in the background (with trailing ampersand in shell script syntax). However one (usually the last item executed by the script) must be started in the "foreground."

Right. (The very fact that you know the difference between an X client and an X server means you know something.) :) That's what I meant by "usual `logout' action." Most people either logout of a special xterm or exit the window manager.

Can you clarify the differences between ~/.xsession and ~/.Xclients (mine are just symlinked together)?

I honestly have no idea. That's pretty strange. Usually, I link .xsession and .xinitrc together. That way, X looks the same whether I use xdm or startx.

Copyright © 1998, James T. Dennis
Published in Linux Gazette Issue 28 May 1998