Multiple X servers on boot

dominator · External Since: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 1

How do I run 3 instances of X, independent of each other, at boot time?
I'm using Xubuntu, GDM, AfterStep, Xfce and OpenBox.

Thanks.

Dances With Crows · External Since: Sep 16, 2006 Posts: 307

dominator staggered into the Black Sun and said:
> How do I run 3 instances of X, independent of each other, at boot
> time? I'm using Xubuntu [and] GDM

gdm is the thing that starts X here. So edit gdm.conf such that it
starts X on :0, :1, and :2. I'm not sure precisely what you'd change,
since I use kdm, but there should be a bunch of comments in your
gdm.conf that will tell you what's going on.

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Michal Jaegermann · External Since: Jun 06, 2004 Posts: 62

Dances With Crows <danSPANceswithTRAPcrows RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
> dominator staggered into the Black Sun and said:
>> How do I run 3 instances of X, independent of each other, at boot
>> time? I'm using Xubuntu [and] GDM
>
> gdm is the thing that starts X here. So edit gdm.conf such that it
> starts X on :0, :1, and :2. I'm not sure precisely what you'd change,

Assuming reasonably current version of gdm make section '[servers]'
in /etc/gdm/custom.conf to read

[servers]
1=Standard
2=Standard

Sever 0 is defined in defaults.conf but if you want to add
'0=Standard' line then nothing stops you even if this is not
doing anything new.

As it says on a manpage for gdm:
"See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/ for more details".

Michal

dominator · External Since: Jun 22, 2007 Posts: 1

On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:06:53 +0000, Michal Jaegermann wrote:

> Dances With Crows <danSPANceswithTRAPcrows.RemoveThis@gmail.com> wrote:
>> dominator staggered into the Black Sun and said:
>>> How do I run 3 instances of X, independent of each other, at boot
>>> time? I'm using Xubuntu [and] GDM
>>
>> gdm is the thing that starts X here. So edit gdm.conf such that it
>> starts X on :0, :1, and :2. I'm not sure precisely what you'd change,
>
> Assuming reasonably current version of gdm make section '[servers]'
> in /etc/gdm/custom.conf to read
>
> [servers]
> 1=Standard
> 2=Standard
>
> Sever 0 is defined in defaults.conf but if you want to add
> '0=Standard' line then nothing stops you even if this is not
> doing anything new.
>
> As it says on a manpage for gdm:
> "See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/ for more details".
>
> Michal

The file is actually gdm.conf-custom (on Ubuntu anyway).

Thank you both. It's working like a charm.

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Michal Jaegermann · External Since: Jun 06, 2004 Posts: 62

dominator <qbzvangbe22.TakeThisOut@tznvy.pbz> wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:06:53 +0000, Michal Jaegermann wrote:
>>
>> Assuming reasonably current version of gdm make section '[servers]'
>> in /etc/gdm/custom.conf to read
>>
>> [servers]
>> 1=Standard
>> 2=Standard
....
>>
>> As it says on a manpage for gdm:
>> "See http://www.gnome.org/projects/gdm/ for more details".
>>
>> Michal
>
> The file is actually gdm.conf-custom (on Ubuntu anyway).

OK. Minor detail. Likely you can specify in a compilation
time where to look for configuration files.

> Thank you both. It's working like a charm.

You may want to add in a greeter section

BackgroundProgram=<something_of_your_own_here>

where this "something" produces different backgrounds depending on what
is in DISPLAY enviroment variable. What is shown is a question of your
imagination but that way you may see which server you going to use.
This will work if /usr/libexec/gdmlogin is used for a greeter instead of
/usr/libexec/gdmgreeter.

If doing that then check what is a meaning of configuration
variables like:

Logo
BackgroundProgramInitialDelay
RestartBackgroundProgram
BackgroundProgramRestartDelay
RunBackgroundProgramAlways

again in a location suggested by manpage.

Michal