Starting XFCE with XDM

Freaky T · 2006-02-14 14:30:32

I've searched the forums, and I've come up with similar questions, but I can't seem to find a solution that works.

At any rate, I changed the runlevel to 5 in /etc/inittab, and xdm starts up fine. When I log in, however, it starts fvwm (I think) and xterm, but not xfce. (I inserted startxfce4 into my .xinitrc file; typing startx works)

How can I make xdm start xfce instead of the default?

Or would switching to another login manager (gdm) be a better choice? I plan to switch in the future anyway.

On another note, what's the best way to make xcompmgr start automatically with x?

pressh · 2006-02-14 15:09:00

As far as I know the session which XDM starts is set in $HOME/.xsession
Not sure what the exact syntax would be as I'm not using graphical login

tomk · 2006-02-14 15:17:07

The syntax for .xinitrc and .xsession is exactly the same. In fact, a lot of people just create a symlink from one to the other - that should sort you out.

whompus · 2006-02-14 19:08:32

I had to add this to .xsession found it on this forum somewhere but cannot remember who to credit.

[ -f /etc/profile ] && . /etc/profile
if [ -f $HOME/.bash_profile ]; then
. $HOME/.bash_profile
elif [ -f $HOME/.bash_login ]; then
. $HOME/.bash_login
elif [ -f $HOME/.profile ]; then
. $HOME/.profile
fi

exec /opt/xfce4/bin/startxfce4

Freaky T · 2006-02-14 23:06:20

Thanks, I tried these, but now xdm just restarts when I try to log in.

Oh yes, and it was TWM, the default one, that I'm stuck in.

Any other ideas?

mac57 · 2006-02-15 00:41:27

On another distro I use on an older computer (VectorLinux), XDM seems to go to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. Looking there in Arch, I see a script that starts up twm, a clock, some xterms and your login shell. This sounds like the behaviour you are observing!

You likely need to hook this script to point at your .xinit instead of its default actions.

Freaky T · 2006-02-15 02:23:30

OK, I'm just going to give up with xdm.

Which brings up to the next question...
How do I use gdm?

I've done everything listed here:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/GNOME
but I still get a text based login screen.

Gnome works by putting gnome-session into my .xinitrc file.

Any thoughts?

keevn7 · 2006-02-15 06:22:25

You should check out SLiM. I made some extra themes for it if you do not like the ones in the slim-themes package or the default one.

http://daimeria.com/themes/slim.php

Cheers.

Freaky T · 2006-02-15 21:15:24

OK, I got SLiM working!

But...I still don't get shutdown and restart buttons in gnome. Do I have to be using gdm for that?

jaboua · 2006-02-16 14:04:07

Freaky T wrote:

OK, I got SLiM working!
But...I still don't get shutdown and restart buttons in gnome. Do I have to be using gdm for that?

Yup, at least the last time I checked. It would be possible thou to make a desktop icon which stops gnome (I dunno how to do this the "right way") and shuts down/reboots, for example:

killall gnome-session; poweroff

Note that I would replace "killall gnome-session" with something else, maybe try googling or experiment with gnome-* commands...

Arch Linux

#1 2006-02-14 14:30:32

Starting XFCE with XDM

#2 2006-02-14 15:09:00

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#3 2006-02-14 15:17:07

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#4 2006-02-14 19:08:32

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#5 2006-02-14 23:06:20

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#6 2006-02-15 00:41:27

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#7 2006-02-15 02:23:30

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#8 2006-02-15 06:22:25

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#9 2006-02-15 21:15:24

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

#10 2006-02-16 14:04:07

Re: Starting XFCE with XDM

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