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jstech

Member

From: Baltimore

Registered: 2004-05-06

Posts: 27

using XDM changes default environment in xterm

I used to have my system set up so that it booted to runlevel 3, I logged in, and then started X (using fluxbox) with the command "startx".  Recently, I switched to booting to runlevel 5, using XDM for login, and the .xsession script runs fluxbox (in fact, it's just a copy of my .xinitrc file).  All this is nice and operational. 

Now, however, when I start xterm, bash doesn't load /etc/profile, and I can't figure out why.  It seems that Eterm does, but xterm and all its cousins (aterm and rxvt) don't. 

I'm using XOrg 11R6.7.0-1 (although the same thing happens with XFree86). 

Any idea why using XDM would prevent bash (or xterm) from running /etc/profile?

Thanks,
John

P.S.  To debug, I set inittab back to boot to runlevel 3, and logged in both the old way and by running XDM as root; logging in the old way worked fine, but using XDM caused the problem as described above.

Dusty

Schwag Merchant

From: Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada

Registered: 2004-01-18

Posts: 5,986

Website

Re: using XDM changes default environment in xterm

not sure why it happens with xdm and not startx, unless xdm doesn't start a new bash process when startx is used.

Anyway, there are two fixes. One is to type bash --login every time you run the xterm. Major pain that.

Or you can set whatever shortcut key (icon, etc) starts xterm to use xterm -ls instead of just xterm. Ls stands for login shell.

Or you can set up the .Xdefaults to put xterm to start a login shell by default. Not certain how that works, man xterm describes the properties though.

Dusty

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