Arch Linux

raginaot

Member

Registered: 2010-11-22

Posts: 53

can I run 2 x servers and 2 DEs?

Just wondering if it's possible to run 2 instances of Xorg.
Like if I want to test out a different desktop environment but still keep gnome running in another session.

Can this be done?

thestinger

Package Maintainer (PM)

From: Toronto, Canada

Registered: 2010-01-23

Posts: 478

Re: can I run 2 x servers and 2 DEs?

Yes, but you can also use xnest or xephyr to run Xorg in a window.

I recommend Xephyr, and here's a good demo on using it: http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Using_Xephyr - just start whatever WM or DE you want to try instead of awesome.

Last edited by thestinger (2010-12-05 04:40:07)

CountDuckula

Member

Registered: 2010-02-28

Posts: 151

Re: can I run 2 x servers and 2 DEs?

Why don't you just run a second DE as a virtual machine under something like VirtualBox?

hbekel

Member

Registered: 2008-10-04

Posts: 311

Re: can I run 2 x servers and 2 DEs?

Basically you'll just have to start another X server on a free display, using a free virtual console, e.g.

X :1 vt8

will start a server on display :1 and virtual console 8, thus Ctrl+Alt+F8 will switch to your second x server.

Everything else depends on the method you use to start your environment. I personally use startx with an .xinitrc that starts the wm/de given in the "wm" environment variable... thus I can use a command like this to start an "additional" ratpoison session:

wm=ratpoison startx -- :1 vt8

Where my .xinitrc looks something like this:

#!/bin/bash

wm=${wm:-openbox} # use openbox by default, unless $wm is already set

nvidia-settings -l
nitrogen --restore
xscreensaver -no-splash &

exec $wm