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Playing with xdm :)

Posted: 26. Feb 2010, 14:26
by thenktor
I've played a bit with a theme for xdm as replacement for gdm because I was pointed to this Arch Linux discussion: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=69299

I've packaged something to test with. Get the xdm-salix-theme package from http://thenktor.dyndns.org/download/
Furthermore you need the following dependencies: imagemagick, xclock, xmessage (all available by slapt-get)

Last but not least you need some modifications on your system:
Open /etc/rc.d/rc.4 and replace
exec /usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon
with
exec /usr/bin/xdm -nodaemon -config /etc/X11/xdm/salix-xdm/xdm-config

In your home dir you'll need the following file:
$HOME/.xsession

Code: Select all

NEWSESS=/tmp/.newsess
[ -f "$NEWSESS" ] && cat "$NEWSESS" >"$HOME/.xsession-current"

session=$(<"$HOME/.xsession-current")
[[ -f "$session" ]] && exec $(sed -rn "s/^[Ee]xec=(.*)$/\1/p" "$session") \
        || exec "${session:-xterm}"
And don't forget to make it executable: chmod +x $HOME/.xsession

Image

EDIT: To deactivate GDM (or KDM) it's best to simply remove executable flag: chmod -x /usr/sbin/gdm

Re: Playing with xdm :)

Posted: 28. Feb 2010, 00:42
by caitlyn
For lightweight display managers I actually prefer either slim or wdm. In any case I need the language switching ability of gdm. For that reason I'd hate to see anything other than gdm as the Salix OS standard. It would be a huge step backwards in terms of localisation.

Re: Playing with xdm :)

Posted: 28. Feb 2010, 11:17
by gapan
Don't worry, gdm is not going to be replaced. At least not until something else comes up that has all or nearly all the features that it has. lxdm might be a candidate in the future.

Re: Playing with xdm :)

Posted: 28. Feb 2010, 17:29
by caitlyn
Glad to hear it :D One of my pet peeves with Slackware and some Slackware-based distros is that the support for languages other than English is half done at best. I think Zenwalk, Vector, and SalixOS, all of which now use gdm, make life a whole lot easier for multilingual households and businesses with this one simple change (gdm rather than kdm, xdm).