Re: SEUL: SEUL duplicating efforts?

[Donovan Rebbechi <elflord@pegasus.rutgers.edu>]

On Fri, 13 Feb 1998, Erik Walthinsen wrote:

> > Some heavy-duty improvements to the startx script wouldn't go
> > astray. What would be really nice is a program that generates an
> > 'xstartup' script or something of the sort. Just some program that invites
> > you to do some options (Xauthority, default color depth , config file etc)
> > and spits out a script.
> 
> We should be making use of XDM for SEUL.  The use of startx doesn't allow 
> the machine to be used by multiple people without going into text mode.  In 
> order to log into the machine, they have to log into a text-based virtual 
> console and type startx, or have it done for them.  XDM or similar allows 
> us to stay completely graphical, which is the goal.

Standardizing on XDM is a nice idea, in that XDM takes care of some of the
main newbie annoyances, such as greatly simplifying the process of
starting multiple X-sessions, and taking care of X-authentication. 

You can do this with xinit but not  with
startx, so it's basically due to a shortcoming with the startx script.
Like I said, the existing startx script is not very good, since it doesn't
do what it's supposed to (fire up X and take care of everything in a
sensible way) 

My questions about XDM at the moment are:

(a)	It's hard to set things such as colour depth when you're running
XDM (still haven't worked this one out ...), some kind of "intuitive"
configuration tools for XDM would be nice. (?)

(b)	What would happen in case of emergency ( ie X-Windows not working
properly ) ? Possibly makes diagnostic work a little harder. I guess you
could boot into run level 2 or 3 ... (?)	

-- Donovan