From owner-freebsd-questions  Mon Jan 12 16:54:03 1998
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Date: Mon, 12 Jan 1998 16:52:54 -0800 (PST)
From: Burton Sampley <bsampley@slip.net>
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To: Jason Wells <jcwells@u.washington.edu>
cc: Brian Fischman <gameboy@interpath.com>, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: xdm
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One other minor point to add.  $HOME/.xsession must be executable to work.
Just do ls -la.  If it's not executable then chmod 700 ./.xsession

-burton-


On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Jason Wells wrote:

> Date: Sun, 11 Jan 1998 22:37:52 +0000
> From: Jason Wells <jcwells@u.washington.edu>
> To: Brian Fischman <gameboy@interpath.com>
> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: xdm
> 
> At 00:44 1/12/98 -0500, you wrote:
> >I have a problem, when i run startx everything works fine, however when
> >i run xdm, after i login the screen gets messed up and 3 secs later i am
> >at the login screen again, this is a never ending cycle, any
> >suggestsions?
> >Brian
> 
> When you start X by using 'startx', the file '~/.xinitrc' is read in order
> to set up your session. The analog of '.xinitrc' is '~/.xsession'.  Xdm
> reads '/.xsession' to set up your session.
> 
> I venture a guess that you do not have a '.xsession' file. If you do, then
> I might guess that it does not refer to a window manager. You must start a
> window manager in order to run a session.
> 
> Read your existing '.xinitrc' for some ideas on what should be in your
> '.xsession'.
> 
> I am not sure that this reply will fully answer your question. I hope that
> this gives you some ideas.
> 
> Read man X carefully. This info about how startx and xdm are initialized is
> in there. But that man page is sooooo big sometimes it is easy to start
> skimming and miss important stuff. I was tripped up on xdm for a while but
> the man page got me started.
> 
> I use xdm myself. I prefer it for the sole reason that I like the login
> widget. YMMV.
> 
> Good luck,
> Jason Wells
> 
>