[GRLUG] Deskop Managers

[John-Thomas Richards]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2008 at 04:01:28PM -0500, Lee Forest wrote:
> In Ubuntu. or at least 8.10 I can't find the inittab file to edit
> whether or not I want graphical login. Plus I guess I would have to
> freshen up on how to configure startx to load the window manager I
> want....I believe it was the .xsession file in the home directory?
> this is something I haven't done since my slackware days. course
> ubuntu seems to have switched things around(god knows why) definitly
> wouldn't be hard tho. I've done much more complex tasks. I just have
> to figure out what ubuntu replaced those files with. But there was
> mention of wmii. Anyone concur with this being a good replacement for
> gdm on ubuntu 8.10? I've never actually heard of wmii before so its
> new to me.

Assuming Ubuntu reflects its Debian roots, you simply need to remove the
symlink in /etc/rc2.d/ for the graphical login manager (S[##]gdm).

I edit my ~/.xinitrc to tell X which gui to run.  It currently reads:
  
  xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap
  exec /opt/e17/bin/enlightenment_start

I don't even have ~/.xsession.  I would be surprised to learn that
Ubuntu does it differently.

I don't run Ubuntu, since I know how to configure my Debian system.
(There.  Some *proper* distro flameage.)  I suspect the reason Ubuntu
"switched things around" is it is based on Debian, which is to say it
doesn't actually switch things; it simply puts them in places you are
not used to having them.  I think Red Hat and its derivatives put things
in /etc/init.d/rcx.  Debian puts its init scripts in /etc/rcx.d/ (x
being the runlevel).  Another difference with Debian systems is runlevel
2 is Debian's full multi-user environment, regardless of whether a
graphical login manager is being run.  I haven't run anything but Debian
in years but I recall that back in the Red Hat days (like, 5.1 or so)
booting into a graphical environment meant runlevel 5.  To get rid of
xdm or gdm or kdm was as simple as changing to runlevel 2.  Debian does
not distinguish between runlevels based on gui login managers.
-- 
john-thomas
------
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C Clarke, science fiction writer (1917- )