[lug] Mad Mice and X Windows

[Nate Duehr]

On Tue, Feb 15, 2000 at 09:22:58AM -0700, Michael J. Pedersen wrote:
> Step 5: Restart XWindows, and test.  Under RedHat, use 'init 5'. Under Debian,
>         use '/etc/init.d/xdm start'.

Some folks are using gdm instead of xdm on Debian these days... (if
they're running Gnome)... safer to say, "become root, stop your X
display manager"... of course, many folks don't know what a display
manager *is*, so there's a fundamental lack of knowledge of how X gets
started and what's running.

I usually recommend to folks just starting with Linux to *not* use
display managers and *not* to boot directly to the graphical
environment... why?  It's easier to grasp the concept that the display
manager is just something running a program, just like an application,
if you learn what "startx" is and what it does.  Then you can add a
display manager later (and in RH and Debian both it's added with a
package that also adds it to the startup scripts... RH ties the X server
to a particular run-level... Debian ties it to whether or not you have a
display manager loaded) you understand what it's doing.  Or at least you
don't think the OS is responsible for your X problems.

Just a thought... 

A friend also pointed out a funny reason he loaded Linux on his family's
computers for a sister and one for his mom.  If they do something silly
to the machine, he can ssh into them and fix them if they can at least
become root and give him their IP address!  :)  I've loaded VNC on some
Win machines that I "help" with from time-to-time, but that's not nearly
as secure. 

-- 
Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com>

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