4
2.4 Using a Display Manager to Start the X Server 27
The downside to starting the X server this way is that no clients are started. Until you
start some manually, you??™ll be left staring at a blank screen with only a mouse
pointer to amuse yourself.
You can start the X server and a client at the same time like this:
$ X :1 -terminate & sleep 2 ; DISPLAY=:1 xterm
The -terminate option will cause the X server to exit when the last client disconnects,
and the sleep 2 option ensures that the X server has time to start before the
xterm client attempts to connect to it??”not usually required, but it??™s good practice to
ensure that your commands will work reliably. Note that this command line does
not start a window manager or a desktop environment, so you will not be able to
move or resize the xterm window, start additional programs (except by typing in the
terminal), or set the keyboard focus.
The advantage of starting X directly is that you have precise control over the X server
startup options and the list of clients displayed, which is perfect for a kiosk.
2.4 Using a Display Manager to Start the X
Server
One of the possible layers of an X-based GUI is a display manager, which is the
graphical equivalent of the login program.
Pages:
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69