The main difference is that with window managers, most of the heavy
lifting is done by a single program.
In this chapter, we??™ll look at session managers (Section 8.2) and virtual desktops
(Section 8.3)??”both standard features in today??™s desktops??”and then examine the
startup sequences for the following:
??? GNOME (Section 8.4)
??? KDE (Section 8.5)
??? Xfce (Section 8.6)
In each case we??™ll look at how the window manager can be changed and at additional
applications that start when the user logs in.
We??™ll also examine how a system can be set up to use only a window manager without
a full desktop environment (Section 8.7).
8.2 Session Managers
An X session is roughly equivalent to a character-mode login. A session manager (SM)
is responsible for saving and restoring the session state; this allows the user to log out
and later log in, and to find??”more or less??”the same programs running. The state
information can include the window position, open files, cursor position, and so
forth. If the session manager finds that no previous session has been saved, a default
session can be started.
Session managers use the X Session Management Protocol (XSMP), which is built on
top of the Inter-Client Exchange (ICE) protocol.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203