Chapter 6. Configuring display managers

Table of Contents
6.1. Configuring xdm and kdm
6.2. Configuring gdm
6.2.1. Changes, Part 1
6.2.2. Changes, Part 2

If you have successfully finished the installation and configuration of the kernel and XFree, it's time to configure your display manager(s).

Beside the grafical differences, xdm/kdm and gdm handle differently the X servers. gdm will start the X servers in the order specified in it's configuration file (and stop them in the reverse order). xdm/kdm will start and stop all the X servers at the same time(in case there are no opened X sessions). Also restarting the gdm demon means end for all X sessions, but if you restart xdm/kdm when you are under X your session won't be closed.

Note

  • For the older(version 1) Preferred Bus ID XFree Server you have to also specify the desired graphic card with parameter "-prefbusid x:x:x", where x:x:x is the Bus ID of the desired graphic card.

    • For AGP cards, something similar to -prefbusid 1:0:0

    • For PCI cards, something similar to -prefbusid 0:x:0, x is normally the IRQ number.

  • In the following explanation I will not use this option. If you use the Preferred Bus ID X server just append "-prefbusid x:x:x" with the correct Bus ID of the card you want to start right before the last argument vt[x].

Note

In case you are using the latest(version 2) prefbusid patch/ binary you may omit the -prefbusid x:x:x argument when starting X, but you have to specify the correct settings in the XFree configuration file(s).

An example:


Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X0"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
        Option "PrefBusID" "1:0:0"
EndSection 
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X1"
        Screen      0  "Screen1" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
        Option "PrefBusID" "0:12:0"
EndSection 
      

The "PrefBusID" option is not case sensitive.