How to do a test environment...

[Michael George <george mutualdata com>]

I'm not much of a GUI guru.  As a matter of fact, I have just been moving my
config files around since the mid-to-late 80's and tweaking them as necessary.
I use CTWM, XTerms, and lately I'm getting to use more and more graphics tools
as linux gets bigger and more powerful.  I manyally start X11 by running
"xinit" on the command line and putting things I want run in .xinitrc.  I know
the "normal" way of running X11 nowadays is w/ startx, but I've never looked
into how much of a change that would be...

Generally, I can run KDE and GNOME software with CTWM as my wm just fine.  I
have RHL 7.2 installed and I can run the gnumeric and abiword (the apps I'm most
concerned with right now) apps just fine under CTWM.  But I want to try the
new releases because I have Applix data I want imported and the newer versions
have that capability.  It's in progress, though, so I want to help with it if
I can.

Okay, the quick bio is done, now for my question...

I have used garnome to build a testbed for the newest gnome.  However, when I
go to $HOME/garnome/bin and try to run the apps there, I get all sorts of
errors.  I'm presuming that is because I'm not running the new GNOME on my
desktop.

What I'd like to do is to be able to have a parallel set of .xinitrc (or
whatever) files so that I can fire up an independant X11 session on another VC
that is running GNOME.  I know I can start up other X11 sessions now by
spec-ing display :1, but I'm so far behind on how GNOME is "normally" fired up
I have a way to go to figure out how to get that to happen.

I'm hoping that someone will have already done this and that there might be a
quick and easy HOWTO-like document somewhere that would indicate how it's
done.

Thanks!
-Michael

-- 
In light of the terrorist attack on the U.S.:
	They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
	safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
			-- Benjamin Franklin, 1759