Re: gdm issues with multiple servers

["Michael A. Peters" <mpeters mac com>]

On Tue, 2003-08-26 at 09:09, George wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 10:56:25PM -0700, Michael A. Peters wrote:
> > I'm running gdm 2.4.2.95
> > It is compiled on my x86 box (an LFS system) using gcc 3.3.1.
> > The entire system (except kernel) is gcc 3.3.1 compiled.
> > XFree 4.3.0.1, nVidia's closed source but wicked driver.
> > 
> > gdm works great.
> > Then I decided to take an old 233 iMac out of my shed and put YDL on it.
> > Since it has a super blurry screen (why it was in the shed for the last
> > two years ...) I set it up to run xdmcp
> > 
> > Then on my x86 box (the one with gdm 2.4.2.95) I edited the gdm.conf
> > line and added:
> > 
> > 1=Terminal -query cvs
> > 
> > (cvs is the hostname of the imac - that's what I'm using it for)
> > It works very well this way - except for two issues.
> > I think they are not gdm's fault, but I don't know for sure.
> > 
> > When the xscreensaver starts on the X11 display for the mac, the x
> > display crashes and restarts - dumping me out of my session.
> > 
> > The other issue is that when switching between the x86 display (running
> > gnome 2.2.2 if it matters which I doubt) and the iMac display (running
> > whatever gnome ydl 3.0 has) - occasionally the x cursor does not move at
> > all - and then that xserver crashes and dumps into log in.
> > 
> > I have to assume these are XFree issues and not gdm issues, but I
> > thought that *maybe* people who play with gdm might know a work around.
> 
> Whenever I see proprietary drivers, I say "eek!"  Try with the nv driver and
> see if that makes a difference.  I would say it's probably some sort of
> conflict with the drivers.  You could also try to run the second X server
> using unaccelerated vesa driver.  You don't really need acceleration since
> it's remote X anyway, so your local display is not going to be a bottleneck I
> don't think.

The nv driver doesn't work very well.
In addition to be slow, it has a tendency to drop the resoultion down to
600x whenever I log out.

It seems that the problem of the second XServer crashing when switching
between the two was related to XScreensaver as well - it hasn't happened
_at all_ since disabling XScreensaver on the user accounts on the iMac.

What is cool - and this is probably due to the severe limitations of the
video card/driver on the iMac - is that the Linux desktop is actually
faster when I log into the iMac via xdmcp from my x86 linux box.

Faster, and I'm not limited to the resolution capabilities of the iMac
(its a Rev B tray loading iMac)

> 
> I think the best way would be for one X server to manage several displays.
> Then there would be no problems with hardware conflicts since you'd only run
> one driver.  That's of course an XFree86 issue.  Actually if it would be
> possible to separate the X display from the actual graphics hardware driver,
> then we could also perhaps do things like SunRay stuff (move your display
> to another screen).

That would be cool.