Re: Different config options for different X servers?

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Seb:

> I use gdm to start several local, 'static' X servers. One is an ordinary 
> X.Org server. The others are Xvnc servers. In reality these provide 
> remote access (since a remote VNC client of some kind connects to them), 
> although gdm thinks of them as local X servers because they are not via 
> XDMCP.
>
> I'd like to be able to specify different settings for some gdm options 
> for these two classes of server. For example, I want Reboot and Shutdown 
> buttons enabled on the local X.Org display, but not on the VNC displays.
>
> Is there any way I can do this?

The gdm.conf file does let you specify multiple server configurations,
but each one is assigned a different DISPLAY value.  So, if you can set
up your machine to use different displays (via virtual tty's), then this
might work for you.

> Since gdm already has sensible and/or separately configurable behaviour 
> for what it thinks of as "remote" logins (i.e. XDMCP), the neatest 
> solution would be to be able to specify in an X server definition that 
> gdm should consider it to be a "remote" login even if it is not via XDMCP.

There have been a number of users who have requested that gdm2 support a
new feature that allows the user to pick the xserver configuration via a
menu in the login program.  This way if you set up an alternative xserver
config, it would simply appear in a new menu where you could select it.
Aside from adding the code to add the menu, this would also require a minor
change to make use of the selection when starting up the Xserver.

If you wanted to work on patching the code to support this sort of feature,
I'd be happy to help you understand the code.

> Another option I pondered was running two instances of gdm. I'm guessing 
> that would get a bit problematic though since gdm integrates so closely 
> with the system.

Never tried this.  Does sound hacky.  You might be able to get it to work
if you install gdm2 to different locations.  Though you would probably
have difficulty getting them to share the same DISPLAY's.

> Any thoughts? I think the ability to define a seemingly-local server as 
> remote would be a useful feature, and perfect for VNC servers.

I think the best option would be to allow user's to pick the Xserver
config in the menu.  This would need to be a non-default feature, but
a flag could be added to the gdm.conf to turn on the menu for this.

--

Brian