Re: [gdm-list] Is it possible to have gdm manage something other than X?

[Brian Cameron <Brian Cameron Sun COM>]

Yan:

> I'm toying with an idea that may or may not be realistic.  I currently run
> a multi-head, multi-seat setup, with a base X session spanning all heads
> and Xephyr on each head providing the user X session.
>
> I am running mythtv - http://www.mythtv.org - which needs direct access to
> the hardware.  This means it cannot run under Xephyr.
>
> I use Xephyr to provide independent X sessions on multi-head
> configurations, and I use gdm to start Xephyr on top of an existing X
> session.  Xephyr doesn't allow direct access to hardware, so I can't run
> myth in the Xephyr sessions.
>
> I'd like to have gdm start myth instead of Xephyr.
>
> Is it possible to have gdm start and manage an application other than X or
> one of its servers?

It is possible, as long as the program you want to run uses the same
interfaces that X uses.  For example, note that Xservers provide a USR1
signal to let GDM know it is ready to start.  That's probably the one
interface most likely to cause issues.

So, if the program you wish to use does not follow interfaces like
this, then you may need to write a wrapper program that fakes out GDM
into thinking it is dealing with a normal Xserver.

Brian