gnome-session quirks, Was: [RE: First impressions of new GNOME user, and a few problems]

["Jesse D . Sightler" <jsight pair com>]

On Mon, 08 Mar 1999 22:37:08 Jeremy Malcolm wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> 
> > I'll have to admit that I'm not certain about how xdm works, but
> what
> > should it modify if not these files?  Doesn't xdm still use the
> user's
> > home directory scripts after the system-wide defaults?
> 
> Well it's supposed to I think but on my system unless you first modify
> the system-wide default file to stop it from loading your previous
> window manager (as specified by ~/.wm-style (?) which I think is Red
> Hat-specific), it won't load any new window manager you may specify in
> the X startup files in your home directory.  I ended up just loading
> gnome-session and enlightenment from my system-wide Xclients file.

Um, I don't really think that this is the case unless your system is broken.
I believe that by default ~/.Xclients overrides the system-wide Xclients file
even if you do have the ~/.wm_style file there.  That's the way it works
here anyway.  Of course, I've done enough little changes to my X configuration
to insure that it's not the same as stock, until that might not prove much.
  
> > Anyway, I really doubt that there is any solution that can be 
> > guaranteed
> > to work in all circumstances.
> 
> Mmm, pity though if Gnome is supposed to be easy enough for your Mum
> (US: Mom) to use it.

Er, mom probably couldn't have setup xdm in the first place, so this probably
isn't a valid argument.  :)  Similarly, hopefully she would have at least looked at
the instructions first and seen that all one really needs to do to make Gnome work
is:
	echo "exec gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc
	chmod u+x ~/.xinitrc

If that doesn't work, then the system is broken, and there's probably nothing "Mom"
can do about that.  :)

> > I don't quite understand.  Why would a new user try to load E 
> > before trying
> > the Gnome stuff?  Wouldn't most users tend to try "Panel" or 
> > "Gnome-session"
> > first?
> 
> I did.  I disabled my previous window manager and entered "gnome
> session" in an xterm.  It ran E, which asked me whether I wanted to
> modify my startup files.

Ok, but do you have any idea why E gave that message if a WM was not currently
running?

---------------
Jesse D. Sightler
http://www3.pair.com/jsight/

"An honest answer can get you into a lot of trouble." 
         - Anonymou