Making XDM look good

Message

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:23 am

Yeah, believe it or not it is possible to make xdm look nice without recoding it or bribing the developers. The reason that I even cared to look into how to do it was because I did not want to use something like GDM or KDM with all of their dependencies and entrance ended up b0rking.

After seeing some screenshots of XDM via Google image search that looked really nice, I wanted to know how to do that. So via a thread on the forums and some hacking I got this as a result....

OMG its XDM!

I also have a tarball of my configuration which you can just extract to /etc/X11 for instant happiness. BTW, it uses the artwiz snap font.

My Configuration

I also plan on adding a howto on my website for this, and once I add it I would like some review for clarity. Enjoy this for now. Cheers.

papal_authority · Post by **papal_authority** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:45 am

That is hella sweet. I've altered colors and fonts with XDM but I didn't know you could have a background pic. Where is that setting?

Syntaxis · Post by **Syntaxis** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 1:55 am

Pwnz3r wrote:OMG its XDM!

Very nice!

Where'd you get that gorgeous background image?

Cheers.

Right back at you.

(/me takes another glug of vodka...)

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 2:10 am

The background is in my configuration tarball and I found it originally on the 4chan image board.

Also, the Xsetup file in /etc/X11/xdm/ is what controls what starts with XDM so I just added...

Code: Select all

/usr/bin/xsetbg -fork /etc/X11/xdm/pixmaps/crimsongirl.png

...to it in order to set the background. Via that file it is even possible to start Openbox in XDM. XD

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:16 am

Well, my XDM howto is now somewhat completed. I say somewhat since I need some viewer input.

IvanHoe · Post by **IvanHoe** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:22 am

I just login at the command prompt and my .bashrc starts X for me.

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:33 am

IvanHoe wrote:I just login at the command prompt and my .bashrc starts X for me.

What is the relevence of this comment to the current discussion?

---------------

Anyway, for those who are interested please review my howto. I could not think of many ways to explain the Xresources file but if you need anything clarified about it then I will add it.

Lokheed · Post by **Lokheed** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:37 am

Pwnz3r wrote:
IvanHoe wrote:I just login at the command prompt and my .bashrc starts X for me.
What is the relevence of this comment to the current discussion?

My guess would be he doesnt use XDM and ironically, his comment is more pertinent to this discussion then yours is...

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 3:43 am

Lokheed wrote:My guess would be he doesnt use XDM and ironically, his comment is more pertinent to this discussion then yours is...

Good job on not reading my entire post. However, I am not responding to anymore of these comments because I have nothing else to do but wait for people to review my howto and I do not want this topic to become mush because of trolls.

blackhorse · Post by **blackhorse** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:13 am

I have not played with it yet, but the howto is really easy to follow. Thanks for putting it together. What happens if you do not put in the GiveConsol file.

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:25 am

Without killing whatever you start with the GiveConsole file it will still be running when you reach your desktop.

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:26 am

Pwnz3r wrote:Without killing whatever you start with the GiveConsole file, it will still be running when you reach your desktop.

seijai · Post by **seijai** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:36 am

is it possible to position the login box somewhere else?

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 4:40 am

seijai wrote:is it possible to position the login box somewhere else?

Yeah, via the Xresources file.

Code: Select all

xlogin*geometry: 350x100+200+200

That is the line you use which works like this....

Code: Select all

xlogin*geometry: WidthxHeight+XCoord+Ycoord

Cheers.

codedmart · Post by **codedmart** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:38 am

Is it possible to change the clock to 12 hour (am pm) instead of 24 hour?

codedmart · Post by **codedmart** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:39 am

The how-to was great by the way.

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:42 am

blmartin777 wrote:Is it possible to change the clock to 12 hour (am pm) instead of 24 hour?

Use the -twelve command for xclock.

codedmart · Post by **codedmart** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:50 am

Thank you!

IvanHoe · Post by **IvanHoe** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 6:52 am

Pwnz3r wrote:
IvanHoe wrote:I just login at the command prompt and my .bashrc starts X for me.
What is the relevence of this comment to the current discussion?

Well, I guess the relevence would be that I don't spend a lot of time looking at the login prompt, so instead of wasting time and system resources starting XDM I just have my .bashrc start X for me when I login with my normal username.

RedDawn · Post by **RedDawn** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:01 am

IvanHoe wrote:
Pwnz3r wrote:
IvanHoe wrote:I just login at the command prompt and my .bashrc starts X for me.
What is the relevence of this comment to the current discussion?
Well, I guess the relevence would be that I don't spend a lot of time looking at the login prompt, so instead of wasting time and system resources starting XDM I just have my .bashrc start X for me when I login with my normal username.

Good Point..

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 7:41 am

RedDawn & IvanHoe: Go make your own thread and leave this one to people who actually want to use XDM and configure it. Seeing that XDM is using 0.0% CPU and 0.2% of memory right now, your points are flawed.

IvanHoe · Post by **IvanHoe** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:00 am

Pwnz3r wrote:RedDawn & IvanHoe: Go make your own thread and leave this one to people who actually want to use XDM and configure it. Seeing that XDM is using 0.0% CPU and 0.2% of memory right now, your points are flawed.

Geez, calm down. It was just a comment, not a religious crusade.

codergeek42 · Post by **codergeek42** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:09 am

This is really nice, Pwnz3r. Thanks.

Just curious though: is there some way to add a shutdown/reboot button?

placeholder · Post by **placeholder** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 8:21 am

codergeek42 wrote:This is really nice, Pwnz3r. Thanks.
Just curious though: is there some way to add a shutdown/reboot button?

There was a topic about it on the Gentoo forums, actually.

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=100119

You could probably also use idesk or the Xfce4 panel configured with just shutdown and reboot buttons as root.

codergeek42 · Post by **codergeek42** » Wed Dec 29, 2004 9:22 am

Thanks.

Making XDM look good

Making XDM look good

Re: Making XDM look good