Making XDM look good

Message

Pixelbrei · Post by **Pixelbrei** » Sat May 17, 2008 2:45 pm

Nice idea, putting a conky there

I recently found out, xdm finally supports xft fonts, really cool!

mimosinnet · Post by **mimosinnet** » Sat May 17, 2008 6:22 pm

Pixelbrei wrote:Nice idea, putting a conky there

I am wondering what other applications can be included in the xdm login screen.

Pixelbrei wrote:I recently found out, xdm finally supports xft fonts, really cool!

I am playing on this at the moment... Amazing all the configuration you can do.

Cheers!

Pixelbrei · Post by **Pixelbrei** » Sun May 18, 2008 2:19 pm

I had even a window manager running on the login screen

I used FVWM to add some "shutdown", "reboot" buttons.

And i found a little catch: the xlogin*passwdPrompt Resource does not work with pam
enabled, because pam provides its own prompt.
I found the ">" prompt from the screenshot quite nice, but would like to have the
password prompt as short, like a second ">". But pam says the password prompt will read
"Password:", so i stick with "Username:" for the first prompt for now.

mimosinnet · Post by **mimosinnet** » Mon May 19, 2008 3:42 am

Pixelbrei wrote:I had even a window manager running on the login screen
I used FVWM to add some "shutdown", "reboot" buttons.

Fantastic tip...!!! I really love fvwm, so I have transformed the xdm login screen with fvwm. This is the result. I have the 'shutdown' and 'restart' buttons and I also have added the possibility of starting and stopping my ethernet card. The screen shows the message after I have started eth0. I have really enjoyed this. Thanks!

Pixelbrei wrote:And i found a little catch: the xlogin*passwdPrompt Resource does not work with pam
enabled, because pam provides its own prompt.
I found the ">" prompt from the screenshot quite nice, but would like to have the
password prompt as short, like a second ">". But pam says the password prompt will read
"Password:", so i stick with "Username:" for the first prompt for now.

Yes, it is a pity. I have looked at the PAM documentation, but I have not found an option to change the password prompt.

Cheers!

mimosinnet · Post by **mimosinnet** » Mon May 19, 2008 11:18 pm

I have finally been able to easily select the window manager from xdm. In this same thread, hicksboson posted a script that allowed to select the window manager. Nevertheless, I wondered if there was a simpler solution.

I have found this page that suggest you can pass arguments to Xsession by defining keyboard translations in /etc/X11/xdm/Xresources. Instead of:

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xlogin*login.translations: #override\
<Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field()

You can add different window managers and select one of them:

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xlogin*login.translations: #override\
<Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F2: set-session-argument(wmaker) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F3: set-session-argument(afterstep) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F4: set-session-argument(startkde) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F5: set-session-argument(fvwm) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F6: set-session-argument(enlightenment) finish-field()\n\
<Key>F7: set-session-argument(blackbox) finish-field()\n\
<Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field()

I have tried it and it works. I write my username and password and, instead of a final 'return' i give a <F_> key and the corresponding window manager appears. Nevertheless, I have not been able to understand how this works. I mean: how is the 'set-session-argument' is passed to the startup scripts like Xsession?

Cheers!

FrankRizz0 · Post by **FrankRizz0** » Tue May 20, 2008 2:29 am

I did not read the whole thread but did anyone mention adding superkaramba to their desktop? I google'd it and found an easy way to add it successfully! Emerge kdesktop and superkaramba, afterwards type "killall xfdesktop" and then type "kdesktop." Make sure you do this as user in terminal. XFCE 4 still runs like a beast and looks awesome!

mimosinnet · Post by **mimosinnet** » Tue May 20, 2008 4:32 pm

FrankRizz0 wrote:I did not read the whole thread but did anyone mention adding superkaramba to their desktop?

Thanks for the tip FrankRizz0. Nevertheless, the thread deals with xdm (the X Window Display Manager). If you want a light desktop you may not want to use kdm or gdm, and xdm can be a good alternative. You may want to have a look at this article from the gentoo wiki, specially if you are using xfce.

Cheers!

Dheath · Post by **Dheath** » Thu May 29, 2008 11:01 am

How do you exactly take screenshots from your xdm login?

mimosinnet · Post by **mimosinnet** » Thu May 29, 2008 1:26 pm

Dheath wrote:How do you exactly take screenshots from your xdm login?

I have this line in /etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_my:

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sleep 15 && import -w root /tmp/xdm.jpg &

I created Xsetup_my following the article on XDM from the gentoo-wiki.

Cheers!

Pixelbrei · Post by **Pixelbrei** » Thu May 29, 2008 8:46 pm

You could also allow any connections to the X-Server by executing "xhost localhost" in Xsetup, and do a

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DISPLAY=:0 <screenshot-program>

from a tty.