xdm questions

[Polytropon]

On Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:30:43 -0800, Mike Kupfer wrote:
> 1. I tried running xdm without setting ~/.xsession to run Xfce.  Upon
> logging in, I expected to get a simple session with twm and/or an xterm.

No, because twm needs to be installed additionally, as
it's not part of the xdm package. Furthermore, ~/.xsession
needs to be set accordingly - I'm not sure the system's
default xsession file will even call twm.



> Instead, I got bounced back to the xdm login screen.  The problem was
> that the Xsession script wanted to run xsm, but that package wasn't
> installed.  Shouldn't the xdm package have a dependency on the xsm
> package?

Basically xsm isn't needed, it's neither a compile-time
nor a run-time dependency. But if the configuration default
relies on it, it might be at least justified to inform the
user about that fact in the post-installation message text.



> 2. I had to reboot single-user in order to troubleshoot and fix the xsm
> issue.  I had expected to be able to use Alt+Fn to switch to a
> non-xdm-controlled virtual terminal, but Alt+F1 etc. have no effect when
> X is running.  I have since reviewed the FAQ, and I now understand that
> with X running, I should have used Ctrl+Alt+F1, not Alt+F1.

If I remember correctly, in new FreeBSD + vt + X, this
also doesn't work anymore. :-(



> Unfortunately, Ctrl+Alt+F1 causes the VirtualBox *host* to switch to a
> different virtual terminal.  Is it possible to configure FreeBSD to use
> a key combination other than Ctrl+Alt+Fn?

Probably yes, but you can also configure VirtualBox to
accept and relay those keys "as is" to the emulated
environment.




-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...