ITEM: AG1300L

XDM, OS/2, PMX, and Xstation 140 configuration questions

Question:

   Env: AIX 3.2.5   Xstation 140  microcode 1.5 using xdm 
        PC with OS/2 running PMX Xserver

   Desc: Customer had configured PMX on the PC, but wanted
        to know how to get a login window from the RS/6000.

   Action: I first had then telnet to the RS/6000, export their 
        display, then execute an xclock to make sure that PMX
        was configured correctly.  This client came up fine.

        I then explained to them that to get a login window
        from the risc they would have to use XDM.  I had them
        edit the /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers file to comment out
        the

        :0 local /usr/bin/X11/X -T -force
                line so that when we started XDM it wouldn't come up on
        the console.  I then had them enter the following line
                XstationName:0 foreign
                as is directed in the instructions in the Xservers
        file so that when xdm detects the PMX X server it
        would automatically send a login window to the PC.

        After doing this I had them run the xdmconf script
        to configure xdm to restart automatically after reboot.
        Then I had them run /usr/bin/X11/xdm.

        This started fine and the login window came up on their
        PC running PMX.  They attempted to login, it came up
        with the PowerDesktop, a clock, and some error messages
        then everything disappeared and the login window came
        back.

        I explained to them that since PMX runs it's own window
        manager we would have to create .xsession files in each
        of the user's home directories.  These files would
        contain any clients that the user would like to start
        at login time, all in the background - EXCEPT the last
        line of the file.  The last client should be left in
        the foreground to hold the X session UP.  When that
        client is killed the user will be logged out and all
        other child processes should be killed.  I suggested
        an xterm named LOGIN so that it would be easy to 
        identify.

        After creating this file and logging in, everything
        worked as expected.  Then customer came up with
        the question, "What about the user's who log in through
        the Xstation 140, don't they need a window manager?".

        This is a very reasonable question.  The solution is
        to use the $XSTATION variable that is explained in the
        /usr/lib/X11/xdm/README.  We edited the 
        /usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config file.  We added the following
        line.

DisplayManager.XstationName_0.session:  /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession_XstationName

        We then executed the following command in the 
        /usr/lib/X11/xdm directory.

        cp Xsession Xsession_XstationName

        We then edited Xsession_XstationName and added the following
        two lines at the point where the system variables are
        exported.

        XSTATION=`echo $DISPLAY | cut -f1 -d:`
        export XSTATION

        This will cause the variable XSTATION to be given the
        value of the DISPLAY variable minus the :0.
                I then had them enter the following line in the 
        $HOME/.xsession file of the user that we were testing.
                if [ -z "$XSTATION" ]
        then
                ....
                execute clients for PC
                ....
        else
                ....
                execute the clients for Xstation
                ....
                exec mwm
        fi

        The above if-then statement allowed the XSTATION variable
        to be used to determine if it was an xstation or not
        and start the appropriate clients.

        After configuring the Xstation to use XDM, we tried it
        but the variables weren't being set.  I set up the
        exact same situation here in the lab, and everything
        worked as planned.

        I finally had them put xdm in debug mode:

        /usr/bin/X11/xdm -debug 1 > /tmp/outfile 2>&1

        and we were able to determine that customer had mis-typed the
        name of the Xsession_XstationName file in the xdm-config
        file.  Once this typo was fixed, everything worked
        correctly.

 



Support Line: XDM, OS/2, PMX, and  Xstation 140 configuration questions ITEM: AG1300L

Dated: February 1995 Category: N/A

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