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Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 6:53 UTC (Fri) by zblaxell (subscriber, #26385)
In reply to: Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com) by jwb
Parent article: Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

The big feature I miss is in xdm support for logging into some account without prompting for a password first. kdm (from KDE up to and including 3.3 at least) can do this but not reliably (it often fails and gives the usual login dialog). xdm (unless someone added the feature while I wasn't looking) doesn't do this at all. gdm supports this and seems to get it right.


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Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 9:08 UTC (Fri) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

You've got something backwards. XDM is a graphical getty, it's purpose is authenticating a user and starting X11 for them. If you don't want a login prompt you don't want to run XDM.

To log in a user automatically, remove XDM from your init scripts and start X11 su'ed to that user instead.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 10:01 UTC (Fri) by oblio (guest, #33465) [Link]

GDM, starting from the next version which will be released with Gnome 2.14, will be Gnome *free*. It will only depend on GTK2 (of course, if you use a binary distribution which decides that you do need the Gnome dependencies, you will still get them).
So GDM is the closest to a small, full-purpose display manager. Another could be Slim, and in another class, but could be used for the same purpose, is Qingy.

As for Openbox, it's XML config could be better, but you don't configure it every day... It's a wonderful little WM, for those who don't enjoy too much KDE or Gnome (like I do), and want something simple. In this category you have Xfwm4, E17, Flux/BlackBox, FVWM2, Oroborus, Golem, JWM, ... But every one of them has their advantages.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 13:17 UTC (Fri) by oblio (guest, #33465) [Link]

Oh, and I forgot, for a terminal, use something like Mrxvt-unicode.
Reasonable choice, I'd say :)
I believe that Mrxvt isn't much bigger than Xterm, and it surely has more features. Another way to go would be Terminal, from Xfce. Although is comes from Xfce, it doesn't require too many Xfce libs, and anyway, these libs are small.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 3, 2006 16:09 UTC (Fri) by zblaxell (subscriber, #26385) [Link]

I do want to run an XDMCP server and I want xauthority set up properly on the local console. Both of these rule out simple startx or 'su user -c "X..."'.

Openbox: A lightweight window manager (Linux.com)

Posted Feb 4, 2006 10:16 UTC (Sat) by job (guest, #670) [Link]

I'm not sure I understand. You have a thin client using XDCMP login against a server, and you want it to log in automatically? Why is XDMCMP required then?

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