[arch-general] xdm, who and X sessions

[Norbert Zeh]

Rodrigo Amorim Bahiense [2011.10.11 1149 -0300]:
> On 10/11/2011 11:42 AM, Norbert Zeh wrote:
> >Hi folks,
> >
> >wanting to go lightweight, I just switched back from kdm to xdm, but I ran into
> >a little snag, which I reported as bug FS#26395 on the bug tracker.  I'm no
> >longer sure this is actually a bug, at least not of "who".
> >
> 
> Why not use 'slim' instead?

Well, I tried slim before and didn't like it, not sure any more why.

In any case, after having produced sufficient noise on this mailing list *and*
the bug tracker, I've resolved my problem: the key was to "exec sessreg" as
opposed to simply invoking it.  This way sessreg replaces the shell as a child
process of xdm and registers the correct PID in /var/run/utmp.  This is in fact
what the original vanilla Xstartup script does, but then things got confusing
through the use of themes.  In any case, all is well now.

Just a related question: If I understand correctly, the configuration in the
vanilla xdm-config file says that Xstartup is to be run for all logins other
than on display :0, while for display :0 *only* GiveConsole is to be run on
startup.  Since GiveConsole does not by default start sessreg, logins on :0 are
by default not logged in utmp.  What's the reasoning behind this?

Cheers,
Norbert