[comp.sys.hp] X server and the X0screens file

gdykes@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Gene Dykes) (03/15/90)

Just in case this has been overlooked over at HP, let me register this plea:

PLEASE make sure that the new R4 server can have the information that is
contained in /usr/lib/X11/Xnscreens be set by a command line option.
It really makes life difficult to have those filenames hardwired.

Just in case it is not obvious why, here is the reason:

Sometimes I want to put X in the overlay planes and sometimes I want it
to be in the graphics planes.  The only way to accomplish this is to
change the contents of those files.  The only way to accomplish that
while logging in is to make those files writable and to copy a file with
the appropriate information on top of it.  Add in the fact that many
people want to log in to the same machines and have different login
procedures and you have an awful mess.

Thank you.
-- 
Gene Dykes, gdykes@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu

stroyan@hpfcso.HP.COM (Mike Stroyan) (03/16/90)

> PLEASE make sure that the new R4 server can have the information that is
> contained in /usr/lib/X11/Xnscreens be set by a command line option.
> It really makes life difficult to have those filenames hardwired.

> Sometimes I want to put X in the overlay planes and sometimes I want it
> to be in the graphics planes.  The only way to accomplish this is to
> change the contents of those files.

Actually, you can choose among different configurations by using different
server numbers.  Just put the overlay version in X0screens, the image
plane version in X1screens and the combined mode version in X2screens.
Since you can have different color limits and numbers of screens per
server, you may also wish to use different .x11start files.  I use
scripts such as
x0:
  cd ~; xinit .x11startx0 :0
x1:
  cd ~; xinit .x11startx1 :1

to make it easy to start up whichever server configuration I want.

Mike Stroyan, stroyan@hpfcla.hp.com

steve-t@hpfcso.HP.COM (Steve Taylor) (03/16/90)

/comp.sys.hp/gdykes@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Gene Dykes)/9:08am Mar 14,1990/
} ... the information that is contained in /usr/lib/X11/Xnscreens ...
} Sometimes I want to put X in the overlay planes and sometimes I want it
} to be in the graphics planes.  The only way to accomplish this is to
} change the contents of those files.  ...
----------

Most likely there's some factor here that I'm not seeing, but:
	I am running X on both the overlay planes and the image planes of
	a 98550, at the same time.  My /usr/lib/X11/X0screens file contains:

/dev/crt
/dev/ocrt

	and my start-up files begin:

DISPLAY=`hostname`:0.0 ; export DISPLAY
xinitcolormap -f .cmap
hpwm  -xrm Hpwm*configFile:.Iwmrc &

	and:

DISPLAY=`hostname`:0.1 ; export DISPLAY
hpwm -fg Wh -xrm Hpwm*client*font:8x13bold -xrm Hpwm*activeForeground:Bk \
     -bg dym -xrm Hpwm*menu*font:hp8.10x20b -xrm Hpwm*configFile:.Owmrc &

	respectively.  Wouldn't some variation on this work for you?  Or
	is there something here that the R4 server doesn't support?

						Regards, Steve taylor

NOT A STATEMENT, OFFICIAL OR OTHERWISE, OF THE HEWLETT-PACKARD COMPANY.