converse@EXPO.LCS.MIT.EDU (Donna Converse) (01/28/89)
> If you don't supply config information, xdm is smart enough to run the > appropriate shell of a user "correctly" (it reads the .profile, .cshrc, > etc). However, if you supply config information (including the .Xsession > supplied) it just comes up in a user's shell - the "." file information > is never read. Actually xdm never reads $HOME/.login, $HOME/.cshrc, and so on. xterm reads them. I can speculate on the problem: If your $HOME/.xsession file is not executing, then perhaps there is a file name mismatch between the reference to the file $HOME/.xsession in /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession and the name your gave your .xsession file. Perhaps something is ill-specified in your .xsession file, causing it to loose its cookies before you get your xterm going. Did you give xterm the -ls argument to have your .login file, etc. executed? See the xterm man page. Here's the final line from my .xsession file: exec xterm -geometry 80x10+5+5 -ls -sb -bw 3 -cr red -ms red
guido@cwi.nl (Guido van Rossum) (01/30/89)
An invaluable tool in debugging your ".xsession" file is to look in the error log file that xdm leaves in .../X/lib/xdm/xdm-errors. The most common error I have noticed when converting users to use xdm is to have an .xsession file that uses x tools (e.g., xterm) without setting the path to contain .../X/bin. (BTW, is the most conventional name ".xsession" or ".Xsession" or is this a policy matter on which the X consortium refuses to decide? :-) -- Guido van Rossum, Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science (CWI), Amsterdam guido@cwi.nl or mcvax!guido or guido%cwi.nl@uunet.uu.net Hackers' motto: "If all else fails, read the Unix kernel source."