Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uc!uf!ken
From: ken@uf.msc.umn.edu (Ken Chin-Purcell)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: DEC window manager stinks
Summary: Avoiding dxsession
Message-ID: <591@uc.msc.umn.edu>
Date: 11 Oct 89 03:04:39 GMT
References: <16229@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> <319@auto-trol.UUCP>
Sender: news@uc.msc.umn.edu
Reply-To: ken@msc.umn.edu (Ken Chin-Purcell)
Organization: Minnesota Supercomputer Center, Minneapolis, MN
Lines: 28

In article <319@auto-trol.UUCP> ncar!ico!auto-trol!marbru (Martin Brunecky) writes:
>In article <16229@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU> alk@donald.cs.umn.edu (Anthony L. Kimball) writes:
>>I despise dxwm utterly.  The straight-jacket minds at DEC seem to have
>>precluded me from using another window manager by default.  Does anyone
>>know any way in which I can startup with, say, twm (my favorite), instead of
>>dxwm on my DECstation 3100 (Ultrix, natch`).
>>
>sm*windowManagerName : /usr/bin/mwm
>sm*terminalEmulatorName: /usr/bin/xterm

As you've probably noticed, any of the dx* programs are huge, including
the dxsession session manager, which is run as the initial process.
Seeking a more lean-and-mean startup, I wrote a quick script called
'login.sh' that looks for $HOME/.xinitrc, and if found, exec's the
preferred shell on it.  Otherwise dxsession is exec'd.

Then I modified /etc/ttys to run 'sh login.sh' instead of 'dxsession'
as the intial process.  See 'man login' and 'man ttys' for details.

My .xinitrc file calls xset, xsetroot, forks an xterm, and runs mwm.
This way, when mwm dies, the session dies.  This setup avoids
decwindows all together, which is fine by me, and pages much less at
startup.


             Ken Chin-Purcell   (aka ken@msc.umn.edu)
                  Minnesota Supercomputer Center
          1200 Washington Ave. So. Minneapolis, MN 55415