Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!bloom-beacon!LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU!mouse
From: mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: xdm, x-terminals, and SELECTING hosts
Message-ID: <9009231656.AA02965@Larry.McRCIM.McGill.EDU>
Date: 23 Sep 90 16:56:31 GMT
Sender: root@athena.mit.edu (Wizard A. Root)
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 26

>> What I want to do is run a sort of meta-xdm that puts a screen on
>> the xterminal advertising a collection of hosts that would be happy
>> to manage the display, then let the user select the desired host.

> It is possible to do within the current XDMCP definition, although it
> isn't perfect.  [...] Now, if you want to put the chooser in xdm
> (which in retrospect is really a pretty good place to put it), then
> there is a bit of a problem, as there is no direct way for xdm to do
> a "proxy" query on behalf of the terminal.

Depending on what sort of security mechanism you are using, you may be
able to run xdm as one normally would in a one-xdm-host environment,
but have the Xsession ask the user for a host to run on.  This depends
on several things, notably

- more-or-less uniform user database across all machines involved
- some way to make the chosen host able to connect to the server and
   run things like xhost which are restricted

As rws says, not perfect, but it may be workable in the short term (eg,
until R5 hits the streets).

					der Mouse

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			new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu