Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!orca!mesa!rthomson From: rthomson@mesa.dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,visix.news.xcons.xpert Subject: Re: xdm root window Message-ID: <1991Jan26.001505.29420@dsd.es.com> Date: 26 Jan 91 00:15:05 GMT References: Sender: news@dsd.es.com Reply-To: rthomson@dsd.es.com (Rich Thomson) Organization: Design Systems Division, Evans & Sutherland, SLC, UT Lines: 35 Nntp-Posting-Host: 130.187.85.21 In article jim@fuji.eng.yale.edu (James J. Szinger) writes: >I would appreciate hints as how to change the root window xdm displays. The black and white stipple pattern you see is a result of the server resettting itself. After a user's X session ends, there are no open connections to the server and the server resets. When it resets, it paints the screen to this default background. Now, when the login box comes back up, the server has been locked by xdm. In between those two would be a place where you would like to have some command execute to tweak the background. But there's a problem. If you put it in the Xreset script (which is run after the user's session ends), it won't stay around because the script will exit and the server will reset. It really needs to be added as an (oh no! ;-) extra resource to xdm -- it should be a program to execute after the connection to the server has been made (so the server won't reset) for the login box. I heard a rumor about some such resource in xdm at MIPS, but it isn't in the generic MIT code. I've thought about putting in this code (it shouldn't be that hard), but is has some potential problems: what if the command fails or never returns? I guess this isn't too much of a problem because the resources aren't set by users, but by the sysadmin. If anybody has a patch to the MIT xdm that does this, I'd like to have a copy ;-}. -- Rich -- ``Read my MIPS -- no new VAXes!!'' -- George Bush after sniffing freon Disclaimer: I speak for myself, except as noted. UUCP: ...!uunet!dsd.es.com!rthomson Rich Thomson ARPA: rthomson@dsd.es.com PEXt Programmer