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From: geo@george.austin.ibm.com (George Noren)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: Re: "Exit" from mwm
Message-ID: <6254@awdprime.UUCP>
Date: 29 Mar 91 15:07:09 GMT
Sender: news@awdprime.UUCP
Reply-To: geo@george.austin.ibm.com (George Noren)
Followup-To: Re: "Exit" from mwm
Lines: 70

Guangliang He (ghe@physics.orst.edu) sent me email, which I can't reply
to since
I'm not yet plugged into email services for internet.  I can only post
(alas...).

I had said:  
  |> Xstations should not be a problem with this discussion.  When you 
  |> "exit" from the login window on an Xstation, it kills mwm and returns
  |> you to the Xserver that is running on the Xstation with a login window
  |> to your boot machine.

He responded:
  >> This is certainly not the case on our X-Stations. When I logout from
  >> the login window, the mwm is killed and the login window is closed.
  >> But if I have other windows open at that time, those windows get
  >> frozen, and the X-station hangs. I have to Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to
  >> reboot the X-station. I called our SE and he came up with a
  >> unacceptable solution called 'soft-reboot' which kills every processes
  >> I own (Including my login on other terminals, console, ...). I don't
  >> know what's wrong on our X-station. 

Well, I tried your scenario on my stuff and sure enough that's what happened.
I don't think your Xstation is broken.  I am just ordered enough in my methods
that I never logged out until all the windows were closed (which I believe is
the behavior that should be encouraged). However, you need to be able to
recover your windows
if you or one of your users accidently logs out (to prevent loss of
data).  This
is what I did when my Xstation (named daneel) locked up as you described:

1. Logged on to the server.
2. Restarted the window manager on the Xstation:

	# DISPLAY=daneel:0 /usr/lpp/X11/bin/mwm &

3. Returned to the Xstation and closed out the windows gracefully.
4. Returned to the server and killed mwm on the Xstation:
	# ps -ef | grep mwm
        root 14517 16034   1 08:49:45  pts/0  0:00 grep mwm 
        root 16305 16034   0 08:49:27  pts/0  0:00 /usr/lpp/X11/bin/mwm 

	# kill 16305
	(kill the process id associated with mwm that was started from this
	hft on the server - you should be able to tell which mwm you just started)

	NOTE: If you don't kill this copy of mwm, the Xstation becomes an open
	port to the login that started mwm (root in my case).  All they have to
	do is select "new window" on the menu, and they are root on the server.
	DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!

5. This puts up a pop-up on the Xstation asking if it's ok to quit. 
Click on OK.
   Your login prompt window returns.

Now, I know this is not terribly convenient for everyday happenings. 
But it works for
blunder-recovery.  I am anticipating using this frequently in the near
future as I am
installing 12 new Xstations for previous PC users. 

Best of luck.

Sincerely,
George Noren

My opinions, of course...
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