Chapter 6. Configuring display managers

If you have successfully finished the installation and configuration of the kernel and XFree, it's time to configure your display manager(s).

Beside the grafical differences, xdm/kdm and gdm handle differently the X servers. gdm will start the X servers in the order specified in it's configuration file (and stop them in the reverse order). xdm/kdm will start and stop all the X servers at the same time(in case there are no opened X sessions). Also restarting the gdm demon means end for all X sessions, but if you restart xdm/kdm when you are under X your session won't be closed.

• Using gdm could help you to retain the VGA console.

• Using xdm/kdm allows you to switch it's configuration retaining your opened X session(of course the changes shouldn't affect the X server you are using).

For the new Preferred Bus ID XFree Server you have to also specify the desired graphic card with parameter "-prefbusid x:x:x", where x:x:x is the Bus ID of the desired graphic card. For AGP cards, something similar to -prefbusid 1:0:0 For PCI cards, something similar to -prefbusid 0:x:0, x is normally the IRQ number. In the following explanation I will not use this option. If you use the Preferred Bus ID X server just append "-prefbusid x:x:x" with the correct Bus ID of the card you want to start right before the last argument vt[x].