New Life to Old iMac

[Longman, Bill]

> Subject: New Life to Old iMac
> 
> 
> Hi - first post to list (well - first post in years anyway ...)
> 
> I left the ppc Linux world for the x86 Linux world - but I 
> just put YDL
> on my old iMac.
> 
> Anyway - the way I did it is actually a little uniq, using 
> XDMCP so that
> I could use it as a desktop w/o needing to look at a fuzzy monitor.
> 
> The end result was not only a crisp desktop (thanks to my x86 
> Linux box)
> - but it actually is FASTER than logging into the iMac directly.
> 
> I have a small writup at http://homepage.mac.com/mpeters/xdmcp/ for
> anyone else who is interested in doing this sort of thing.

SO KEWL!

If any of you want to understand how this works, you can simulate this right
on your own machine.

Here are the main concepts:

1 - You need to have an X server running on your local machine.
2 - You log in to a remote or local machine to run a client program.
3 - The client program sends its data to your local X server for display.
4 - You can manage (move, maximize, minimize) windows by running a window
manager.
5 - Your window manager (unlike your X server) can run locally or remotely.

On your machine, the X server is usually identified as ":0". That's the
first X server. You can start this X server if you do this:

$ X &

It will pop up on screen Opt-F7.

You can start another X server on your machine as :1. It will pop up on the
Opt-F8 screen if you do this:

[Use the Opt-F2 screen for this and log on first, then run this]

$ DISPLAY=:1
$ export DISPLAY
$ X :1 &

At this point, all you have are two X servers running. There are no
terminals windows and no window managers running.

If you go back to the Opt-F1 screen, you can start an xterm. You can start
gkrellm. You can start X apps but you won't be able to move them around.

[Ctrl-Opt-F1 always gets you to the Opt-F1 screen]

$ export DISPLAY=:0	[if you don't have DISPLAY already set....]
$ xterm &

Now jump back to the Opt-F7 screen (you'll have to use Ctrl-Opt-F7) and
you'll see a hideous, no border xterm sitting there.

Jump back to your command prompt, or from the xterm window:

$ wmaker &     [or blackbox, or twm, or mwm.....]

And, presto, you'll be able to move the windows around.

= = = = =

That's the sideways way of how startx works. Usually, X server starts, the
window manager comes up and the session manager puts all the windows and
apps back the way you had them when you last left.

But what about that other X server we have running on Opt-F8? Right now it's
just a server sitting there waiting for clients to connect to it.

Go to your Opt-F2 screen.
Log in to a different host somewhere, if you have one available. If you use
ssh and the ssh server you're logging in to allows it, you should be able to
start an xterm and it will pop up on your Opt-F8 screen. Just the xterm,
once again, with no trimmings.

If you can't log on to a different system, you can start a totally different
window manager on this display. If you started WindowMaker on the first one,
you can start Motif on this one, or Gnome, or KDE.

This is really useful if you need to run as if you were on the console of
another machine, just like Mike showed. When you right-click, the window
manager is running on the REMOTE host so the apps that run will be on the
remote machine, not the local machine.