Using xdm and twm on freebsd 6.2

[Jim Seymour]

On Fri, Apr 06, 2007 at 09:12:46AM -0700, John L. Utz III wrote:
> 
> On Apr 5, 2007, at 5:51 PM, Jim Seymour wrote:
> 
> >On Thu, 2007-04-05 at 10:39 -0700, David Wolfskill wrote:
> >>As I think you know, starting X via xinit uses ~/.xinitrc, while  
> >>using
> >>xdm uses ~/.xsession.
> >>
> >>The latter need sto be executable.
> >>
> >>What's in it?
> >>
> >>(I use xdm & various window managers -- usually piewm, which is  
> >>derived
> >>from tvtwm, which resembles twm quite a bit.  I can send you my
> >>~/.xsession if youi like, but it's not especially likely to be all  
> >>that
> >>close to what you will want.)
> >
> >After creating yet another .xsession file I get the following:
> >
> >X connection to :0.0 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
> >FreeFontPath: FPE "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc" refcount is 2,  
> >should
> >be 1; fixinng.
> >AUDIT: Thu Apr 5 20:40:04 2007: 726 X: client 2 rejected from local  
> >host
> >
> >In my .xsession (mode 700):
> >
> >#! /bin/sh
> >twm &
> >
> >When I boot it loads xdm. When I try to log in, the screen goes blank
> >and then comes back to the login screen. Ideas....
> 
> that return to the main screen means that it's failing - have u  
> looked in /var/log/messages?
> 
> have you looked to see if xdm has a verbose flag that u can use if u  
> started in from the command line?
> 
Hi All,

I had backed away from this while I was fighting a cold. I just wanted 
to return and let everyone know what did fix the problem. The funny 
thing about the whole issue was that I had two identically set up boxes
 that one performed as expected and the other didn't. The desktop box
with exactly the same software and configuration worked without a 
single tweak needed. I could enable xdm on boot by uncommenting the
ttyv8 line in /etc/ttys, reboot and log in via xdm and it would load
twm and a grey outline xterm that would appear wherever I clicked.

The laptop on the other hand, set up the same way, after logging into
 xdm would present you 
with a Session Menu that had an entry for "Fail Safe" only. Loading 
the Fail Safe ended in a screen with nothing but a four option control
bar in the upper left hand corner of the screen and a widow in the 
lower right hand corner of the screen that was titled "Console log".
 I could do nothing except restart xdm with this setup.

As was suggested, a .xsession file was created containing a snippet
of code out of the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession to start twm, three
xterms and a clock. What originally failed on this setup was probably
the wrong path in the sha-bang at the top. Although #!/bin/sh works,
I use bash and had it originally set to #!/bin/bash instead of the 
correct path #!/usr/local/bin/bash. I already had the permissions set
correctly. Anyway I wanted to document the resolution in hopes it 
would help someone else in the future. I now have my old Compaq
Armada 7750MT happily running FreeBSD 6.2 using the wireless
network at the office as needed and using hardly any resources at
all.

Thanks again for all of the help,
Jim Seymour