xdm questions

[Mike Kupfer]

Polytropon wrote:

> On Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:30:43 -0800, Mike Kupfer wrote:
> > 1. I tried running xdm without setting ~/.xsession to run Xfce.  Upon
> > logging in, I expected to get a simple session with twm and/or an xterm.
> 
> No, because twm needs to be installed additionally, as
> it's not part of the xdm package. Furthermore, ~/.xsession
> needs to be set accordingly - I'm not sure the system's
> default xsession file will even call twm.

But I already had twm and xterm installed, apparently as a result of
doing "pkg install xorg".

After installing xorg and before installing xfce or xdm, I had started X
using startx(1).  That gave me a simple X session with twm and 3 xterm
windows.  It is surprising to me that I didn't get a similar default
session after activating xdm.

If the user really needs to create a .xsession file for xdm to be
usable, it seems like this should be made more explicit in Section 6.7
of the Handbook.

> > Unfortunately, Ctrl+Alt+F1 causes the VirtualBox *host* to switch to a
> > different virtual terminal.  Is it possible to configure FreeBSD to use
> > a key combination other than Ctrl+Alt+Fn?
> 
> Probably yes, but you can also configure VirtualBox to
> accept and relay those keys "as is" to the emulated
> environment.

Hmm.  I don't see how to do this in the GUI or in the VirtualBox user
manual (4.1.18).  A web search suggests that I could use the Guest
Additions (GuestControl) to bind some other key, and have that key
generate the Ctrl+Alt+Fn sequence.  Is that what you're referring to?

thanks,
mike