A note about how I I got XDM working on my Thinkpad T430 in 2020. It’s not difficult, but it’s not common anymore.

XDM is the x display manager and provides login capability for unix systems. It is particularly useful for old-style window managers like TWM.

Prerequisites

  • FreeBSD 12.1 Installed and Running on T430
  • Xorg up and running with TWM (default)

Steps

  1. Install XDM

sudo pkg install xdm

  1. Edit ttys to turn xdm on
 sudo vi /etc/ttys
 # change 
 ttyv8   "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   off secure
 # to
ttyv8   "/usr/local/bin/xdm -nodaemon"  xterm   on secure
  1. Create a basic .xsession file
 vi ~/.xsession
 xrdb -Dhostname=astra $HOME/.Xresources
 xset c off s 300
 twm &
 xterm -geometry 80x24+0-0
  1. reboot

sudo reboot

Notes

  • /etc/ttys is the terminal control file and it’s what starts all of
  • the pseudo terminals. ttyv8 is the 9th tty (CTRL-ALT-F9)
  • .xsession is basically .xinitrc for xdm, if it’s missing xdm won’t
  • start a session when you login, so you will endlessly enter your
  • name and password wondering why nothing is starting.
  • xrdb will load your .Xresources file - here’s an example
 XTerm*foreground:   green
 XTerm*background:   black
  • the xset sets keyclick off and sets the screen saver to 5 minutes

It’s not magic, but oh, how long it took me to figure it out… I just received my copy of X Window System Users’ Guide for X11 R3 and R4 by Valerie Quercia and Tim O’Reilly Volume Three in the mail - written in 1990, but still amazing book. If it weren’t for this book, I’d still be in the dark about .Xdefaults, .Xresources, .xsession, .xinitrc, and three dozen other Xisms.

post added 2022-12-02 08:05:00 -0600