XDM(1) XDM(1)
NAME
xdm - X Display Manager with support for XDMCP, host chooser
SYNOPSIS
xdm [ -config configuration_file ] [ -nodaemon ] [ -debug debug_level ] [ -error error_log_file ] [ -resources resource_file ] [ -server server_entry ] [ -session ses- sion_program ]
DESCRIPTION
Xdm manages a collection of X displays, which may be on the local host or remote servers. The design of xdm was guided by the needs of X terminals as well as the X Con- sortium standard XDMCP, the X Display Manager Control Pro- tocol. Xdm provides services similar to those provided by init, getty and login on character terminals: prompting for login name and password, authenticating the user, and running a ``session.'' A ``session'' is defined by the lifetime of a particular process; in the traditional character-based terminal world, it is the user's login shell. In the xdm context, it is an arbitrary session manager. This is because in a windowing environment, a user's login shell process does not necessarily have any terminal-like interface with which to connect. When a real session manager is not available, a window manager or terminal emulator is typi- cally used as the ``session manager,'' meaning that termi- nation of this process terminates the user's session. When the session is terminated, xdm resets the X server and (optionally) restarts the whole process. When xdm receives an Indirect query via XDMCP, it can run a chooser process to perform an XDMCP BroadcastQuery (or an XDMCP Query to specified hosts) on behalf of the dis- play and offer a menu of possible hosts that offer XDMCP display management. This feature is useful with X termi- nals that do not offer a host menu themselves. Xdm can be configured to ignore BroadcastQuery messages from selected hosts. This is useful when you don't want the host to appear in menus produced by chooser or X ter- minals themselves. Because xdm provides the first interface that users will see, it is designed to be simple to use and easy to cus- tomize to the needs of a particular site. Xdm has many options, most of which have reasonable defaults. Browse through the various sections of this manual, picking and choosing the things you want to change. Pay particular attention to the Session Program section, which will describe how to set up the style of session desired. X Version 11 Release 6.3 1 XDM(1) XDM(1)
OVERVIEW
xdm is highly configurable, and most of its behavior can be controlled by resource files and shell scripts. The names of these files themselves are resources read from the file xdm-config or the file named by the -config option. xdm offers display management two different ways. It can manage X servers running on the local machine and speci- fied in Xservers, and it can manage remote X servers (typ- ically X terminals) using XDMCP (the XDM Control Protocol) as specified in the Xaccess file. The resources of the X clients run by xdm outside the user's session, including xdm's own login window, can be affected by setting resources in the Xresources file. For X terminals that do not offer a menu of hosts to get display management from, xdm can collect willing hosts and run the chooser program to offer the user a menu. For X displays attached to a host, this step is typically not used, as the local host does the display management. After resetting the X server, xdm runs the Xsetup script to assist in setting up the screen the user sees along with the xlogin widget. The xlogin widget, which xdm presents, offers the familiar login and password prompts. After the user logs in, xdm runs the Xstartup script as root. Then xdm runs the Xsession script as the user. This sys- tem session file may do some additional startup and typi- cally runs the .xsession script in the user's home direc- tory. When the Xsession script exits, the session is over. At the end of the session, the Xreset script is run to clean up, the X server is reset, and the cycle starts over. The file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors will contain error messages from xdm and anything output to stderr by Xsetup, Xstartup, Xsession or Xreset. When you have trou- ble getting xdm working, check this file to see if xdm has any clues to the trouble.
OPTIONS
All of these options, except -config itself, specify val- ues that can also be specified in the configuration file as resources. X Version 11 Release 6.3 2 XDM(1) XDM(1) -config configuration_file Names the configuration file, which specifies resources to control the behavior of xdm. <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config is the default. See the section Configuration File. -nodaemon Specifies ``false'' as the value for the Display- Manager.daemonMode resource. This suppresses the normal daemon behavior, which is for xdm to close all file descriptors, disassociate itself from the controlling terminal, and put itself in the back- ground when it first starts up. -debug debug_level Specifies the numeric value for the DisplayMan- ager.debugLevel resource. A non-zero value causes xdm to print lots of debugging statements to the terminal; it also disables the DisplayManager.dae- monMode resource, forcing xdm to run synchronously. To interpret these debugging messages, a copy of the source code for xdm is almost a necessity. No attempt has been made to rationalize or standardize the output. -error error_log_file Specifies the value for the DisplayManager.error- LogFile resource. This file contains errors from xdm as well as anything written to stderr by the various scripts and programs run during the progress of the session. -resources resource_file Specifies the value for the DisplayMan- ager*resources resource. This file is loaded using xrdb to specify configuration parameters for the authentication widget. -server server_entry Specifies the value for the DisplayManager.servers resource. See the section Local Server Specifica- tion for a description of this resource. -udpPort port_number Specifies the value for the DisplayManager.request- Port resource. This sets the port-number which xdm will monitor for XDMCP requests. As XDMCP uses the registered well-known UDP port 177, this resource should not be changed except for debugging. If set to 0 xdm will not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests. -session session_program Specifies the value for the DisplayManager*session X Version 11 Release 6.3 3 XDM(1) XDM(1) resource. This indicates the program to run as the session after the user has logged in. -xrm resource_specification Allows an arbitrary resource to be specified, as in most X Toolkit applications.
RESOURCES
At many stages the actions of xdm can be controlled through the use of its configuration file, which is in the X resource format. Some resources modify the behavior of xdm on all displays, while others modify its behavior on a single display. Where actions relate to a specific dis- play, the display name is inserted into the resource name between ``DisplayManager'' and the final resource name segment. For local displays, the resource name and class are as read from the Xservers file. For remote displays, the resource name is what the network address of the display resolves to. See the removeDomain resource. The name must match exactly; xdm is not aware of all the network aliases that might reach a given dis- play. If the name resolve fails, the address is used. The resource class is as sent by the display in the XDMCP Manage request. Because the resource manager uses colons to separate the name of the resource from its value and dots to separate resource name parts, xdm substitutes underscores for both dots and colons when generating the resource name. For example, DisplayManager.expo_x_org_0.startup is the name of the resource which defines the startup shell file for the ``expo.x.org:0'' display. DisplayManager.servers This resource either specifies a file name full of server entries, one per line (if the value starts with a slash), or a single server entry. See the section Local Server Specification for the details. DisplayManager.requestPort This indicates the UDP port number which xdm uses to listen for incoming XDMCP requests. Unless you need to debug the system, leave this with its default value of 177. DisplayManager.errorLogFile Error output is normally directed at the system console. To redirect it, set this resource to a file name. A method to send these messages to sys- log should be developed for systems which support it; however, the wide variety of interfaces X Version 11 Release 6.3 4 XDM(1) XDM(1) precludes any system-independent implementation. This file also contains any output directed to stderr by the Xsetup, Xstartup, Xsession and Xreset files, so it will contain descriptions of problems in those scripts as well. DisplayManager.debugLevel If the integer value of this resource is greater than zero, reams of debugging information will be printed. It also disables daemon mode, which would redirect the information into the bit-bucket, and allows non-root users to run xdm, which would nor- mally not be useful. DisplayManager.daemonMode Normally, xdm attempts to make itself into a daemon process unassociated with any terminal. This is accomplished by forking and leaving the parent pro- cess to exit, then closing file descriptors and releasing the controlling terminal. In some envi- ronments this is not desired (in particular, when debugging). Setting this resource to ``false'' will disable this feature. DisplayManager.pidFile The filename specified will be created to contain an ASCII representation of the process-id of the main xdm process. Xdm also uses file locking on this file to attempt to eliminate multiple daemons running on the same machine, which would cause quite a bit of havoc. DisplayManager.lockPidFile This is the resource which controls whether xdm uses file locking to keep multiple display managers from running amok. On System V, this uses the lockf library call, while on BSD it uses flock. DisplayManager.authDir This names a directory under which xdm stores authorization files while initializing the session. The default value is <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm. Can be overridden for specific displays by DisplayMan- ager.DISPLAY.authFile. DisplayManager.autoRescan This boolean controls whether xdm rescans the con- figuration, servers, access control and authentica- tion keys files after a session terminates and the files have changed. By default it is ``true.'' You can force xdm to reread these files by sending a SIGHUP to the main process. X Version 11 Release 6.3 5 XDM(1) XDM(1) DisplayManager.removeDomainname When computing the display name for XDMCP clients, the name resolver will typically create a fully qualified host name for the terminal. As this is sometimes confusing, xdm will remove the domain name portion of the host name if it is the same as the domain name of the local host when this vari- able is set. By default the value is ``true.'' DisplayManager.keyFile XDM-AUTHENTICATION-1 style XDMCP authentication requires that a private key be shared between xdm and the terminal. This resource specifies the file containing those values. Each entry in the file consists of a display name and the shared key. By default, xdm does not include support for XDM- AUTHENTICATION-1, as it requires DES which is not generally distributable because of United States export restrictions. DisplayManager.accessFile To prevent unauthorized XDMCP service and to allow forwarding of XDMCP IndirectQuery requests, this file contains a database of hostnames which are either allowed direct access to this machine, or have a list of hosts to which queries should be forwarded to. The format of this file is described in the section XDMCP Access Control. DisplayManager.exportList A list of additional environment variables, sepa- rated by white space, to pass on to the Xsetup, Xstartup, Xsession, and Xreset programs. DisplayManager.randomFile A file to checksum to generate the seed of autho- rization keys. This should be a file that changes frequently. The default is /dev/mem. DisplayManager.greeterLib On systems that support a dynamically-loadable greeter library, the name of the library. Default is <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/libXdmGreet.so. DisplayManager.choiceTimeout Number of seconds to wait for display to respond after user has selected a host from the chooser. If the display sends an XDMCP IndirectQuery within this time, the request is forwarded to the chosen host. Otherwise, it is assumed to be from a new session and the chooser is offered again. Default is 15. X Version 11 Release 6.3 6 XDM(1) XDM(1) DisplayManager.sourceAddress Use the numeric IP address of the incoming connec- tion on multihomed hosts instead of the host name. This is to avoid trying to connect on the wrong interface which might be down at this time. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.resources This resource specifies the name of the file to be loaded by xrdb as the resource database onto the root window of screen 0 of the display. The Xsetup program, the Login widget, and chooser will use the resources set in this file. This resource data base is loaded just before the authentication pro- cedure is started, so it can control the appearance of the login window. See the section Authentica- tion Widget, which describes the various resources that are appropriate to place in this file. There is no default value for this resource, but <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/Xresources is the conventional name. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.chooser Specifies the program run to offer a host menu for Indirect queries redirected to the special host name CHOOSER. <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/chooser is the default. See the sections XDMCP Access Control and Chooser. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.xrdb Specifies the program used to load the resources. By default, xdm uses <XRoot>/bin/xrdb. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.cpp This specifies the name of the C preprocessor which is used by xrdb. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.setup This specifies a program which is run (as root) before offering the Login window. This may be used to change the appearance of the screen around the Login window or to put up other windows (e.g., you may want to run xconsole here). By default, no program is run. The conventional name for a file used here is Xsetup. See the section Setup Pro- gram. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.startup This specifies a program which is run (as root) after the authentication process succeeds. By default, no program is run. The conventional name for a file used here is Xstartup. See the section Startup Program. X Version 11 Release 6.3 7 XDM(1) XDM(1) DisplayManager.DISPLAY.session This specifies the session to be executed (not run- ning as root). By default, <XRoot>/bin/xterm is run. The conventional name is Xsession. See the section Session Program. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.reset This specifies a program which is run (as root) after the session terminates. By default, no pro- gram is run. The conventional name is Xreset. See the section Reset Program. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openDelay DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openRepeat DisplayManager.DISPLAY.openTimeout DisplayManager.DISPLAY.startAttempts These numeric resources control the behavior of xdm when attempting to open intransigent servers. openDelay is the length of the pause (in seconds) between successive attempts, openRepeat is the num- ber of attempts to make, openTimeout is the amount of time to wait while actually attempting the open (i.e., the maximum time spent in the connect(2) system call) and startAttempts is the number of times this entire process is done before giving up on the server. After openRepeat attempts have been made, or if openTimeout seconds elapse in any par- ticular attempt, xdm terminates and restarts the server, attempting to connect again. This process is repeated startAttempts times, at which point the display is declared dead and disabled. Although this behavior may seem arbitrary, it has been empirically developed and works quite well on most systems. The default values are 5 for openDelay, 5 for openRepeat, 30 for openTimeout and 4 for star- tAttempts. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.pingInterval DisplayManager.DISPLAY.pingTimeout To discover when remote displays disappear, xdm occasionally pings them, using an X connection and XSync calls. pingInterval specifies the time (in minutes) between each ping attempt, pingTimeout specifies the maximum amount of time (in minutes) to wait for the terminal to respond to the request. If the terminal does not respond, the session is declared dead and terminated. By default, both are set to 5 minutes. If you frequently use X termi- nals which can become isolated from the managing host, you may wish to increase this value. The X Version 11 Release 6.3 8 XDM(1) XDM(1) only worry is that sessions will continue to exist after the terminal has been accidentally disabled. xdm will not ping local displays. Although it would seem harmless, it is unpleasant when the workstation session is terminated as a result of the server hanging for NFS service and not respond- ing to the ping. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.terminateServer This boolean resource specifies whether the X server should be terminated when a session termi- nates (instead of resetting it). This option can be used when the server tends to grow without bound over time, in order to limit the amount of time the server is run. The default value is ``false.'' DisplayManager.DISPLAY.userPath Xdm sets the PATH environment variable for the ses- sion to this value. It should be a colon separated list of directories; see sh(1) for a full descrip- tion. ``:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb'' is a common setting. The default value can be specified at build time in the X system configura- tion file with DefaultUserPath. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemPath Xdm sets the PATH environment variable for the startup and reset scripts to the value of this resource. The default for this resource is speci- fied at build time by the DefaultSystemPath entry in the system configuration file; ``/etc:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/usr/ucb'' is a common choice. Note the absence of ``.'' from this entry. This is a good practice to follow for root; it avoids many common Trojan Horse system penetra- tion schemes. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemShell Xdm sets the SHELL environment variable for the startup and reset scripts to the value of this resource. It is /bin/sh by default. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.failsafeClient If the default session fails to execute, xdm will fall back to this program. This program is exe- cuted with no arguments, but executes using the same environment variables as the session would have had (see the section Session Program). By default, <XRoot>/bin/xterm is used. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.grabServer DisplayManager.DISPLAY.grabTimeout To improve security, xdm grabs the server and X Version 11 Release 6.3 9 XDM(1) XDM(1) keyboard while reading the login name and password. The grabServer resource specifies if the server should be held for the duration of the name/pass- word reading. When ``false,'' the server is ungrabbed after the keyboard grab succeeds, other- wise the server is grabbed until just before the session begins. The default is ``false.'' The grabTimeout resource specifies the maximum time xdm will wait for the grab to succeed. The grab may fail if some other client has the server grabbed, or possibly if the network latencies are very high. This resource has a default value of 3 seconds; you should be cautious when raising it, as a user can be spoofed by a look-alike window on the display. If the grab fails, xdm kills and restarts the server (if possible) and the session. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.authorize DisplayManager.DISPLAY.authName authorize is a boolean resource which controls whether xdm generates and uses authorization for the local server connections. If authorization is used, authName is a list of authorization mecha- nisms to use, separated by white space. XDMCP con- nections dynamically specify which authorization mechanisms are supported, so authName is ignored in this case. When authorize is set for a display and authorization is not available, the user is informed by having a different message displayed in the login widget. By default, authorize is ``true.'' authName is ``MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1,'' or, if XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 is available, ``XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1.'' DisplayManager.DISPLAY.authFile This file is used to communicate the authorization data from xdm to the server, using the -auth server command line option. It should be kept in a direc- tory which is not world-writable as it could easily be removed, disabling the authorization mechanism in the server. If not specified, a name is gener- ated from DisplayManager.authDir and the name of the display. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.authComplain If set to ``false,'' disables the use of the unse- cureGreeting in the login window. See the section Authentication Widget. The default is ``true.'' DisplayManager.DISPLAY.resetSignal The number of the signal xdm sends to reset the server. See the section Controlling the Server. The default is 1 (SIGHUP). X Version 11 Release 6.3 10 XDM(1) XDM(1) DisplayManager.DISPLAY.termSignal The number of the signal xdm sends to terminate the server. See the section Controlling the Server. The default is 15 (SIGTERM). DisplayManager.DISPLAY.resetForAuth The original implementation of authorization in the sample server reread the authorization file at server reset time, instead of when checking the initial connection. As xdm generates the autho- rization information just before connecting to the display, an old server would not get up-to-date authorization information. This resource causes xdm to send SIGHUP to the server after setting up the file, causing an additional server reset to occur, during which time the new authorization information will be read. The default is ``false,'' which will work for all MIT servers. DisplayManager.DISPLAY.userAuthDir When xdm is unable to write to the usual user authorization file ($HOME/.Xauthority), it creates a unique file name in this directory and points the environment variable XAUTHORITY at the created file. It uses /tmp by default.
CONFIGURATION FILE
First, the xdm configuration file should be set up. Make a directory (usually <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm, where <XRoot> refers to the root of the X11 install tree) to contain all of the relevant files. In the examples that follow, we use /usr/X11R6 as the value of <XRoot>. Here is a reasonable configuration file, which could be named xdm-config: DisplayManager.servers: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers DisplayManager.errorLogFile: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors DisplayManager*resources: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xresources DisplayManager*startup: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xstartup DisplayManager*session: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession DisplayManager.pidFile: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-pid DisplayManager._0.authorize: true DisplayManager*authorize: false Note that this file mostly contains references to other files. Note also that some of the resources are specified with ``*'' separating the components. These resources can be made unique for each different display, by replacing the ``*'' with the display-name, but normally this is not very useful. See the Resources section for a complete discussion. X Version 11 Release 6.3 11 XDM(1) XDM(1)
XDMCP ACCESS CONTROL
The database file specified by the DisplayManager.access- File provides information which xdm uses to control access from displays requesting XDMCP service. This file con- tains three types of entries: entries which control the response to Direct and Broadcast queries, entries which control the response to Indirect queries, and macro defi- nitions. The format of the Direct entries is simple, either a host name or a pattern, which is distinguished from a host name by the inclusion of one or more meta characters (`*' matches any sequence of 0 or more characters, and `?' matches any single character) which are compared against the host name of the display device. If the entry is a host name, all comparisons are done using network addresses, so any name which converts to the correct net- work address may be used. For patterns, only canonical host names are used in the comparison, so ensure that you do not attempt to match aliases. Preceding either a host name or a pattern with a `!' character causes hosts which match that entry to be excluded. To only respond to Direct queries for a host or pattern, it can be followed by the optional ``NOBROADCAST'' key- word. This can be used to prevent an xdm server from appearing on menus based on Broadcast queries. An Indirect entry also contains a host name or pattern, but follows it with a list of host names or macros to which indirect queries should be sent. A macro definition contains a macro name and a list of host names and other macros that the macro expands to. To distinguish macros from hostnames, macro names start with a `%' character. Macros may be nested. Indirect entries may also specify to have xdm run chooser to offer a menu of hosts to connect to. See the section Chooser. When checking access for a particular display host, each entry is scanned in turn and the first matching entry determines the response. Direct and Broadcast entries are ignored when scanning for an Indirect entry and vice- versa. Blank lines are ignored, `#' is treated as a comment delimiter causing the rest of that line to be ignored, and `\newline' causes the newline to be ignored, allowing indirect host lists to span multiple lines. Here is an example Xaccess file: X Version 11 Release 6.3 12 XDM(1) XDM(1) # # Xaccess - XDMCP access control file # # # Direct/Broadcast query entries # !xtra.lcs.mit.edu # disallow direct/broadcast service for xtra bambi.ogi.edu # allow access from this particular display *.lcs.mit.edu # allow access from any display in LCS *.deshaw.com NOBROADCAST # allow only direct access *.gw.com # allow direct and broadcast # # Indirect query entries # %HOSTS expo.lcs.mit.edu xenon.lcs.mit.edu \ excess.lcs.mit.edu kanga.lcs.mit.edu extract.lcs.mit.edu xenon.lcs.mit.edu #force extract to contact xenon !xtra.lcs.mit.edu dummy #disallow indirect access *.lcs.mit.edu %HOSTS #all others get to choose
CHOOSER
For X terminals that do not offer a host menu for use with Broadcast or Indirect queries, the chooser program can do this for them. In the Xaccess file, specify ``CHOOSER'' as the first entry in the Indirect host list. Chooser will send a Query request to each of the remaining host names in the list and offer a menu of all the hosts that respond. The list may consist of the word ``BROADCAST,'' in which case chooser will send a Broadcast instead, again offering a menu of all hosts that respond. Note that on some oper- ating systems, UDP packets cannot be broadcast, so this feature will not work. Example Xaccess file using chooser: extract.lcs.mit.edu CHOOSER %HOSTS #offer a menu of these hosts xtra.lcs.mit.edu CHOOSER BROADCAST #offer a menu of all hosts The program to use for chooser is specified by the Dis- playManager.DISPLAY.chooser resource. For more flexibil- ity at this step, the chooser could be a shell script. Chooser is the session manager here; it is run instead of a child xdm to manage the display. Resources for this program can be put into the file named by DisplayManager.DISPLAY.resources. X Version 11 Release 6.3 13 XDM(1) XDM(1) When the user selects a host, chooser prints the host cho- sen, which is read by the parent xdm, and exits. xdm closes its connection to the X server, and the server resets and sends another Indirect XDMCP request. xdm remembers the user's choice (for DisplayManager.choice- Timeout seconds) and forwards the request to the chosen host, which starts a session on that display. When the user selects a host, chooser prints the host cho- sen, which is read by the parent xdm, and exits. xdm closes its connection to the X server, and the server resets and sends another Indirect XDMCP request. xdm remembers the user's choice (for DisplayManager.choice- Timeout seconds) and forwards the request to the chosen host, which starts a session on that display.
LOCAL SERVER SPECIFICATION
The resource DisplayManager.servers gives a server speci- fication or, if the values starts with a slash (/), the name of a file containing server specifications, one per line. Each specification indicates a display which should con- stantly be managed and which is not using XDMCP. This method is used typically for local servers only. If the resource or the file named by the resource is empty, xdm will offer XDMCP service only. Each specification consists of at least three parts: a display name, a display class, a display type, and (for local servers) a command line to start the server. A typ- ical entry for local display number 0 would be: :0 Digital-QV local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 The display types are: local local display: xdm must run the server foreign remote display: xdm opens an X connection to a running server The display name must be something that can be passed in the -display option to an X program. This string is used to generate the display-specific resource names, so be careful to match the names (e.g., use ``:0 Sun-CG3 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0'' instead of ``localhost:0 Sun-CG3 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0'' if your other resources are specified as ``DisplayManager._0.session''). The display class portion is also used in the display-specific resources, as the class of the resource. This is useful if you have a large collection of similar displays (such as a corral of X terminals) and would like to set resources for groups of them. When using XDMCP, the X Version 11 Release 6.3 14 XDM(1) XDM(1) display is required to specify the display class, so the manual for your particular X terminal should document the display class string for your device. If it doesn't, you can run xdm in debug mode and look at the resource strings which it generates for that device, which will include the class string. When xdm starts a session, it sets up authorization data for the server. For local servers, xdm passes ``-auth filename'' on the server's command line to point it at its authorization data. For XDMCP servers, xdm passes the authorization data to the server via the Accept XDMCP request.
RESOURCES FILE
The Xresources file is loaded onto the display as a resource database using xrdb. As the authentication wid- get reads this database before starting up, it usually contains parameters for that widget: xlogin*login.translations: #override\ Ctrl<Key>R: abort-display()\n\ <Key>F1: set-session-argument(failsafe) finish-field()\n\ <Key>Return: set-session-argument() finish-field() xlogin*borderWidth: 3 xlogin*greeting: CLIENTHOST #ifdef COLOR xlogin*greetColor: CadetBlue xlogin*failColor: red #endif Please note the translations entry; it specifies a few new translations for the widget which allow users to escape from the default session (and avoid troubles that may occur in it). Note that if #override is not specified, the default translations are removed and replaced by the new value, not a very useful result as some of the default translations are quite useful (such as ``<Key>: insert- char ()'' which responds to normal typing). This file may also contain resources for the setup program and chooser.
SETUP PROGRAM
The Xsetup file is run after the server is reset, but before the Login window is offered. The file is typically a shell script. It is run as root, so should be careful about security. This is the place to change the root background or bring up other windows that should appear on the screen along with the Login widget. In addition to any specified by DisplayManager.exportList, the following environment variables are passed: X Version 11 Release 6.3 15 XDM(1) XDM(1) DISPLAY the associated display name PATH the value of DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemPath SHELL the value of DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemShell XAUTHORITY may be set to an authority file Note that since xdm grabs the keyboard, any other windows will not be able to receive keyboard input. They will be able to interact with the mouse, however; beware of poten- tial security holes here. If DisplayManager.DISPLAY.grab- Server is set, Xsetup will not be able to connect to the display at all. Resources for this program can be put into the file named by DisplayManager.DISPLAY.resources. Here is a sample Xsetup script: #!/bin/sh # Xsetup_0 - setup script for one workstation xcmsdb < /usr/X11R6/lib/monitors/alex.0 xconsole -geometry 480x130-0-0 -notify -verbose -exitOnFail &
AUTHENTICATION WIDGET
The authentication widget reads a name/password pair from the keyboard. Nearly every imaginable parameter can be controlled with a resource. Resources for this widget should be put into the file named by DisplayManager.DIS- PLAY.resources. All of these have reasonable default val- ues, so it is not necessary to specify any of them. xlogin.Login.width, xlogin.Login.height, xlogin.Login.x, xlo- gin.Login.y The geometry of the Login widget is normally com- puted automatically. If you wish to position it elsewhere, specify each of these resources. xlogin.Login.foreground The color used to display the typed-in user name. xlogin.Login.font The font used to display the typed-in user name. xlogin.Login.greeting A string which identifies this window. The default is ``X Window System.'' xlogin.Login.unsecureGreeting When X authorization is requested in the configura- tion file for this display and none is in use, this greeting replaces the standard greeting. The default is ``This is an unsecure session'' xlogin.Login.greetFont The font used to display the greeting. X Version 11 Release 6.3 16 XDM(1) XDM(1) xlogin.Login.greetColor The color used to display the greeting. xlogin.Login.namePrompt The string displayed to prompt for a user name. Xrdb strips trailing white space from resource val- ues, so to add spaces at the end of the prompt (usually a nice thing), add spaces escaped with backslashes. The default is ``Login: '' xlogin.Login.passwdPrompt The string displayed to prompt for a password. The default is ``Password: '' xlogin.Login.promptFont The font used to display both prompts. xlogin.Login.promptColor The color used to display both prompts. xlogin.Login.fail A message which is displayed when the authentica- tion fails. The default is ``Login incorrect'' xlogin.Login.failFont The font used to display the failure message. xlogin.Login.failColor The color used to display the failure message. xlogin.Login.failTimeout The number of seconds that the failure message is displayed. The default is 30. xlogin.Login.translations This specifies the translations used for the login widget. Refer to the X Toolkit documentation for a complete discussion on translations. The default translation table is: Ctrl<Key>H: delete-previous-character() \n\ Ctrl<Key>D: delete-character() \n\ Ctrl<Key>B: move-backward-character() \n\ Ctrl<Key>F: move-forward-character() \n\ Ctrl<Key>A: move-to-begining() \n\ Ctrl<Key>E: move-to-end() \n\ Ctrl<Key>K: erase-to-end-of-line() \n\ Ctrl<Key>U: erase-line() \n\ Ctrl<Key>X: erase-line() \n\ Ctrl<Key>C: restart-session() \n\ Ctrl<Key>\\: abort-session() \n\ <Key>BackSpace:delete-previous-character() \n\ <Key>Delete: delete-previous-character() \n\ <Key>Return: finish-field() \n\ X Version 11 Release 6.3 17 XDM(1) XDM(1) <Key>: insert-char() \ xlogin.Login.allowNullPasswd If set to ``true'', allow an otherwise failing password match to succeed if the account does not require a password at all. The default is ``false'', so only users that have passwords assigned can log in. The actions which are supported by the widget are: delete-previous-character Erases the character before the cursor. delete-character Erases the character after the cursor. move-backward-character Moves the cursor backward. move-forward-character Moves the cursor forward. move-to-begining (Apologies about the spelling error.) Moves the cursor to the beginning of the editable text. move-to-end Moves the cursor to the end of the editable text. erase-to-end-of-line Erases all text after the cursor. erase-line Erases the entire text. finish-field If the cursor is in the name field, proceeds to the password field; if the cursor is in the password field, checks the current name/password pair. If the name/password pair is valid, xdm starts the session. Otherwise the failure message is dis- played and the user is prompted again. abort-session Terminates and restarts the server. abort-display Terminates the server, disabling it. This action is not accessible in the default configuration. There are various reasons to stop xdm on a system console, such as when shutting the system down, when using xdmshell, to start another type of X Version 11 Release 6.3 18 XDM(1) XDM(1) server, or to generally access the console. Send- ing xdm a SIGHUP will restart the display. See the section Controlling XDM. restart-session Resets the X server and starts a new session. This can be used when the resources have been changed and you want to test them or when the screen has been overwritten with system messages. insert-char Inserts the character typed. set-session-argument Specifies a single word argument which is passed to the session at startup. See the section Session Program. allow-all-access Disables access control in the server. This can be used when the .Xauthority file cannot be created by xdm. Be very careful using this; it might be bet- ter to disconnect the machine from the network before doing this.
STARTUP PROGRAM
The Xstartup program is run as root when the user logs in. It is typically a shell script. Since it is run as root, Xstartup should be very careful about security. This is the place to put commands which add entries to /etc/utmp (the sessreg program may be useful here), mount users' home directories from file servers, or abort the session if logins are not allowed. In addition to any specified by DisplayManager.exportList, the following environment variables are passed: DISPLAY the associated display name HOME the initial working directory of the user LOGNAME the user name USER the user name PATH the value of DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemPath SHELL the value of DisplayManager.DISPLAY.systemShell XAUTHORITY may be set to an authority file No arguments are passed to the script. Xdm waits until this script exits before starting the user session. If the exit value of this script is non-zero, xdm discontin- ues the session and starts another authentication cycle. The sample Xstartup file shown here prevents login while the file /etc/nologin exists. Thus this is not a complete example, but simply a demonstration of the available X Version 11 Release 6.3 19 XDM(1) XDM(1) functionality. Here is a sample Xstartup script: #!/bin/sh # # Xstartup # # This program is run as root after the user is verified # if [ -f /etc/nologin ]; then xmessage -file /etc/nologin -timeout 30 -center exit 1 fi sessreg -a -l $DISPLAY -x /usr/X11R6/lib/xdm/Xservers $LOGNAME /usr/X11R6/lib/xdm/GiveConsole exit 0
SESSION PROGRAM
The Xsession program is the command which is run as the user's session. It is run with the permissions of the authorized user. In addition to any specified by DisplayManager.exportList, the following environment variables are passed: DISPLAY the associated display name HOME the initial working directory of the user LOGNAME the user name USER the user name PATH the value of DisplayManager.DISPLAY.userPath SHELL the user's default shell (from getpwnam) XAUTHORITY may be set to a non-standard authority file KRB5CCNAME may be set to a Kerberos credentials cache name At most installations, Xsession should look in $HOME for a file .xsession, which contains commands that each user would like to use as a session. Xsession should also implement a system default session if no user-specified session exists. See the section Typical Usage. An argument may be passed to this program from the authen- tication widget using the `set-session-argument' action. This can be used to select different styles of session. One good use of this feature is to allow the user to escape from the ordinary session when it fails. This allows users to repair their own .xsession if it fails, without requiring administrative intervention. The exam- ple following demonstrates this feature. This example recognizes the special ``failsafe'' mode, specified in the translations in the Xresources file, to provide an escape from the ordinary session. It also X Version 11 Release 6.3 20 XDM(1) XDM(1) requires that the .xsession file be executable so we don't have to guess what shell it wants to use. #!/bin/sh # # Xsession # # This is the program that is run as the client # for the display manager. case $# in 1) case $1 in failsafe) exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0 ;; esac esac startup=$HOME/.xsession resources=$HOME/.Xresources if [ -f "$startup" ]; then exec "$startup" else if [ -f "$resources" ]; then xrdb -load "$resources" fi twm & xman -geometry +10-10 & exec xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls fi The user's .xsession file might look something like this example. Don't forget that the file must have execute permission. #! /bin/csh # no -f in the previous line so .cshrc gets run to set $PATH twm & xrdb -merge "$HOME/.Xresources" emacs -geometry +0+50 & xbiff -geometry -430+5 & xterm -geometry -0+50 -ls
RESET PROGRAM
Symmetrical with Xstartup, the Xreset script is run after the user session has terminated. Run as root, it should contain commands that undo the effects of commands in Xstartup, removing entries from /etc/utmp or unmounting directories from file servers. The environment variables that were passed to Xstartup are also passed to Xreset. A sample Xreset script: X Version 11 Release 6.3 21 XDM(1) XDM(1) #!/bin/sh # # Xreset # # This program is run as root after the session ends # sessreg -d -l $DISPLAY -x /usr/X11R6/lib/xdm/Xservers $LOGNAME /usr/X11R6/lib/xdm/TakeConsole exit 0
CONTROLLING THE SERVER
Xdm controls local servers using POSIX signals. SIGHUP is expected to reset the server, closing all client connec- tions and performing other cleanup duties. SIGTERM is expected to terminate the server. If these signals do not perform the expected actions, the resources DisplayMan- ager.DISPLAY.resetSignal and DisplayManager.DISPLAY.term- Signal can specify alternate signals. To control remote terminals not using XDMCP, xdm searches the window hierarchy on the display and uses the protocol request KillClient in an attempt to clean up the terminal for the next session. This may not actually kill all of the clients, as only those which have created windows will be noticed. XDMCP provides a more sure mechanism; when xdm closes its initial connection, the session is over and the terminal is required to close all other connections.
CONTROLLING XDM
Xdm responds to two signals: SIGHUP and SIGTERM. When sent a SIGHUP, xdm rereads the configuration file, the access control file, and the servers file. For the servers file, it notices if entries have been added or removed. If a new entry has been added, xdm starts a ses- sion on the associated display. Entries which have been removed are disabled immediately, meaning that any session in progress will be terminated without notice and no new session will be started. When sent a SIGTERM, xdm terminates all sessions in progress and exits. This can be used when shutting down the system. Xdm attempts to mark its various sub-processes for ps(1) by editing the command line argument list in place. Because xdm can't allocate additional space for this task, it is useful to start xdm with a reasonably long command line (using the full path name should be enough). Each process which is servicing a display is marked -display.
ADDITIONAL LOCAL DISPLAYS
To add an additional local display, add a line for it to the Xservers file. (See the section Local Server Specifi- cation.) X Version 11 Release 6.3 22 XDM(1) XDM(1) Examine the display-specific resources in xdm-config (e.g., DisplayManager._0.authorize) and consider which of them should be copied for the new display. The default xdm-config has all the appropriate lines for displays :0 and :1.
OTHER POSSIBILITIES
You can use xdm to run a single session at a time, using the 4.3 init options or other suitable daemon by specify- ing the server on the command line: xdm -server ":0 SUN-3/60CG4 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0" Or, you might have a file server and a collection of X terminals. The configuration for this is identical to the sample above, except the Xservers file would look like extol:0 VISUAL-19 foreign exalt:0 NCD-19 foreign explode:0 NCR-TOWERVIEW3000 foreign This directs xdm to manage sessions on all three of these terminals. See the section Controlling Xdm for a descrip- tion of using signals to enable and disable these termi- nals in a manner reminiscent of init(8).
LIMITATIONS
One thing that xdm isn't very good at doing is coexisting with other window systems. To use multiple window systems on the same hardware, you'll probably be more interested in xinit.
FILES
<XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-config the default configuration file $HOME/.Xauthority user authorization file where xdm stores keys for clients to read <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/chooser the default chooser <XRoot>/bin/xrdb the default resource database loader <XRoot>/bin/X the default server <XRoot>/bin/xterm the default session program and fail- safe client <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/A<display>-<suffix> the default place for authorization files X Version 11 Release 6.3 23 XDM(1) XDM(1) /tmp/K5C<display> Kerberos credentials cache Note: <XRoot> refers to the root of the X11 install tree.
SEE ALSO
X(1), xinit(1), xauth(1), Xsecurity(1), sessreg(1), Xserver(1), X Display Manager Control Protocol
AUTHOR
Keith Packard, MIT X Consortium X Version 11 Release 6.3 24
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