Using Indigo2 as an X Terminal

Tristram Scott · *nix forums beginner Joined: 18 Apr 2005 Posts: 31

Hi,

I have an Indigo2 which I sometimes want to use as an X-Terminal. I
thought that all I would need would be to put -indirect remotehost on the
end of the appropriate line in my /var/X11/xdm/Xservers file. This seems
to have the desired effect of asking the remotehost for a list of machines
I could attach to, and I can even get so far as to get a login prompt for
these and to start a desktop. However, at some random point (usually
within a minute of the login screen appearing) the X server resets itself.

The machine works reliably as a workstation, but when I try to use it as a
terminal to one of my servers it fails me. The only thing I can see in my
/var/adm/SYSLOG file which is x related is:

Apr 20 15:35:10 3B:donkey xdm[1106]: Cannot read randomFile "/dev/mem",
errno = 6

However, that seems to happen whether or not I am trying to use the
-indirect option. I have a feeling that this is related to the .authorize
stuff, but I can't recall.

My Xservers file is:

donkey 9% cat /var/X11/xdm/Xservers
:0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -bs -nobitscale -c -pseudomap 4sight -solidroot
sgilightblue -cursorFG red -cursorBG white -class Truecolor -depth 24

I add -indirect remotehost to this line, where remotehost is the name of
the server I wish to use.

The rest of the files in /var/X11/xdm are as shipped. I upgraded from
6.5.15 to 6.5.22 to see if this might help, but it seems to have made no
difference.

Does anyone know what I need to do to make this work? It seems like a
simple enough thing to do, but I can't figure this out.

--
Dr Tristram J. Scott
Energy Consultant

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