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Getting Rid of GDM / Using XDM under RedHat LINUX

RedHat uses GDM now for quite a while, and it looks nice, but doesn't really have any added benefit for me, and I got really fed-up with it after installing RH 8.0 and getting the following message, when trying to login as root:

        The system administrator is not allowed to login from this screen

Excuse my language, but what kind of bullshit is that? I can hit "CTRL-ALT-F1" or even remotely login to the machine using SSH to login as root, but I am not allowed to use the GUI?? outch, that is soo stupid!! That's just "false sense of security".

Anyhow, if you want to get rid of this stupid message and start using your computer without having to dig into the muddy depths of GNOME and GDE, you might want to try to use the "axe approach" like me:

	> cd /etc/X11
	> grep gdm *
	prefdm:         preferred=gdm
	prefdm: if which gdm >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	prefdm:         preferred=gdm
	prefdm:if which gdm >/dev/null 2>&1; then
	prefdm: exec `which gdm` $* >/dev/null 2>&1

aha!! culprit found!!

	> cat /etc/sysconfig/desktop
	DESKTOP="GNOME"

Resistance is futile!!

	> cat >  /etc/sysconfig/desktop
	# edited by Tilo Sloboda, Mar 16, 2003
	# see also file: /etc/X11/prefdm  
	#
	DESKTOP="fvwm"
	DISPLAYMANAGER="XDM"
	# DESKTOP="GNOME"

and finally:

	> reboot

and now it works just fine.. :-D

Sure, the out-of the box installation of XDM doesn't look soo spiffy, but you can configure it, and it's fairly easy to configure compared to the GNOME stuff. You can add grafics and change the text of your login screen and all that.

My personal opinion is that GNOME, KDE, and GDK are nice for users who want to play with their desktop a lot and/or miss Windows .. but I hate Windows, and don't want to be reminded of it's stupid userinterface and it's looks, and I really hate it if configuration files get modified at an unknown location by a GUI!
So I prefer good-old FVWM and XDM instead.. Let's not let LINUX become another Windows-like mess!

I don't want to play with my desktop, I want to work with it ;-)

I hope this page helps somebody else..

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Maintainer: Tilo Sloboda linux AT unixgods.org
last update: $Revision: 1.4 $ / $Date: 2003/08/25 08:40:49 $