slim: start second X session on tty8

Question

I am using slim login manager and LXDE desktop environment.

When I am logged in in LXDE, and switch to text console (ctrl+alt+F1), I can log in as another user in the text console and type:

startx -- :1 vt8

which will start another X session on tty8 and automatically log me into LXDE.

While that works OK, I am wondering whether there is a better way to do it. Using startx circumvents the login manager completely.

There must be some advantage in using login managers, otherwise we would not need them, and I would log in into my regular X session (tty7) using startx.

Is it possible to start my login manager (slim) on second graphical console (tty8) automatically, so that I can log in, without having to use startx?

This may depend on your distribution. See ```/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers.```. Or more generically, you can use ```startx``` to start any X program on vt8, so you should be able to run ```slim``` there like it's already running on vt7. — rudimeier, Sep 01 '16 at 03:50

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 30 '16 at 09:59

This is not really the responsibility of a display manager, its job is to allow you to pick a desktop environment and give you a graphical login prompt. Some display managers support doing extra things, but normally only when coupled with their respective desktop environment. Basically there is no standard for this.

Now some desktop environments/lock screens (kde, gnome, unity at least) allow fast user switching which is what you are looking for. They either talk to the running display manager and ask it to launch a new session (like in kde) or launch a new nested display manager (like in gnome). I doubt lightweight desktop managers support this out of the box if at all.

Gnome achieves this through gdmflexiserver which apparently can be made to work with at least lightdm. It looks like lxde supports it with GDM and xfce can do this as well with lightdm (and presumably gdm). XScreenSaver also supports it with lightdm. But I can find no evidence that slim supports fast user switching.

I would suggest trying out gdm or lightdm to see if either work out of the box for you and LXDE, otherwise try installing lightdm + xscreensaver to see if that works for you. Finally you can try installing gdmflexiserver and running it manually while using gdm if nothing else works.

thanks, but installing another display manager is not an option for me. — Martin Vegter, Aug 31 '16 at 15:08
Don't you have permissions to change the display manager? Or why you want to use ```slim``` although it does not have the features you need? — rudimeier, Aug 31 '16 at 15:46
@rudimeier - `slim` has all the other features that I need, while being minimalistic and not depending on `systemd`. But this is beyond the scope of this question, anyway. I have stated in my original posting, that I am looking for solution using `slim`. — Martin Vegter, Aug 31 '16 at 17:46

slim: start second X session on tty8

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