How to launch a second X server

[Guillaume Chazarain]

> | If I try "xinit -- :1" on the console, the display appears and I can
> | use it but the initial xterm is on display :0 and "echo $DISPLAY" in
> | it gives :0. I can then "DISPLAY=:1 xterm" to use this new display,
> | but it's quite inconvenient.
> 
> That seams odd. xinit should set DISPLAY correctly. You might try a
> custom xinitrc file (~/.xinitrc) that checks for 1st or 2nd xserver and
> changes behavior. Or just a script that starts the server, sets DISPLAY,
> starts a termional, and a window manager.

Upgrading xinitrc and xorg from rawhide, replacing 'xinit -- :1' by
'startx -- :1' with a 'echo xterm > ~/.xinitrc' worked well, even from
another X session. I discovered that startx wanted the display number as
its first argument :

startx -- :1 -depth 24 => good
startx -- -depth 24 :1 => bad

Thanks Michal and Thomas.


Guillaume.