different window managers in each screen

[rocketpcguy]

i have a dual monitor setup. i want to run fluxbox (or any WM) in the first and wmaker (or anything else) in the second monitor. they are setup as different x servers (no xinerama or twinview).

i can launch an app in the second monitor with:
DISPLAY=:0.1 xterm

but it doesn't work in my .Xclients file. this doesn't work either:

export DISPLAY=:0.0
startfluxbox
export DISPLAY=:0.1
wmaker


what to do?

[rocketpcguy]

ive seen someone posting it here before, but after searching for it i cant find it. that person enclosed the .xsession it in [ code ] [ /code]

[rocketpcguy]

anyone?

[rocketpcguy]

it also says here:
http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4485.html

It is possible to run two separate window managers in this configuration (one on each monitor)

how???!!??

edit: also:
http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-April/msg00517.html

Oh, of course you also have to run two window managers, one for each
monitor/X.

You can easily run KDE next to Gnome for example.:

??

[rocketpcguy]

i also found this, but i dont understand it:

on the one screen I have ICEwm, on the other
windowmaker. The thing I do to get this is start up fvwm, and choose in my
debian menu icewm to start when I am in the one window and windowmaker
from the other. Don't know why it only works when I start with fvwm, but
it is good enough for me

[XiaoKJ]

the reason why you are posting to yourself is because we don't know the answer. in fact we are all looking forward to getting the answer from you.

Cheers

[XiaoKJ]

Here is an update -- go read the gentoo wiki on dual monitor setup. should be fairly easy to read up on. It involves the file xorg.conf. seems that you must be using xinerama or twinview...

[squeegy]

XiaoKJ why insist on posting you have no clue about I have no idea... This is possible, and you don't need Xinerama (which makes one large screen across two monitors)... I am at work right now, but I'll try and find my old .xinitrc that had something setup similar to this.

Keep in mind that things might not play together as well as you're expecting, I had different results with different WMs...

You've got the idea right with the DISPLAY environment variable, I can tell you that much right now...

Also FWIW, I only used this type of a setup on a system that I manually started X with startx on, there was no xdm,gdm, kdm,etc running....

[rocketpcguy]

squeegy- eagerly anticipating for your response!! not too much of a deal to startx instead of *dm.

[rocketpcguy]

*shifts slightly in his seat*

[rocketpcguy]

*turned into a skeleton*

[je_fro]

There might be a way to do it with gdm. I remember having different login screens for different tty's. Like Alt-F7 was gnome and Alt-F8 was something else.
Here's the relevant section from /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf that you'll need to play with and google up some recipes...
Good luck!

[servers]
# These are the standard servers. You can add as many you want here
# and they will always be started. Each line must start with a unique
# number and that will be the display number of that server. Usually just
# the 0 server is used.
0=Standard
#1=Standard

[retsaw]

That's not going to work for a dual screen setup unless you patch the kernel (at least I think a patch is needed, but I couldn't find one for a recent kernel the last time I checked) and use multiple keyboards. Otherwise you end up only being able to use one screen at a time.

rocketpcguy, for an explaination of that quote you posted earlier, FVWM has an option in it's menu (at least on Debian going from the quote) to switch to another window manager, so when you choose to start X with FVWM it starts on both screens, and when you choose the option to switch to a different window manager it will switch each screen individually, thus allowing you to use different window managers.

It should be possible (if the window manager is not aware of multiple screens) to just use a custom .xinitrc and the DISPLAY variable to start different wms on different screens when you issue the startx command. I've never tried to do it myself as I've never had a use for it and I find Xinerama suits my needs better.