*BSD News Article 86646


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From: dhenshaw@silas.cc.monash.edu.au (Mr David Henshaw)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Newbie questions
Date: 17 Jan 1997 23:43:45 +1100
Organization: Monash University
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j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) writes:


>> I've also started X with xdm by adding the following line to my /etc/ttys file:
>> 
>> tty4 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm 	on secure
>> 
>> from page 99 of The Complete FreeBSD by Greg Lehey.

>Unfortunately, Greg got this one wrong. :-(  This form of starting
>xdm has been long since depreciated.  The correct way is to set
>your /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers e.g. to:

>:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_S3 :0 vt04 -bpp 16

>This way, you will force the Xserver to start up on VT4, as opposed to
>the first free one it could locate, so it won't collide with the
>init-spawned gettys.  And, you can also see how to add Xserver flags
>for your xdm setup.

>If you're using the above, you could start xdm without any arguments
>(i.e., in daemon mode) from /etc/rc.local.

Why is this the 'prefered' way of starting X and xdm ????
Is there some kind of security hole ???

I have tried this approach only to find that the keyboard is locked when xdm 
daemonizes....
The only way (or bypass) to overcome this problem is to press scroll lock 
while system initialisation is occuring, thus "securing" the keyboard