Hi Roger,

> > by giving the following command after X is running (xset is an X client 
> > and needs to connect to the X server, so watch your access controls): 
> > "xset s off"

> It seemed that "xset s off" kept the screen saver from kicking in while I
> was logged in, but once I logged out, the screen timed out again.  It's
> as if there is some different program running before the user logs in
> and kicks off KDE.

Well I think it's the X server itself.  I was suggesting xset s off to be
run immediately after the X server starts, in one of the xdm scripts that
xdm runs to prepare the display for logins.

I mentioned the access controls because xset may not have permission to
connect to the X server unless you make some special provision for it to
do so.  (Like starting X with the -ac command-line option).

> > I believe you can also give the "-v" command-line option to XFree86 to 
> > turn off the video blanking.  The program which started XFree86 (in your 
> > case, probably kdm or gdm or some other display manager) has a config 
> > file which contains the command-line it uses to start the X server.  You 
> > can usually find this in /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers.

> The one line in that file that is not a comment is:

> 	:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X 

Very good, that's the one.  You can put command-line options for X on that line.

> I'm going to follow that path as I continue to track this down.  The other
> piece that's caught my attention is the last line in inittab:

> 	x:5:respawn:/etc/X11/prefdm -nodaemon 

> Does prefdm replace xdm in this command. Where is "man prefdm" when
> I need it.

Prefdm actually just starts kdm or gdm or whatever login display manager you
prefer.  I believe both kdm and gdm use the /etc/X11/xdm/* files though,
but I could be wrong.

> together with some sort of binder.  But that same stickiness makes the
> chalk almost impossible to erase from a blackboard.  I wonder if I

I hated that stuff when I was in school.  It makes permanent marker on a dry-
erase whiteboard seem downright benign.

--
Jim Ockers (ockers@ockers.net)                     Ask me about Linux!
Contact info: please see http://www.ockers.net/

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