SUMMARY: Running xdm/dxsession under Tru64 5.0?

[Jay Ponder <ponder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

 Earlier today I posted a question about running xdm/dxsession under
 Tru64 5.0. In particular, the /usr/bin/X11/dxsession session manager
 executable is missing from 5.0. We had been quite happy with xdm
 under 4.0E, and in fact much perferred it to the bloat of CDE.

 Within an hour of posting the question, I got the "definitive" answer
 from Tom Blinn of Compaq. Seems that dxsession has been "retired" in
 5.0, making xdm essentially unusable. Seems we will all have to get
 used to CDE to use Tru64.... I append his reply below.

                   Thanks, Jay P.  (ponder@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
--------
--------

I'm sorry to have to be the one to break this news, but..

The decision to retire a LOT of the old X window system components in the
V5.0 release was announced a LONG time ago.

I suspect that among the reasons the dxsession from V4.0E does not work on
V5.0 is that the underlying X window system code has been updated, but I
can not say for certain.

I could forward your message to some of the engineering staff who MIGHT be
able to provide a definitive technical answer to why the components simply
don't work any longer, but I'm pretty confident I'm close to the causes.

If you had a full source license (which would have to include things that
are not in the normal customer source distributions, including most of the
Motif and CDE sources) and the ability to build the product from sources
(which we've never committed customers could do), you MIGHT be able to 
figure out what would need to be done to get dxsession to work again -- if
it doesn't have any dependencies on Adobe Display PostScript components that
are also not included in V5.0 (and will never be re-introduced into the V5.0
or later product, because we are required by Adobe to remove them).

Basically, you are out of luck.  You'd have a better chance if you were
using Linux of getting a window manager you like, since you could make your
own if you didn't like what's in any particular package, but with Tru64 UNIX
you are pretty much stuck with what we decide to ship, and decisions have
been made and implemented that remove the option you'd prefer.

Tom
 
 Dr. Thomas P. Blinn + UNIX Software Group + Compaq Computer Corporation
  110 Spit Brook Road, MS ZKO3-2/W17   Nashua, New Hampshire 03062-2698
   Technology Partnership Engineering           Phone:  (603) 884-0646
    Internet: tpb@xxxxxxxxxxx           Digital's Easynet: alpha::tpb
     ACM Member: tpblinn@xxxxxxx         PC@xxxx: tom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx