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How To Start Multiple X11 Sessions

If you want to run two or more X11 sessions on the same computer at the same time, you can do the following:

  1. Switch to an unused console
  2. Type startx -- :1 to start a second X11 session

Note:

  • To switch to the new X11 session you can use ALT-F8 (instead of the usual ALT-F7).
  • This only works if you don't use tty8 for a normal text console, i.e. you may not have an entry like
    8:23:respawn:/sbin/getty 38400 tty8
    in your /etc/inittab file.
  • You can also type startx -- :2 to start a third X11 session etc.

Comments

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Wed, 2007-01-31 11:31 — ichselbst (not verified)

Second monitor

How to direct the second X11-session to another display-device (second monitor on my laptop)?

Wed, 2007-01-31 19:31 — Uwe Hermann

Second monitor

Hm, not sure. I think you need Xinerama for this (do a Google search, please).

Uwe.

Sat, 2011-03-19 20:47 — Anonymous (not verified)

the screen command

the screen command particularly xorg,conf