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I'd like to have 2 VT's running, one on VT7 with the standard lightdm + unity interface and another on VT8 running a custom script which will launch a virtual machine in full screen.

At the moment I've tried writing an init.d script with no luck and I can't find any details on a configuration file which will allow me to start 2 servers.

I suppose my ideal answer would be one which points me to a config file I can edit to start up an additional server.

Edit - I forgot to mention in the text that I already know how to start another X session: I'd like this to start automatically at boot.

jackweirdy
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  • startx -- :n will start another X server on VTn. – Samik Jun 23 '12 at 12:52
  • Actually that doesn't, it starts a display with number n. To start on VTn, you need to run startx -- :1 VTn – jackweirdy Jun 23 '12 at 13:06
  • The classic answer is to modify a line in /etc/ttys but this file appears to have been supplanted in non-ancient versions of Ubuntu (by /etc/console-setup). Maybe an equivalent would be to edit /etc/init/tty6.conf and add your X incantation? I don't have time to explore this and provide a detailed answer. – Alex Hirzel Jun 25 '12 at 15:30
  • @AlexHirzel Not tried it yet but from memory that's what I'm looking for. I'll give it a shot in a moment. – jackweirdy Jun 25 '12 at 15:58
  • Any word on this? Just curious because I have become interested in the same setup! – Alex Hirzel Jun 27 '12 at 04:00

2 Answers2

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Yes, it is possible. I do it for games.

xinit session -- :1 -xf86config config.conf

Where session should be replaced by the session you'd like to start in the new Xorg display, and config.conf is the configuration file.

For starting it automatically, take a look at this answer.

Community
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RobinJ
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  • I've already tried the rc.d method with no luck :/ – jackweirdy Jun 25 '12 at 15:15
  • @jackweirdy Doesn't it work when you put the script in /etc/init.d/? Don't forget to make it executable. – RobinJ Jun 25 '12 at 15:17
  • Tried that before. The main X instance wouldn't start and my PC kept rebooting. I'll paste the script in a bit, but it worked fine when executed post-login. – jackweirdy Jun 25 '12 at 15:18
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    @jackweirdy Does this work? http://askubuntu.com/questions/74189/run-a-startup-script-with-lightdm – RobinJ Jun 25 '12 at 15:19
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    That solved it, thanks :D If you could change your answer to include a link to that it'll probably help anyone who comes to view this question at a later date :D – jackweirdy Jun 29 '12 at 16:40
  • This sounds cool. What is the benefit of doing it for games? – isomorphismes Oct 13 '17 at 20:09
  • @isomorphismes Not sure whether there's still massive advantages nowadays but back then it helped because there was no resource-intensive composited desktop environment being processed on the same Xorg instance as the game was running on. – RobinJ Oct 18 '17 at 10:18
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I am not sure about a config file that you can edit, but I do know how to start another X server. Assuming n is the TTY number that you want to start the X server on, the command is 

startx -display :2 -- :2 vtn &

You will then get a small white terminal window on that TTY that you can move your mouse in. From there, you need to run the command to start a window manager (e.g. gnome-session) from that TTY.

Aaron Hill
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