Load different xorg.conf for different users or sessions

English Applications
#1

Is there a way to setup up different user accounts or different sessions so that they will load different xorg.conf files?
I already have 2 separate xorg.conf files I would like to use, but I haven’t found a way to have User-A load xorg.conf-A and User-B load xorg.conf-B.
Is there any way to do this?

Thanks in advance.

#2

I don’t think so because X is already running by the time you log in. However, I had a similar need to do this on my laptop, so I wrote a couple of small scripts to switch out the xorg.conf and restart X. Then I assigned the scripts to hotkeys in Compiz, so I can switch back and forth with a keystroke. For example, one script looks like this:


#!/bin/bash
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.internal-only /etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/init.d/xdm stop
sleep 2
/etc/init.d/xdm start

In my case, I’m using KDE, but I think you can substitute gdm for kdm if you’re using GNOME. The sleep 2 is important because I noticed KDM fails to restart if you do it too quickly. Note also that this script needs to run as root. In order to do that without prompting for a password, you need to run it with sudo and add a line like this to your /etc/sudoers:

your_username ALL=NOPASSWD:/path/to/script/scriptname

Replace “your_username” and the path to the script as appropriate.

Alternatively, I believe that you can specify a particular xorg.conf at boot time by adding a kernel parameter to the GRUB line that starts your system. If memory serves, the parameter looks like XORG=path/to/xorg.cong, but I haven’t done this in awhile, so you might have to google a little to get the syntax right.

#3

Thanks a lot for the response, using your idea I was able to write a script to swap out the xorg.conf files, but I’m having problems with the last few lines.
When I added the following lines:

/etc/init.d/xdm stop
sleep 2
/etc/init.d/xdm start

I got stuck in runlevel 3 and had to restart X from the command line, I also tried increasing the sleep time, but got the same result.

Any ideas?

#4

That’s very weird. Stopping xdm should not change the runlevel from 5. Are you executing your script from within an X session?

BTW- I misspoke before when I mentioned changing the script to use “gdm” or “kdm”. I think “xdm” should cover both.

#5

Yep, I was running it from within an Xsession.

After looking around for a few minutes I found a different want to restart X, namely just forcefully logging out the user by adding:

pkill KILL -u username

The odd thing is that even with this command I get sent back to runlevel 3, before it goes to the login screen, but at least it works :smiley:

Thanks for the help rhasselbaum.