Running program in separate X display
It may often be handy to run some program in separate X display. I.e. 3D games for gaining performance, or making alt+tab-style switching possible with ctrl+alt+[F7-F12].
The simplest way would be:
xinit appname -- :10
Basic script
But if you have ~/.xinitrc in place, you should use full path to app to override it. Also there can be some environment variables and X options to pass. So the smart way would be to pack it all into a wrapper:
#!/bin/bash # use this vt: # first available VT LVT=`fgconsole --next-available` #LVT=7 # use this display number NEWDISP=":10" # test if executable exists [ -x "$(which $* 2> /dev/null)" ] if [ "$?" != "0" ] ; then echo "No such executable!" # if running from X, display zenity dialog: [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] || zenity --error --text="No such executable!" 2> /dev/null exit 127 fi # if runing from X, display zenity dialog: [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] || zenity --question --title "Launch?" --text="Will launch \"$*\" on tty$LVT. Continue?" 2> /dev/null || exit 1 echo "Will launch \"$*\" on tty$LVT..." [ -z "$DISPLAY" ] && sleep 1s # this flag is used for indicating unaccessible or broken DRI. # it is set, for example, when using fglrx+compiz-manager # Some games will refuse to start if it is set. # unsetting it should not do any harm, and can be useful. unset LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT ########################################################## # main execution line with automatic full path retrieval. xinit "$(which $* 2> /dev/null)" -- $NEWDISP vt$LVT -nolisten tcp -br & ########################################################## # set our new dislplay DISPLAY=$NEWDISP # wait some timefor X to load sleep 4s # then we set useful parameters # disable non-linear mouse acceleration xset m 1 0 # disable hard-coded default 10m screensaver xset s 0 0 # while X is running, persistently do something useful # i.e. prevent apps from enabling mouse acceleration and screensaver while xset -q > /dev/null do xset m 1 0 xset s 0 0 sleep 3s done wait sleep 5
General principle: set variables before xinit line, and xset parameters after.
Save it as /usr/bin/xrun
After that launching app in separate X display should be as easy as typing
xrun appname
remove lines containing zenity, if you do not have zenity installed.
--Psycho zs 13:02, 18 December 2010 (EST)