Red Hat Knowledgebase

It is possible to have multiple desktops running. If you have the GNOME Desktop Manager installed, the program gdmflexiserver makes it very simple.

Note: This article assumes that you have the default GNOME Desktop Manager installed. If it is not installed, you can install it using up2date in a terminal:

 
up2date -i gdm
                       

The up2date command above requires that your system be registered with Red Hat Network (RHN) and connected to the Internet. Information on how to register your system with RHN and how to install packages is available in other Knowledgebase articles.

gdmflexiserver can launch additional desktops two ways - nested and non-nested. To launch a nested desktop, open a terminal and type the command gdmflexiserver -n. This will result in a new desktop being launched, nested within a new window on your current desktop.

To launch a non-nested desktop, simply run the program in a terminal without the -n option i.e., gdmflexiserver . The new desktop will be started in the next available virtual terminal. By default the first desktop is usually launched in virtual terminal 7, so the new one should be available in virtual terminal 8. To access that terminal, you need to press and hold the control and alt keys, and also hit the F8 key (Ctrl+Alt+F8). To return to the original desktop, use the sequence Ctrl+Alt+F7.

gdmflexiserver will launch a whole new session, for both nested and non-nested, giving you the opportunity to login as a different user. The original desktop will be locked ( will appear as blank screen ) till the non-nested display is closed. To workaround this, login using --no-lock option with gdmflexiserver command.

Alternatively, it is possible to run multiple display session. Edit /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf file to allow multiple login server instances to start. There will be a section like this:

[servers]
# These are the standard servers.  You can add as many you want here
# and they will always be started.  Each line must start with a unique
# number and that will be the display number of that server.  Usually just
# the 0 server is used.
0=Standard
#1=Standard

Just uncomment the line :

1=Standard