College of ECT X Session -- Release Notes 8/95

XDM Changes

• Utilized HP's modified MIT xdm program (shipped with X terminal support), which includes support for HP Xterm floppies and returns the load average to XDMCP broadcast queries.
• All login sessions are MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE 1 authenticated. The old session only supported authentication on the X terminals (not workstations). The keys are generated by xdm, or by a program "randhex" called by xstart.
• Failsafe session. Pressing F1 instead of RETURN after the password invokes a "failsafe session", which is a single large hpterm (console if on a workstation) which bypasses the system and user xsession scripts. Fonts are the same as the session xterm default. Very useful for debugging a custom session.
• Handles "nonect", "ect", and "nologin" shells. Users whose accounts do not permit them to login to the host system are given an appropriate error in a dialog box. Formerly they were returned to the login window silently.
• /etc/nologin support. If this file exists, display its contents in an xdialog window and do not start the session.
• Support for separate .xsession and .xhp/xsession files. Users who have .xsession files are given a choice of maintaining it or going to the new environment. Either way, .xsession stays where it is for use on Suns or other older systems.

Session Changes

• Switched from the twm window manager to vuewm. On xterms, vuewm runs as a local client, saving memory on the support system (though slowing startup time to around 30 seconds, and making the "restart workspace manager" function unavailable). [9/95 xterm local client no longer run due to slow startup and 'rsh' security problems on xterms].
• Vuewm front panel includes support for "recall" actions on apps such as mosaic, netscape, lrom, xhpcalc, and datebook. Instead of running a new instance every time the button is pushed, vuewm deiconifies and focuses on an existing instance if available.
• Vuewm supports four virtual workspaces.
• Xlockmore program integrated into front panel.
• Blinking light on front panel when window manager is attempting to spawn processes (gives user feedback).
• Control panel "biff" which watches /n/mail/$LOGNAME (no locking used, therefore no root mount required). Front end shell scripts for pine, elm, and Mail record the host and application name in .lastmail. When the user clicks on the biff, this command is run in a window with "recall" set up. If the command is elm, it is run in an hpterm with HP softkeys and prev, next, home support. [Note: SIGHUP killing of elm causes changes to inbox to be lost, so one-time dialog warning added).
• If .lastmail doesn't exist, an xdialog instructs the user to activate the mail popup, choose a mail system, run pine and exit, then click the biff again. Windows on the mail popup are rlogin-based, so an appropriate error is displayed if they choose a system they don't have access to.
• "Personal Menu" in root menu allows user to create .xhp/menu.personal without modifying any other session files. If the file doesn't exist, the line is simply dimmed to indicate that it is not available. [9/95-- /tmp/errorlog.username is created by vuewm for users who haven't made a personal menu]
• Local xterm, ect-unix xterm, and common local apps such as mosaic, netscape, HP LaserROM, GlancePlus, etc., are available via popups. on the control panel.
• xstart now utilizes a font server (tcp/fontserv:7000) instead of the default local font path. This saves about 10MB of disk space on each workstation.

X Terminal Configuration Changes

• Bootptab host abbreviations removed. Local clients use the bootp-derived hostname and will not work if it is incorrect.
• Tftp security: access limited to the tftp pseudo-user, and by directory prefixes. /usr/adm/inetd.sec limits tftp connectivity to the local subnet.
• Xterm stuff (/usr/tftpdir) exported via NFS read-only to the world.
• Configuration access turned off on lab X terminals.
• Client authorize + Access Control turned on for use of MAGIC-COOKIE.
• Font path configured to point to a font server rather than NFS-exported font files. Font servers are run from /etc/inittab on machines acting as XDM servers.
• Timezone set to PST8PDT.
• Configuration files run through CPP and are RCS'ed.
• 'rsh' user equivalence extened only to root@{list of XDM servers}. This basically disables local clients unless they are wrapped in a setuid root program. The envisex floppy format command is wrapped in this way (/usr/chico/bin/format).
• List of host-specific config files searched for on server is minimized to decrease boot time.