1. By directly specifying the host to connect to ( Direct query ).

2. Broadcast a request over the network which is taken up by the first

server to respond.

3. Make a indirect query where the client connects to a specific server

which in turn provides it with a list of servers that offer X logins. The

client selects the server to connect to from the list and then connects to

that server. Direct queries are fine over a small network.

Next edit the Xservers file. There should be a line that looks like

:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X :0 vt07. (SuSE)

:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X (Red Hat)

This line defines the virtual terminal that xdm will start on by default.

Comment this line out if you need the services of xdm but do not want it

to take up a terminal at startup.

That's it. If xdm is running then restart it with killall -HUP xdm.

Now for the client. The first thing to do is to setup the local X server.

Make sure that your video card is supported by and able to run X. Use

xf86config or the X setup tool that your distribution provides to set it

up. Red Hat has Xconfigurator and SuSE has Sax. After X is setup, all that

a client will need to run X -query xserver.

e.g. - X -query foobar or X -query 192.168.0.12

What's given above is a direct query where I have specified the server

that I want to connect to.

For broadcast queries use: X -broadcast

The first server running xdm that responds will be the one you connect to.

For indirect queries: X -indirect foobar

On connecting to foobar, it will provide me with a list of willing hosts

on the network. Select the one you want to connect to and login there.

Replace xserver with the hostname or IP address of the server that you

will be connecting to. You will be prompted with a login box. Just login

to the server with a login/password pair that is valid on the server and

you will be given access. Now you can run any applications that you want

on the server. Only the display will be exported to you.

If everything is working then you might want to ensure that xdm is started

on the server at every boot. In most distributions you can just modify

/etc/inittab to start xdm at boot. Open /etc/inittab and go down till you

see a line like the one below

id:2:initdefault:

Change the '2' entry here to the runlevel where xdm will be started. This

would be 5 in the case of Red Hat and 3 for SuSE.