On Tue, Jun 17, 2003 at 10:59:24AM -0700, George Gambill wrote:

> The other day I used SSH to log into a remote (local on the lan)
> computer as user (not root) and wound up at the command line.  This
> box normally boots to the KDE login screen and was setting there
> waiting for a login.
> 
> I wanted to make changes to the properties of an Icon on user's
> desktop.  I issued "startx" and it failed.  I think Linux only likes
> one GUI (KDE) running at a time.  If true, the failure makes sense.

You are correct in saying that only one window manager may run on a
given X server at a time.

There may be a simpler way of doing this, but here is my shot at it:

=====

Edit your local .xinitrc to contain only: "exec xterm"

`startx -- :1` to start a new X window server on a new virtual
terminal.  At this point, Ctl-Alt-F7 and Ctl-Alt-F8 usually switch
between the original X session and the new one, respectively.  If not,
try terminals eight and nine.

You should now see an xterm without a window manager.  SSH into the
remote computer and issue startx.

When you are finished, either close the original xterm window or use
the key sequence Ctl-Alt-Backspace to close the second X server.

=====

Good luck!

-- 
                                                           Voltage Spike
      ,,,
     (. .)
--ooO-(_)-Ooo--