XDMCP - problem keeping sessions alive
 

Hi, I have a few machines running a distributed computing project 24/7 (folding@home), & I have recently set up XDMCP to manage them. Essentially I have a single management machine, which connects via XDMCP to the headless machines on my local network. I have created basic scripts to connect the 4 machines to display:2 through to display:5 & can hit ctrl-alt-F9 to F12 to keep an eye on these machines, which is a very tidy setup by my usual standards :)

Unfortunately I found the machines had dropped their sessions yesterday, and my scripts couldn't reconnect me as /tmp/X lockfiles were still present, is there any way I can force the X sessions to stay alive?

I also need the sessions to persist in the event that the monitoring machine is rebooted or the NIC in that box drops a few packets, so that when I reconnect I simply unlock my previous session, rather than being presented with the login screen anew.

If the connection drops again I will swap the onboard NIC in my monitoring machine with a pci 3com or maybe an intel NIC if I can find one amongst all the junk, which might cope with the load a little better - I noticed network utilisation was pretty high every now & then.

Thanks for reading,

Jim

You can use x11vnc instead. It can connect you where you last left off.

It's a good point, but I really like having sessions I can reach at any time with a simple ctrl-alt-F9 to F12 :) All has been well for the last day or two, I can see the switch is busy & the XDMCP connections are still alive, but if it drops again I might have to think about going the vnc route - thanks ramram.