Tried that following the tutorial, Fluxbox, Blackbox and Windowmaker crashed Xnest, Twm, FVWM2 worked, I could even start xfwm4 and Kwin.
You possibly want to set the resolution for Xnest manually using the -geometry option to be able to use the full screen space (or your desired size, of course), it will not resize automatically if the window is resized.

Something I should have known and just now figured out, helped by the link TobiSGD posted (maybe it will help the OP):

If xdmcp is enabled on your system (it wasn't on mine) you can use the command
to get a login prompt in a window, which becomes a desktop in a window once you login. The 1 is the display number created, so vary that when creating others.

To enable xdmcp see if you can find distribution and version specific help. What worked on my Centos 6.5 was editing /etc/gdm/custom.conf and finding the line
and inserting the following line below it:

Just found out about Xephyr, also installed by default in Slackware, which supports resizing using xrandr and advanced functions like compositing and Xinerama.

I am lost a bit here in the begining of using xnest. I installed it, but I have no idea what or how to enter an x-session. I think I can follow the rest of the directions on the link. I am pretty excited to get this up and running I think this may be what I am looking for.
One more; I installed ratpoison but I cannot locate it, how do I use it?
Thank you,
Jonnynitro138
At the moment I am using linuxmint 16 kde.

What happens if you open a terminal and give the command
If you get a blank window, that probably means xdmcp is disabled. If you get error messages back in the terminal window used to launch Xnest, those may be informative (if the problem is something other than xdmcp disabled).

I tried Xephyr based on the advice in other posts. So far it seems to be like Xnest but resizable, which is a useful difference.

I do get a blank screen that has Xnet on the top of it.
How do I enable xdmcp?

You don't need to start an XDMCP session - that would require you to login on each xnest.

Just direct it to start the window manager - I would suggest a lightweight one like twm, or maybe e16 due to the possible software rendering done.

You don't need to start xdmcp, just start a lightweight window manager on it.

It has been a while since I played with Xephyr, but this may help. http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ml#post4008434
It shows how you can have a window manager (I used WindowMaker) running in a Xephyr server in a desktop environment (KDE).

Having piqued my interest, I have played some more.
In the attached screenshot you can see WindowMaker running on a 1280x1024 display. Within are two Xephyr sessions running WindowMaker. These were started from separate shells using:
in the first shell, and
in the second shell.
Note: By using exec, the starting shell is automatically closed when the Xephyr session is closed.

I had to manually move the windows into position. I have not found a method to specify the position on start up.

These Xephyr sessions can be made full screen using:
and returned to original size using:
If you wanted to do this a lot, it would be easy to add these commands into the right click menu.

The only problem that I have found to date in my limited testing is that you cannot copy and paste between sessions.

Attached Thumbnails

 

Thanks. That is the kind of "cookbook" instructions I was asking for.

If I understand correctly wmaker is filling the role of gdm on my system and probably kdm on the OP's system (or is it at the gnome or kde level)? So the OP might need less install and learning if he uses kdm instead of wmaker.

Ignoring learning and install overhead, using a different desktop inside Xephyr than outside might avoid problems will colliding config files.

Similarly Xephyr should be largely interchangeable with Xnest except that Xnest won't resize its contents.

Given the basic command that works, I or the OP could generalize to other features by looking at the man page for wmaker (or kdm) and the man page for Xephyr (or Xnest).

Thank you all for the great support. I will get to this more intently after family leaves, they have been here for almost a week.
Happy New Year!!!!
Jonnynitro138

wmaker is a window manager. It does not do what gdm does - which is only to setup for and start a login. In the case of wmaker the user is already logged in (running xnext), thus no need to login.
Depends on the config files. Some applications work for multiple desktops, and those would still have common configuration files. If you are referring to the desktop itself, yes they would tend to have separate configuration files.
There is also the difference that Xephyr does support hardware acceleration if the underlying X server has acceleration.
Note that kdm is a login manager where wmaker is a window manager. Now that really only has security implications when the user logged in using kdm (under Xnest or Xephyr) is subject to monitoring by the user logged in that is hosting the Xephyr/Xnest display.

I experimented with what has been so far. This is what I got. johnsfine produced a black screen, which had my mouse turn into an x when it passed over it. allend produced a screen that disapeared quickly and with it the konsole, this was using 'exec xinit /usr/bin/wmaker -- /usr/bin/Xephyr :1 -screen 600x960'. Then when I used 'xrandr -s 1280x1024' I lost one monitor and 1280x1024 became my resolution on the other monitor. I did reset these changes and have both monitors back and at the proper resolutions. I think that I am missing something or I made an error along the way. I am going to review everything and try again. This is fun, thank you. I am gaining a new understanding of window managment.
Jonnynitro138

I did get two xnet screens to come up, (good start). I even got one to give me a menue when I right ckick on the screen. I cannot use any of the menu selections though. But yes johnsfine is spot on for what I am looking for.

Try without the 'exec' part of the command so that the konsole is preserved. You may see an error message that will give you a clue as why it is failing.