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When an X session is initiated, the script ~/.xsession is executed, so you can put your initialization code there. This is X11's barebones initialization; window managers (eg. fluxbox) and desktop managers (GNOME, KDE etc.) each offer their own initialization scheme, you might want to check the proper documentation. For example, for GNOME on FC5 you would go to Main Menu > System > Preferences > More Preferences > Sessions and put there your startup programs.
Be aware that if you write down your own .xsession file, you will be responsible for doing _all_ X session management, which means starting {window|desktop} manager by hand etc. This is usually not trivial because you'll need to run specific daemons and programs at a specific order. So, please check the docs before choosing an approach.
say I wanted to always load an Xterm on workspace number 2
If you want apps on a particular workspace, then that will be window manager dependant. X itself doesn't (and can't) know anything about what your window manager calls "workspaces".
If you want apps on a particular workspace, then that will be window manager dependant. X itself doesn't (and can't) know anything about what your window manager calls "workspaces".
Well I thought that all this stuff would just be called by some script somewhere. Maybe not then.
If you just want to start some stuff, then it can go in a script (~/.xsession if you login via xdm, ~/.xinitrc if you startx from the cmdline). However, if you want apps on a particular workspace, then you'll need to configure that in your window manager, you don't say what you're using but most can be setup to start apps on a given workspace).
Ok sorry if I was a little confusing. I was hoping there would be some generic script that got loaded automatically independent of distribution - I wanted to make one script that I could then put on every (most) linux pc and it worked ok. The workpace application allocation seems to be a rubbish example.
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