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I tried to do it with the command startx 1. It seemed to flicker to a different screen momentarily, but then exited. Got the following error: 

/usr/bin/xterm: No absolute path found for shell: :1

Any ideas?

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42

I think you can do it with this:

$ startx -- :1

Note that you need to be on a text console. If you do this from an X session, you may not be authorized. First Ctrl+Alt+F1 to switch to a text console and log in there.

Press Ctrl+Alt+F7 and Ctrl+Alt+F8 to switch between the X sessions (the F key numbers may vary depending on your distribution).

If you want more control you can add more options to the command like so:

$ startx gnome-session -- :1 vt8

This will start up gnome-session on display :1 and run it on virtual console 8 (Ctrl+Alt+F8).

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  • 5
    Ugh, starting an X server with sudo causes everything within the X session to start with root privileges; this even causes some applications to fail. – Brian Peterson Aug 3 '13 at 3:29
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    @Bepetersn - I was surprised that you said you needed that. What happens without it? – slm♦ Aug 3 '13 at 3:30
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    @Bepetersn Run this from a text console, not from an X session. On Linux, press Ctrl+Alt+F1 first, log in, and run startx -- :1 from the shell prompt. – Gilles 'SO- stop being evil' Aug 3 '13 at 23:22
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    @Gilles - thank you for incorporating that into the answer! – slm♦ Aug 3 '13 at 23:47
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    Sorry, I forgot to respond @slm. If I run startx -- :1 from an X session, the terminal appears unresponsive for a bit, then tells me: xauth: timeout in locking authority file /var/run/gdm3/auth-for-brian-3zy5Hn/database, and fails a bit later with X: user not authorized to run the X server, aborting. During this time, nothing would come up in the 8th tty as you would expect. – Brian Peterson Aug 4 '13 at 6:08
4

I have found that the following way works for me:

sudo xinit /usr/bin/xterm  -e "su peter -c pekwm"  $* -- :1

What happening here?
First I start xinit with an xterm, as a parameter to that xterm I su to become myself. From there I start the window manager.
Only thing you need to do is minimize (not close) the xterm. Probably you could tell the xterm to start minimized—but I have not care enough to find that out.

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