Switching between desktop modes with one user account

[Brian McKee]

On Tue, Sep 1, 2009 at 7:26 PM, Dave M G<martin at autotelic.com> wrote:
> There has to be a decent way of doing this:
>
> Every couple of days I have to use Remote Desktop Viewer to allow a
> coworker to see my desktop so we can collaborate on a project.
>
> Unfortunately, Remote Desktop (VNC), can not handle Compiz, which I
> prefer to use. So I have to switch window managers to Metacity (Gnome)
> or Xfwm4 (Xubuntu).

Start a second session
e.g. (Untested)
Create in your home folder a .xinitrc file with just the command to
start your chosen window mananger (startxfce4 in your case MAYBE,
haven't tried) then from a console, startx -- :1

See http://www.informit.com/library/content.aspx?b=red_hat_linux7&seqNum=44

I'm assuming you are running gnome under compiz, so starting another
gnome session will start another compiz session.

Also, you could consider installing vncserver and running that from a
console.  It should start a second x session and then both you and
your coworker could VNC in.

Let me know if you can't get either option to work and I can test a
bit more when I'm in front of an Ubuntu box I can twiddle with.

Brian

-- 
All you need to know about Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty -> gconftool -s --type
bool /apps/update-notifier/auto_launch false