Date:        Sat, 6 Apr 2002 17:36:01 +0200
    From:        Ingolf Steinbach <ingolf@steinba.ch>
    Message-ID:  <200204061558.g36Fwivj002693@jello277.jellocom.de>

  | Is it normal that the X servers won't be able to start until
  | the corresponding screen is active?

Yes, it is normal (if irritating).  I gave up on starting the 2nd server
with xdm, and just start (a second) one with startx when it is needed.
That way everything works fine when the system boots unattended.

  | After both X servers have successfully been started, I do not
  | experience such problems (hangs) even when one of the X
  | servers is left in the "background" for a long time.

Yes, it is just an initialisation thing - the server apparently needs
to have control of the graphics card to get started.   You'd think that
if that wasn't available, the server could just wait a while, and either
try again, or get told when the graphics had become available (the first
time you actually switch to the other server), but it doesn't, if it
doesn't get access quickly (reasonably quickly) it assumes the world is
broken, and fails.

kre