Date:        Fri, 7 Jun 2002 10:36:42 +0100
    From:        xs@kittenz.org
    Message-ID:  <20020607093641.GA2049@meltdown.kittenz.org>

  | on Fri, Jun 07, 2002 at 09:12:49AM +0000, Jared D. McNeill wrote:
  | > "Brian A. Seklecki" wrote:
  | > 
  | > > In the mean time, is there a reason why the default system doesn't ship w/
  | > > all 8 (7?) virtual screen/display's enabled?
  | > 
  | > XFree86 needs an unused virtual screen. What I like to do is to have
  | > getty running on ttyE[0-5], reserve ttyE6 for X, and have syslog dump
  | > everything on ttyE7.
  | 
  | Is this still the case with XFree86 4.2.0? I'm using it without a spare
  | tty and it just uses the tty that it was launched on.

That's true for older X as well - but works only if X is actually run from
a tty, otherwise it simply "steals" one from somewhere else, and things
don't work as well.

Allowing people to do "xdm=YES" in rc.conf without having to go fiddle
other things in the default configuration is worthwhile I think, keeps the
"why doesn't this work" factor down low - and 4 ttyE's enabled by default
is easily enough for most people.

kre

ps: I tend to keep two ttyE's free for 2 X servers, one often run from
xdm (which I stick on :9 because it's easy...) and one to use with startx
when experimenting, or if someone else wants to play for a while (though
using the ttyE? the startx was run from would work OK for that I guess).
I am certainly not suggesting that the NetBSD default be set to match
my convenience however.