> ok, i've got x working reasonably well, but now i want it to do the
> following (for which all suggestions will be gratefully ..er attempted.)

Cool.

> 1. when i run xdm, i do not want it to come up on the server box's
> screen. i want it to run in the backgnd

Why do you want it to run in the background?  If you want to use xdm, 
don't you want to log in with it?  (There may be a -daemon flag to xdm 
that will do this, tho, check the man pages)

> 2. when i type startx, i want it to automatically do twm& by itself
> after i'm logged in, not have to be told each time

Take a look at the startx script.  You will probably notice that it 
checks for a .xinitrc file in your home directory.  All you have to do, 
really, is create such a file and have it run whatever X commands you 
wish, including your window manager.

> 3. i want twm to really save the state of the session when i log out
> - the save state thing in .twmrc does not do this.

You might try ctwm instead.  I think that it behaves a little better on 
this one.

> 4. i want to set the default font of xterm to be smaller than it is by
> default, and i want it to automatically show a scroll bar. how to?

You can change this by changing the xterm x-resources in one of several 
places (depending on how you start X):  in 
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/XTerm, in $HOME/.Xdefaults, or in 
$HOME/.Xresources (if you have your system set up to handle the last 
one).  To add a scrollbar, I think the line is:

XTerm*scrollbar:	on

I'm not sure how to change the default font, but if you read the xterm 
manual page, it should describe the widget hierarchy and xresources for 
the xterm application.

I hope this helps.

Later.

-- 
Colin Wood                                      ender@is.rice.edu
Consultant                                        Rice University
Information Technology Services                       Houston, TX