Qingy

Qingy (Qingy Is Not GettY) is a replacement for getty. Written in C, it uses DirectFB to provide a fast, nice GUI without the overhead of the X Windows System. It allows the user to log in and start the session of his choice (text console, gnome, kde, wmaker, ...).

Installation
Install :

Keypair
qingy requires keypairs to run. to generate keys:

inittab
After successful installation edit the file and replace following section:

with following entries:

Configuration File
This is default qingy's configuration as shipped with gentoo:

Display Managers
Remove xdm from the default startup level, otherwise it will fight with qingy for screen control at system boot-up, with nasty results...

Starting qingy
Now either reboot the system or use following commands:

After successful authentication qingy will list contents of directory like below: Welcome, $USER, please select a session... (a) dwm (b) fvwm (c) Your .xsession (d) Text: Console Your choice (just press ENTER for 'Text: Console'):

You might want to try starting Xsession in each tty, which works fine. Finally you could switch with ++ - key combination, between different X sessions.

Troubleshooting
If qingy hangs, you can not login, press ++ to get a agetty spawned terminal.

External resources

 * 'http://qingy.sourceforge.net/faq.php#Gentoo specific'
 * http://qingy.sourceforge.net/manual.php