[buug] automating stuff

[Robert Smith]

I am relatively new to the *nix world. I am playing with RH7.1 to gain 
experience. My problem is an obtuse but not critical one.

In an industrial Thin-wire Ethernet environment, I am running RH7.1 on a 300 
MHz Pentium along with a Sun SPARCstation running OS 5.5.1 and OpenWindows 
3.5.1. The RH7 box is going to be acting as a display for a process which is 
actually running on the SPARC. I have figured out how to automate the RH7 
side. I added "startx" to the end of the /root/.bash_profile file. I tweaked 
the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc file as follows:

#!/bin/sh
xterm -e xhost +
exec wmaker

When root logs in, X-windows starts and an x-terminal session fires up and 
executes xhost + which allows the display to be used by others. The 
x-terminal session closes before wmaker fires up. I chose wmaker because of 
its minimal interface.

On the SPARCside, I have to issue the following commands within an 
x-terminal window:

DISPLAY=172.16.64.104:0.0
export DISPLAY

Any command I issue from within the SPARC x-terminal window will run on the 
SPARC but be displayed on the RH7 box; exactly what I'm looking for. So now 
the reason I'm writing this note:

First of all, is that a valid solution to the problem? Is there a simpler 
way?

Second, how can I automate what happens on the SPARC? I'm not that familiar 
with their GUI. It would appear that the RH7 box has to be up before the 
SPARC for this to work. After the two commands, I'd like to add the actual 
command for the program to begin.

Third, is it possible to have the RH7 box fire up automatically -- no manual 
log in? I know that violates the Prime Directive. It's a nice-to-have not a 
need-to-have.

Thanking you all in advance for your advice and expertise, I remain

your humble and obedient servant,

Robert G. Smith
rgs05&hotmail.com
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