Ratpoison on Mythbuntu

Ratpoison is great for HTPC usage. Here's how you get it working on Mythbuntu with GDM (will probably work for others, untested).

$ sudo apt-get install ratpoison
$ sudo cp /usr/share/mythbuntu/session.sh /usr/share/mythbuntu/ratpoison-session.sh

then edit /usr/share/mythbuntu/ratpoison-session.sh and change the last line from:

exec startxfce4

to:

exec ratpoison

Next:

$ sudo cp /usr/share/xsessions/mythbuntu.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/ratpoison.desktop

...then change the Exec entry to:

Exec=/usr/share/mythbuntu/ratpoison-session.sh

Then edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf to look something like:

/etc/gdm/custom.conf

 [daemon]
 AutomaticLoginEnable=true
 AutomaticLogin=your-mythtv-user
 TimedLoginEnable=true
 TimedLogin=your-mythtv-user
 TimedLoginDelay=10
 DefaultSession=ratpoison
 

...or if you're on Oneiric and using LightDM:

/etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

 [SeatDefaults]
 autologin-guest=false
 autologin-user=your-mythtv-user
 autologin-user-timeout=0
 autologin-session=lightdm-autologin
 user-session=ratpoison
 allow-guest=false
 #autologin-user=
 

My .ratpoisonrc contains:

~/.ratpoisonrc

escape C-r
addhook switchwin banish
exec /usr/bin/xset -dpms >/dev/null
exec /usr/bin/xset s off >/dev/null
exec /usr/bin/mythfrontend --service