In a previous message, Nick LeRoy
No, your X session processes and shell would be running on the downstairs machine, but your home directory, userid, etc, would all be the same as the upstairs machine, so it's somewhat irrelevant what machine you're sitting at
So, logging in via local gdm would log me into the local user, but with the home directory from the remote machine? That would be fine, I think. I'd just need to export a few other directories (e.g. /var/mail) so that things work. If I mount the NFS home share etc. at boot time, I don't quite see what benefit NIS would bring me if I've already got effectively an identical login on the two machines, assuming that I install the same software on both. John -- John Pettigrew Headstrong Games john@headstrong-games.co.uk Fun : Strategy : Price http://www.headstrong-games.co.uk/ Board games that won't break the bank Knossos: escape the ever-changing labyrinth before the Minotaur catches you!