The recent x11-apps/xdm-1.1.9 includes a dependency for x11-apps/xconsole. The xconsole is used to display log messages on the xdm login screen. However, at least on my setup, the xconsole does not quit automatically after logging in. Since it is owned by root, I cannot kill(1) it in my .xinitrc either. I'm able to quit xconsole using the "close window" button or shortcut as soon as my window manager is alive, but having to do that manually on each login is a pain. Therefore I suggest to make xconsole optional. And since everybody loves enhancement requests where the requestor has already done the work, I'll attach a patch in a moment.
Created attachment 208197 [details, diff] patch for xdm-1.1.9.ebuild The attached patch introduces an "xconsole" USE flag. If the flag is set, the Ebuild will behave as it already does. If it is unset, x11-apps/xconsole will not be a dependency, and the Xsetup_0 file that launches xconsole will become "empty". (You cannot simply remove it, as xdm will complain.) The patch works fine on my system. You might as well get my x11-apps/xdm-1.1.9-r1 Ebuild from my overlay (see http://scytale.name/proj/overlay/), which also fixes bug #286350.
Honestly, we're just shipping xdm because some people still use it (don't know exactly why, really...). As far as we (Gentoo X team) are concerned, xdm is unmaintained beyond compile issues. Since there are so few releases, feel free to keep the ebuild in a local overlay, I'm pretty sure you won't have to change it very often. Thanks nonetheless for the patch, we appreciate it :)
