Some tricks I've figuered out already.
My main reason for using Parallels, is to be able to use those browsers not native to OSX. Particularly IE and Konqueror. Since OSX native Konq is still buggy (but installable/runnable), linux seemed like the solution to this. But I don't really care for a full linux environment.
To that end:
To have X run at startup (not an issue for those of you that use more GUI-oriented distributions), simply include a
/usr/X11R86/bin/startx
In your ~/.bashrc file. As soon as you log in, it will start up.
Now, to not have to login at all, you'll want to make some alterations to your /etc/inittab file. Make sure you're using a getty like "mingetty" which should be available for most distros. Replace the console line with something like this:
c1:1235:respawn:/sbin/mingetty --autologin username tty1
Now, that will attempt to login automatically after bootup. Still, it will prompt you for a password. To remove that, you're going to need to open up /etc/passwd and look for the line that has your username.
Most systems that use password shadowing (which is pretty much all of them at this point), will have the line looking something like this:
username:x:5:5:group:/home/username:/bin/bash
All fields are delimited by colons, the second field will always be "x". Delete the "x" so that the line looks like this:
username::5:5:group:/home/username:/bin/bash
Now, that account will have no password. Autologin will login automatically, loading X immediately afterwards.
Now, to start Konqueror. I don't really want a full blown window manager, and technically, we don't need one at all, if we only want to run a single app. Open up ~/.xinitrc, and delete everything in it. Then replace with the following (maybe changing the path, if your distro installs Konq somewhere else):
#!/bin/bash
exec /opt/kde/bin/konqueror -geometry 1024x768-0+0
Change the geometry based on the resolution you've set X up with. The 0+0 positions it at the top left, btw. When starting X/Konq like this, there is no window manager. No titlebar up at the top of it, no borders... Konq *is* the window manager. For Parallels, this means it looks almost like an OSX app. You only see OSX's titlebar up there. If it weren't for the Parallels statusbar at the bottom, it *would* look like one.
Now, say you've screwed something up. You never get a chance to fix things, since it tries to do all this autologin stuff. Wait until Konq starts, then using the Location menu, quit Konq. This will drop you out of X (since you just killed the window manager). You can then make any changes you need to make from the console.
You can of course optimize the boot sequence to speed things up. Mine goes from start to Konqueror in less than 16 seconds. Getting it down to something like 5-10 seconds oughtta be possible.
If only I could get the mouse working in linux though, without screwing things up.
