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Date:      Mon, 13 Apr 1998 12:50:07 +0000
From:      Niall Smart <rotel@indigo.ie>
To:        "Kevin Liquori" <kliquori@ix.netcom.com>, "FreeBSD Questions" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: X, xinit, startx
Message-ID:  <199804131150.MAA00844@indigo.ie>
In-Reply-To: "Kevin Liquori" <kliquori@ix.netcom.com> "X, xinit, startx" (Apr 12, 10:36pm)

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On Apr 12, 10:36pm, "Kevin Liquori" wrote:
} Subject: X, xinit, startx
> What is the difference between the commands 'X', 'xinit' and 'startx'?
> I get some strange results:

> X - my system begins to load X windows and hangs on the gray screen before
> any actual windows appear.

This is what is supposed to happen, X is the X server, it just fires up
and waits for clients, such as "xterm" or "netscape" or "xclock" to connect.
These clients have to be started by you elsewhere, which brings us to
xinit:

> xinit - opens one borderless windows that appears to function fine

xinit is a shell utility which fires up the X server and executes
the .xinitrc in the users home directory if it exists, or executes an
xterm if it doesn't.  You obviously don't have a .xinitrc configured
hence you are getting the one xterm that it starts by default.
When the clients it starts exit then xinit kills the X server which
brings you back to console mode.  Create yourself an .xinitrc file
like this:

xterm &
exec twm

This should start a window manager which lets you move the windows
around, check out www.windowmaker.org for a decent window manager.

> startx - this is what I was looking for and just found it tonight thanks to
> a post on this list. Would this be                     	considered Motif?

No, Motif is a set of libraries for creating X apps.  startx is
basically a script which sets up your environment and then executes
xinit.

You should read the man pages for X, xinit and startx for more
information.



-- 
Niall Smart.  Microsoft Suck.  See www.freebsd.org for details.
echo "#define if(x) if(!(x))" >> /usr/include/stdio.h

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