<HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >Running XFree86</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.63 "><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="The Linux XFree86 HOWTO" HREF="index.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Configuring XFree86" HREF="x111.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Translations" HREF="x163.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >The Linux XFree86 HOWTO</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x111.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" ></TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x163.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="AEN121" >5. Running XFree86</A ></H1 ><P >With your <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >XF86Config</TT > file configured, you're ready to fire up the X server and give it a spin. First, be sure that <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/usr/X11R6/bin</TT > is on your path.</P ><P >The command to start up XFree86 is</P ><TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" >startx</PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P >This is a front-end to <B CLASS="COMMAND" >xinit</B > (in case you're used to using <B CLASS="COMMAND" >xinit</B > on other UNIX systems).</P ><P >This command will start the X server and run the commands found in the file <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > in your home directory. <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > is just a shell script containing X clients to run. If this file does not exist, the system default <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc</TT > will be used.</P ><P >A standard <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > file looks like this:</P ><TABLE BORDER="1" BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0" WIDTH="100%" ><TR ><TD ><FONT COLOR="#000000" ><PRE CLASS="SCREEN" >#!/bin/sh xterm -fn 7x13bold -geometry 80x32+10+50 & xterm -fn 9x15bold -geometry 80x34+30-10 & oclock -geometry 70x70-7+7 & xsetroot -solid midnightblue & exec fvwm2 </PRE ></FONT ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><P >This script will start up two <B CLASS="COMMAND" >xterm</B > clients, an <B CLASS="COMMAND" >oclock</B >, and set the root window (background) color to <B CLASS="COMMAND" >midnightblue</B >. It will then start up <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B >, the window manager. Note that <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B > is executed with the shell's <B CLASS="COMMAND" >exec</B > statement; this causes the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >xinit</B > process to be replaced with <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B >. Once the <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B > process exits, the X server will shut down. You can cause <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B > to exit by using the root menus: depress mouse button 1 on the desktop background -- this will display a pop up menu which will allow you to <B CLASS="COMMAND" >Exit Fvwm2</B >.</P ><P >Be sure that the last command in <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > is started with <B CLASS="COMMAND" >exec</B >, and that it is not placed into the background (no ampersand on the end of the line). Otherwise the X server will shut down as soon as it has started the clients in the <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > file.</P ><P >Alternately, you can exit X by pressing <SPAN CLASS="KEYSYM" >ctrl-alt-backspace</SPAN > in combination. This will kill the X server directly, exiting the window system.</P ><P >The above is a very, very simple desktop configuration. Many wonderful programs and configurations are available with a bit of work on your <TT CLASS="FILENAME" >.xinitrc</TT > file.</P ><P >If you are new to the X Window System environment, we strongly suggest picking up a book such as <EM >The Joy of X: An Overview of the X Window System</EM > by Niall Mansfield (Addison-Wesley 1993, ISBN 0201-565129). Using and configuring X is far too in-depth to cover here. See the man pages for <B CLASS="COMMAND" >xterm</B >, <B CLASS="COMMAND" >oclock</B >, and <B CLASS="COMMAND" >fvwm2</B > for clues on getting started.</P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x111.html" >Prev</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="index.html" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x163.html" >Next</A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Configuring XFree86</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" > </TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Translations</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >