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[solved] going into shock after running startx
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jeffr0
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:14 am    Post subject: [solved] going into shock after running startx Reply with quote

On cygwin, startx brings up a little in-color console. startx on my just-finished gentoo install brings up a weird looking desktop with a few terminals and a floating clock. Is there some cool configuration I don't know about or something else to make it a little more... uh... desktopish... or is this what it's supposed to be? I think I must be running the plainest/simplest version or somthing....

KDE and Gnome are too big for my hardware, so I guess X is my main option, right? [Fluxbox is probably my best bet, I think.]

I take it I can start a long emerge command in one of the terminals and then jump over to another terminal to hack around while it runs-- right? [Yep... this is working. Yea!]

How do I get out of X and get back to the original terminal?

Is there a basic guide somewhere on how to use X? Preferably one that doesn't require an IBM id or anything....


Last edited by jeffr0 on Thu Jun 26, 2008 6:39 am; edited 2 times in total
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VoidMage
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you're looking for something small try combining openbox and rox-session,
just be careful, rox-base/rox with video useflag pulls something nasty (mplayer, I think),
so you may want to unset it.

I use that mainly due to the fact that it handles UTF-8 correctly,
some of the simpler don't.
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skellr
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 9:37 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

yeah, the Window Manager that starts with the terminals and the clock is TWM. that gets installed with xorg and is the default WM for "Xsession" witch is a fallback session if nothing else can be found. TWM has a simple menu if you middle-click, or you could use Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to forcefully kill X.

Here is a Gentoo Xorg guide.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml

Fluxbox would be reasonable, it won't even pull in gtk+.
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jeffr0
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My current routine is to type startx once I've logged in.

This brings up a few terminal screens. One is so big it goes off the bottom of the screen and I can't resize it. What to do!

If I close these terminals, then X shuts down. This seems a little dangerous... is there a way to hide them or have them hidden automatically?

Once into X, click to get a menu and stop X. The GUI changes to a low-key version.... Then I type fluxbox in a terminal.

This is a really weird way to get to fluxbox....

Is there some sort of script I need to set things up?
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skellr
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 11:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

jeffr0 wrote:
This brings up a few terminal screens. One is so big it goes off the bottom of the screen and I can't resize it. What to do!

If I close these terminals, then X shuts down. This seems a little dangerous... is there a way to hide them or have them hidden automatically?

:lol: that really long terminal is the one that logs you out when you close it. heh, it would be the annoying one that does it too. Murphys law. you can forget about TWM now that you have fluxbox installed.

You can set the XSESSION variable to fluxbox and startx will start "fluxbox" instead of "Xsession" This is from the openrc migration guide.
Quote:
XSESSION

The XSESSION variable is no longer found in /etc/rc.conf. The x11-apps/xinit package now provides /etc/env.d/90xsession, which can be used to set the XSESSION variable.

This variable will NOT be migrated for you by default, so you will need to edit /etc/env.d/90xsession.

Important: You must run env-update after creating a file in /etc/env.d, and then logout and login for it to take effect.


openrc is still in testing but there will be a switch sooner or later. the XSESSION variable will work just as well in /etc/env.d even if you don't have openrc installed, and it's commented out by default in /etc/rc.conf. so this should do it
Code:
echo 'XSESSION="fluxbox"' >> /etc/env.d/90xsession

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skellr
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 12:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ohh wait... your on Cygwin.
Try making an .xinitrc file in your HOME directory with startxfluxbox written in it. I think it's called startfluxbox anyway.
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jeffr0
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 1:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

No not cygwin. Gentoo on my Windows-free laptop now. I was using cygwin before to spy out the land.... ;)

And... your tip is dead on.

Fluxbox looks great now, behaves more like I think it should, and runs automatically with a startx command.

I am so happy!
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skellr
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PostPosted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 3:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Welcome to Gentoo.

Now you won't get anyting done as there are too many things to play around with. :)
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