[SOLVED] How to start pure X?

Xywa · Last edited by Xywa on Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:04 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi,

How to start pure X system (without KDE or Gnome)? I use Gentoo for 10 years and I remember it used to be such pure old fashion looking X-system.

I am basing on this guide:
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Xorg/Guide

For Today, I can start KDE, but when I mask in .xinitrc

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

Why would you want to do that?

If you really insist then the command is X or Xorg but you won't like it. You will get a wonderful black screen with black mouse cursor and no way to do anything.

If you want the test, that is Xorg -retro which gives you the test screen and no way to exit. Best to run Xorg -retro & sleep 200 && killall X so you end up back at your console.

If you are thinking of the simple (and ugly) windows with a few floating X terms, that is the x11-wm/twm window manager with (unsurprisingly) the x11-terms/xterm terminal.
_________________
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.

Apologies if I take a while to respond. I'm currently working on the dematerialization circuit for my blue box.

papas · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 7:00 am Post subject:

I had similar problems, during installation, because of this:

"If no window manager has been installed a solid black screen will appear. Since this can also be a sign that something is wrong, the x11-wm/twm and x11-terms/xterm packages can be installed only to test X.

Once the programs are installed, run startx again. A few xterm windows should appear, making it easy to verify the X server is working correctly. Once satisfied with the results, unmerge x11-wm/twm and x11-terms/xterm if installed in the step above to remove the testing packages. They will not be needed to setup a proper desktop environment. "

Xywa · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 7:05 am Post subject:

charles17 · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2008 Posts: 3664

Xywa · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:09 am Post subject: Re: How to start pure X?

Proinsias · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 8:52 pm Post subject:

I think xorg-xclock is part of the default xinit startup alongside xterm & twm.

The Doctor · Moderator Joined: 27 Jul 2010 Posts: 2678

Tony0945 · Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 11:02 pm Post subject: Re: How to start pure X?

Xywa · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 8:04 am Post subject:

Many thank,

May question was about xterm. I know now, so sorry for my lack of knowledge.

[SOLVED]

Athenian200 · Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 3:51 am Post subject:

You can technically run X without a Window Manager. But you have to execute a program of some kind in order to do anything, even if it's just an Xterm. It need not be an Xterm, though. You could specify the geometry and run a browser or text editor full screen to make it feel more like a console application. The main downside is that you have no way to resize or reposition applications on screen. Sometimes this might be desirable for, say, a kiosk of some kind. But most of the time it isn't.

For instance, if you change that "exec" line you commented out to something like:

exec nedit 1024x768+0+0

You would get a fullscreen NEdit session that shuts down X when you terminate the program, assuming your resolution is 1024x768.

You could play around with the geometry more precisely and fire up all the applications you use in the exact locations you need, with no borders. Just use an & symbol and issue multiple exec commands in xinitrc with the proper geometry. If you like this look, Xmonad is a little more practical as a way of achieving it. But yeah, it's interesting to note that Window Managers are technically optional.