X 4.4 Nightmare

[bogomip2]

Fedora Core 2. Kernel 2.6.6. Atempted upgrade to XFree86 4.4. I will make a long story short. I ran through the installation of XF86 and once I got it to recognize my mouse I find that every time I "startx" I am brought to this very simple window manager that looks like something I would have used on Linux in 1993. It even has Xclock in the top right. I am to type gnome-session in a terminal and low and behold, Gnome starts in a window. I am REALLY lost on this one. If I can elaborate on anything, by all means please ask. Can anyone help? I only wish I could take a screen shot but it won't let me. Obviously all my apps work.

[merclude]

i think FC2 switched to x.org ...

as for that 'simple' window manager, sounds like TWM, it has light blue/green windows.

im assuming you want gnome to start, instead of TWM.

edit ~/.xinitrc and put "exec gnome-session" in there, then try startx again.

should work, hope that's what you wanted.

[dysharmonic]

I guess that's TWM too.

Usually if X can't find or doesn't know how to load KDE or Gnome, then it'll go down to TWM. My FC1 system doesn't have an .xinitrc file, instead I think it uses .Xclients and .Xclients-default.

Why not use a GUI login instead, either XDM, KDM or GDM where you can just pick any WM to load at the login screen.

[serz]

Originally posted by Fahrenheit451
My FC1 system doesn't have an .xinitrc file, instead I think it uses .Xclients and .Xclients-default..
I'm not sure for what .Xclients and .Xclients-default are for, I don't think they're for the same as .xinitrc...

If you want the .xinitrc you have to do it youself :p

[bogomip2]

Thanks merclude. Worked like a charm. Iearned something new today! Oh, and that was twm. I have faint memoris of using it long, long ago.

[dysharmonic]

serz

Well, I was meaning to say that there was no xinitrc in /home/user's folder...

Anyway, here's my /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. Looks like it reads or refers to ~/ .Xclients


#!/bin/sh
# (c) 1999-2002 Red Hat, Inc.

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
userxkbmap=$HOME/.Xkbmap

sysresources=/etc/X11/Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/Xmodmap
sysxkbmap=/etc/X11/Xkbmap

# merge in defaults
if [ -f "$sysresources" ]; then
xrdb -merge "$sysresources"
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

# merge in keymaps
if [ -f "$sysxkbmap" ]; then
setxkbmap `cat "$sysxkbmap"`
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi

if [ -f "$userxkbmap" ]; then
setxkbmap `cat "$userxkbmap"`
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi

if [ -z "$XKB_IN_USE" -a ! -L /etc/X11/X ]; then
if grep '^exec.*/Xsun' /etc/X11/X > /dev/null 2>&1 && [ -f /etc/X11/XF86Config ]; then
xkbsymbols=`sed -n -e 's/^[ ]*XkbSymbols[ ]*"\(.*\)".*$/\1/p' /etc/X11/XF86Config`
if [ -n "$xkbsymbols" ]; then
setxkbmap -symbols "$xkbsymbols"
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi
fi
fi

# xkb and xmodmap don't play nice together
if [ -z "$XKB_IN_USE" ]; then
if [ -f "$sysmodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$sysmodmap"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi
fi

unset XKB_IN_USE

# run all system xinitrc shell scripts.
for i in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/* ; do
if [ -x "$i" ]; then
. "$i"
fi
done

# The user may have their own clients they want to run. If they don't,
# fall back to system defaults.
# set up ssh agent environment if available.

if [ -f $HOME/.Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent $HOME/.Xclients || \
exec $HOME/.Xclients
elif [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients || \
exec /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients
else
# failsafe settings. Although we should never get here
# (we provide fallbacks in Xclients as well) it can't hurt.
xclock -geometry 100x100-5+5 &
xterm -geometry 80x50-50+150 &
if [ -x /usr/bin/netscape -a -f /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html ]; then
netscape /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html &
fi
if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm2 ]; then
exec fvwm2
else
exec twm
fi
fi

[do_guh_new]

Well, I was meaning to say that there was no xinitrc in /home/user's folder...

Anyway, here's my /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc. Looks like it reads or refers to ~/ .Xclients

did you make sure you checked the hidden files too xinitrc is hidden so do ls -la and if it's not there you need to create it and startx will see it (runlevel 5) and that xinitrc file that's deep in /etc/ is surely not the same or of any relation to ~/.xinitrc

[XiaoKJ]

Ahh... why XFree86 4.4?

I say you are trying to ask for trouble -- that has its own license and code... and cause problems with some drivers...

[dysharmonic]

do_guh_new

I'm sure I don't have any .xinitrc in any of the users' home folders. Well, actually there are only 2 users (just instances of me :)) Probably Fedora Core is doing it the new (?) way.

XiaoKJ

The X version I'm using is 4.3. I don't know if this version has something to do w/ the new licensing etc... Too lazy to find out for myself.. :p

[dysharmonic]

BTW, my system's working perfectly well...both w/ startx and the gui login.

[XiaoKJ]

XFree86 up till 4.3.0 was alright, using the GPL license.

XFree86 4.4.0 was problematic, with un-GPL license and has special code that cause trouble with some drivers.

Thus, the OSS/FSF people became fed up and switched over to X.org -- with XFree86 4.3.0 code(but some glitches here and there.)

However, it's a wise effort to switch as X.org is updated more often.