Recipe 15.10. Configuring startx
15.10.1 Problem
You
like to boot to the console and then run startx
when you want an X session. But you need to know how to configure
startx to start the desktop or window manager of
your choice.
15.10.2 Solution
Edit .xinitrc in your home directory. This will
start Gnome:
exec gnome-session
You can list all of your installed window managers and desktop
environments:
exec gnome-session
#exec startkde
#exec icewm
#exec icewm-experimental
#exec afterstep
#exec enlightenment
#exec blackbox
Entering all of your installed window managers makes it easy to
change the default by uncommenting the one you want. Be sure that
only one is uncommented at a time.
15.10.3 Discussion
Gnome, KDE, and XFce should be started from their startup
scripts—gnome-session,
startkde, and
startxfce—rather than their executables.
If a user has no ~/.xinitrc file,
startx will look for the global
.xinitrc, which will be tucked away somewhere in
/etc, like
/etc/X11/xinit/.xinitrc. X Windows file
locations tend to be different on the various Linux distributions, so
you might as well get used to hunting them down.
15.10.4 See Also
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