Ever Wonder What Actually Happens When X Starts Up?
I recently installed the shipping version of Red Hat 6.1 onto a bare hard drive. The installation went very well, and I told Linux to install KDE, my preferred desktop, but not GNOME. When I logged in and ran the infamous command to launch into my graphical (X) environment, what greeted me was something I’d never seen before — KDE running with Enlightenment and using the GNOME panel across the bottom of the screen.
Figure One: Spawn of X: GNOME and KDE desktops are shown here running simultaneously.
I recently installed the shipping version of Red Hat 6.1 onto a bare hard drive. The installation went very well, and I told Linux to install KDE, my preferred desktop, but not GNOME. When I logged in and ran the infamous command to launch into my graphical (X) environment, what greeted me was something I’d never seen before — KDE running with Enlightenment and using the GNOME panel across the bottom of the screen.
After recovering from the disorientation of a deja huh? experience (I never really did figure out exactly what happened there), I realized that it might be a good idea to devote an entire column to the plumbing of an X session and to specifically talk about what happens when you enter startx.
Don’t worry if you use a graphical login screen and never issue startx — I’ll get to you before the end of this column. But for now it’s probably a good idea for everyone to read through at least this much of the labyrinth that is X initialization, to get a flavor for what’s going on and how you can tweak it.
I will revisit this topic in the future and talk…
Please log in to view this content.
Not Yet a Member?
Register with LinuxMagazine.com and get free access to the entire archive, including:
