RE: starting cygwinx

["Mark Fisher" <mark dot fisher at practiv dot com>]

hey, don't sweat it!

i've just been getting up to speed on this after playing with x for
a few years but not using it properly.

here's how I do things (so I'm open to flames too!)

I used to use the startx... scripts, but don't bother, it's actually
really easy to do it without.

1. dead easy way: download "morten's cygwin x launcher"
(as I write this, it's top link on "www.cygwin.com - software section)

this is a great way to learn and try out all the options and window managers
for X. Click a few check boxes, click "Go" and try out X

2. another easy way:
once you've played with Morten's launcher, you should be a bit more
happy with some of the options available, so now you can start to work
with X via xinit and some command line params to fine tune how you run it.

so, install openbox (and a few other windows managers along with your
xorg stuff, e.g. fvwm, twm etc.)
then create a file in your $HOME called ".xinitrc"
in it, put these two lines:
- - - - - 8< - - - -
#!/bin/bash
openbox
- - - - - - - - - -

dunno if line 1 is needed, but I always force scripts to be bash-able.

after this, you can simply type
"xinit"
to run x

a better startup is something like:
nohup >/tmp/xinit.log </dev/null 2>&1 xinit -- :0 -nodecoration -clipboard &

basically, everything after the "--" are args that get passed to X (or Xwin,
as
that is sym-linked to Xwin, or Xwin_GL if you have a GL) 
the "nohup" means "if my shell dies, don't die yourself"
you can remove "-nodecoration" if you want to have windows borders, but
I tend to run X on a 2nd monitor and don't want the windows border.
"-clipboard" allows copy and paste between windows and X. I'd rather have
a "-noclipboard" option personally, as I can't think of a reason to NOT
have it enabled.

I've also install xfce4 as a full desktop. It's nice, and I did it out
of curiosity. If you just want to play, get fvwm or openbox and mess around
with the window manager, before expanding.

mark

- - -

some of my own setup from "cygcheck -c -d" :
fvwm                    2.4.7-3
openbox                 0.99.1-4
X-start-menu-icons      1.0.3-2
X-startup-scripts       1.0.10-2
xorg-x11-base           6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-bin            6.8.1.0-2
xorg-x11-bin-dlls       6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-bin-lndir      6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-devel          6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-etc            6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-f100           6.8.1.0-3
xorg-x11-fcyr           6.8.1.0-2
xorg-x11-fenc           6.8.1.0-2
xorg-x11-fnts           6.8.1.0-3
xorg-x11-fscl           6.8.1.0-2
xorg-x11-fsrv           6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-libs-data      6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-man-pages      6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-man-pages-html 6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-nest           6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-vfb            6.8.1.0-1
xorg-x11-xwin           6.8.1.0-5
xorg-x11-xwin-gl        6.8.1.0-5

this ain't a complete list, but is some of the x related stuff.


-----Original Message-----
From: cygwin-xfree-owner@cygwin.com [mailto:cygwin-xfree-owner@cygwin.com]
On Behalf Of Brock Denson
Sent: 08 December 2004 18:34
To: cygwin-xfree@cygwin.com
Subject: starting cygwinx

sorry about the newbie question.  i can feel the flames coming...
anyway, i have downloaded and installed cygwin and the xfree libraries 
via setup as per the users guide on the website.  i can not find the 
startwin.bat or .sh files nor is the /etc/X11/xinit file present.  can 
someone tell me where i can find these files and how to get an xterm 
window started.

thanks,
brock