ive been wondering if it would be possible to write a script that the terminal would read at startup or after login that would load a program gui before it loaded the windows manager

I don't know as how that would work too well. The window manager is responsible for ... well, you can tell what the window manager is responsible for by running one. It's ultimately responsible for placing top-level windows, among other things.

By "load a program gui", you mean, I presume, running a program which uses the X Window (no s) system. That won't work too well unless at least X itself is running. You want to run X without a window manager?

Maybe we can get a handle on what should happen if you tell us why you want to do this.

yea i want x windows running with out a manager but i want the gui program to auto start on login

Edit your ~/.xinitrc

It might depend on your distro/setup, but ~/.xinitrc is usually where you put programs you want to launch right after X starts running. Your window manager should be the last program on ~/.xinitrc; simply insert commands before the WM gets launched.

ok i tried editing the xinitrc file all it had init was . /etc/X11/Xsession that was th eonly action line there was the otheres were just starting the bash and an explation of what it was doing like global setting for x session i tried eraseing that and then added line exec /home/stycaptain/Sonbird/Songbird to see if that would launch Songbird but it just loaded the same ol thing that it always loads and song bird didnt load so i went into xsession file delted it and just put in the same line there and it loaded the same old thing it always loads i moved the orignal xsession file into /home/downloads i dunno if it loaded the original from there or not or wat happened cause i thought that when you edit the xsession file it will change ur desktop enviorment and nothing changed

Try ~/.xsession


Avoid editing your system files in /etc; for changing your window manager, you should only have to edit some files in your home directory. As you can see, it can be confusing though.

extermly strange nothing happend or changed when i delted the x session file and xinitrc file i delted them becuase i changed both them and nothing happened so wh\y would it stay the same when their both gone now?

Yeah, I don't know which files to look at next. You should start looking at documentation for your distro/login manager.

Most distros run a display manager, commonly either kdm or gdm. I would be looking at that. I can't be more specific because I'm not completely clear on what you want to do. You say "run at login" but what are you logging into? When you login using X, you're going to get a window manager, but you say you want to run without one.

Without one, I don't know what you log into. A console? An xterm?

i know it can be done i belive if i edit the xinitrc file ill beable to load the application in a gui at login with out a de but if i edit it so say firefox loads up do i have to type a command at command line when i log in or will it just load? and will the xsession interfere or will it not because i wont have a de installed