Lost my startx - black screen with mouse cursor
 

Redhat Ent Linux ES Release 2 (Taroon 8)
Kernel 2.4.21-4.ELsmp

startx(1): initialize X session - Linux man page

I thought I'd look into methods of recovering from a lost
password for future use, how to change the passwd and shadow
should I need to. So I started an X session, vi'd my .swp
files then logged off.

Perhaps I changed one of these files accidentally, but my intent
was just to view them which I did.

After starting up my computer the next day and logging in I
began an X session - "startx". The session appears to have
started, but with a black screen and an active mouse cursor.

Where should I begin looking to repair this problem? I'd say a
.conf file is first on the list, but this is new to me. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

It's not quite clear from your description what exactly you're doing.
I'll assume that you didn't uninstall your window manager/desktop
environment, but rather just screwed up some config files (btw,
going to edit a .swp is ALWAYS a bad idea). Check the content of
~/.xsession and/or ~/.xinitrc, see whether they point at a valid
WM/DE and whether they are syntactically correct.

If you use startx to start up X then you run your window manager from the .xinitrc fi
 

"If you use startx to start up X then you run your window manager from the .xinitrc file."

http://it.toolbox.com/wiki/index.php..._vs._Usability

Thanks for your reply. I'd prefer to work out the bugs with a little help. I'm from the DOS world and new to Linux. Hope you a patient, but
I'll come up short most of the time wading through syntax and jargon.
============================
>KDM (Logged in okay).

With little experience a GUI will help me a lot. Can you direct me through KDM to view files I cannot find (~/.xsession and/or ~/.xinitrc)?

ps..[Also, I noticed a "find" command in liunx doesn't seem to search multiple directories. OpenVMS for instance provides that capability].