Problem setting PATH with X11
 

Hi, all:

Here's my problem: X11 is not set in the PATH. I believe that this is the reason I am getting "no protocol specified, cannot open display" error messages in my terminal when using bash. As a result, I cannot open the /.bashrc or /.bash_profile (not that I have figured out yet what I'm supposed to put in there) in either root or username (trying to use gedit with "&" to open in a separate window). When I try to set the PATH, here's what I do:

PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/X11
export PATH

I've tried this as root and as username, and what happens is that as soon as I exit the terminal or exit root status is this:

root@tarahmarie-desktop:/home/tarahmarie# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/bin/X11
root@tarahmarie-desktop:/home/tarahmarie# exit
exit
tarahmarie@tarahmarie-desktop:~$ su
Password:
root@tarahmarie-desktop:/home/tarahmarie# echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games

The same thing happens when I try to add /usr/lib/kde4/bin to my path in either root or username. What do I do?

I have found two solutions, could someone please explain to me the difference between editing /.bash_profile and /.bashrc? What's the diff?

IIRC ~/.bash_profile gets read at login and ~/.bashrc every time you open a shell. Of the two you should set the path in ~/.bash_profile. That said, I would use ~/.profile for that, or edit /etc/profile and include /usr/X11R6/bin in its PATH line.

man bash, read the section entitle Invocation.

Thanks; editing the /etc/profile worked perfectly.

It should also be be noted that /etc/profile is system wide (I.E. all users use it, while your ~/.profile is user specific)

By editing the /etc/profile's PATH, I have no problem now using all the bash commands as username. I still seem to have problems using the bash commands as root. When you say that the /etc/profile's PATH is system-wide, why doesn't root get access to the PATH in it?