Hello there. I just recently installed Zenwalk Linux 5.0, and I can’t get a terminal from inside XFCE any time I try to run any thing that requires a Xterm such as Htop I am automatically taken back to the graphical login. However if I run /bin/xterm from the run menu command I get a xterm. its only when I try to run the terminal command from the menu. Whats going on!! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

doesn't the XFCE menu try to run you app inside the XFCE terminal instead of Xterm?
i never tried that desktop manager so i don't know much about it...

do you get back to the login screen after trying to run the XFCE terminal inside a Xterm? (it might seem weird, but it would be a test...)

now the next question is why this app is crashing you to the login screen....either it kills your X server, or at least your graphical session...did you take a look at the Xorg log file? (typically located at /var/log/Xorg.0.log but i don't know if Zenwalk put it here or not)

otherwise a look at the ~/.xsession-errors may be usefull ?

hope you'll find out what happen

Thank you from your reply. I think I should say that I’m a newbie to the
Linux and that my understanding of Linux is limited. However i did look
at the log files that you suggested and in /var/log/Xorg.0.log i found
nothing related to a error, but I did see a file in the /var/log
directory which did (Xorg.0.log.old - shown below) and says about a signal 11, is this a error code relating to the X binary? The thing is I found no man page about X however they is an error code 11 in the man page for xterm some thing about a ioctrl() function?????. Thing is I know nothing about C and the log file below is cryptic to me and suggests nothing meaningful about what the error is and what is causing it?

-------------------------------------------------------------
Backtrace:
0: /usr/bin/X(xf86SigHandler+0x80) [0x80bf630]
1: [0xb7fa0420]
2: /usr/bin/X(Xfree+0x21) [0x81ae371]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libxaa.so [0xb7b15e2f]
4: /usr/bin/X [0x816676f]
5: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions//libextmod.so [0xb7c51cad]
6: /usr/bin/X [0x813c32f]
7: /usr/bin/X(dixChangeGC+0xa9f) [0x8095a8f]
8: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libxaa.so [0xb7b5af49]
9: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libxaa.so [0xb7b5b393]
10: /usr/bin/X [0x816717d]
11: /usr/bin/X(compPaintWindowBackground+0x6d) [0x80fbb7d]
12: /usr/bin/X(miWindowExposures+0xf6) [0x8117af6]
13: /usr/bin/X [0x80d343a]
14: /usr/bin/X(miHandleValidateExposures+0x77) [0x812dec7]
15: /usr/bin/X(MapWindow+0x3a5) [0x8072725]
16: /usr/bin/X(ProcMapWindow+0x67) [0x80860c7]
17: /usr/bin/X [0x8146eb1]
18: /usr/bin/X(Dispatch+0x2cb) [0x80868db]
19: /usr/bin/X(main+0x496) [0x806dca6]
20: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xdc) [0xb7cf636c]
21: /usr/bin/X(FontFileCompleteXLFD+0x201) [0x806cfd1]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

P.S sorry about the delay of this reply, i have no internet connection at the moment and the only way can connect is at work or at the library