problem with some commands..

hey guys iam running slackware 10.0... and i have been wonding about this problem for a bit now..

everytime i exit X iam unable to use xwmconfig or.. startx and some other commands when i switch users... i really dont understand why?

can anyone help me with this? no other distro that i use gave me this issue

Do you mean if you do su?? Cause if thats so you have to exit from su to be able to run things like that because they are not in your path otherwise.

I agree that the mostly likely cause is that the commands are no longer in your path. Post the output of

# echo $PATH

so there is more information to go on.

Different users have different paths. Different paths contain different commands. When you switch users, you switch paths possibly gaining or losing commands.

I understood everything... after you exit from X, and you change user (for example to root) you can´t access to some commands (ex: "xwmconfig")... this happens really due to your current path, that is different from the one that you have one you do a direct login...

So I think you have some solutions... one is to add all the necessary directories to your current PATH variable... the best way is to copy the ones that you have in your "normal mode" ("echo $PATH") login...

Another solution, is to just logout from the current user and login as the user that you want to use... in my opinion this is the best solution... but it´s your decision...

To add directories to your path you can use the command :

"PATH="$PATH:<directory name>"

I hope it´s sufficient info...

See you

/Edu

I guess its kinda there as a safety reminder... somtimes I do somthing and then forget that I have su´d but when I try to startx or somthing else it doesn´t work so I remember

ok ya i did add stuff to the path but when i restart the computer.. it is all back to its defaults.. its soo odd..

like.. i login as a normal user.. then i exit X.. and su to root.. and all of a sudden i have no access to xwmconfig and even startx!!! <-- shouldnt root have those programs?

i really dont understand whats going on? iam new to slackware so i guess is this how slackware works? i dono

and when i restart the pc.. no matter which user i login first i have access to those commands?

Just type 'exit' to get out of su and back to your normal user.

root can start X, but it's not in root's path (under su at least), so you have to specify the startx command *and* it's location (e.g. /usr/X11R6/bin/startx insted of startx). Whilst root *can* start X, it really shouldn't, and I imagine this setup is to remind you of that.

If you 'su -' then you switch to logging in as root *and* using root's path, but you really should just stick to using 'su'.

I am not a really expert on this matter...

But, I think one way to add some directories to your path, is to put the commands that you have run in your file "/root/.bashrc"... than each time you login as a root, you will have you path with all the directories that you need to access the commands that you need...

So... you just put the commands that you already tried inside this file, and it should work.

But as I told you before... maybe the best thing is just to logout and do login with the user that you want to work...

See you!

/Edu

oh ok i get it... so lets see if i got the understanding correct

at the start iam asked to enter a user.. if i enter root.. that is a different account then su root

as "root" i have total access to commands.. but as su root.. i do have more access but not as much.. i just have the permissions to execute commands (in which i have to sometimes specify the path and the exe) which the real "root" does

and vice versa for other accounts right


am i on the right path?


and i just noticed another odd issue i never am having with other distros.. iam currently running fluxbox 0.9.11.. and i removed the default .xinitrc and the backup so i can write my own and i typed this..

Esetroot -s /home/username/wallpaper/background.png &
fluxbox


now when i start fluxbox.. the background shows up the fluxbox overwrites it and it displays the stupid skin background in which i dont want..

on my other distros that .xinitrc works LOL

so i tried an older version of fluxbox which sucks.. and that code worked..

now iam confused about this also.. is this a bug? or am i coding osmething wrong?

as "root" i have total access to commands.. but as su root.. i do have more access but not as much.. i just have the permissions to execute commands (in which i have to sometimes specify the path and the exe) which the real "root" does

su has the same rights as root, although some things like your path might be set differently. So you could still start x without modifying your path but you would have to type the whole path.

For example

/usr/X11R6/bin/startx

instead of

startx

ok cool now i get it.. its just the paths that need to be set.. iam a moron lol.. iam just used to my other distros where it seems all the paths are more or less the same.. ah well lol slackware is amazing..iam really enjoying it..

now just to figure out this fluxbox issue.. anyone have any ideas?

If I understand right you just want to force set the background for fluxbox??

This is my init

bash-3.00$ cat init session.screen0.slit.onHead: 0 session.screen0.slit.direction: Vertical session.screen0.slit.placement: BottomRight session.screen0.slit.onTop: False session.screen0.slit.autoHide: False session.screen0.tab.width: 64 session.screen0.tab.height: 16 session.screen0.tab.placement: Top session.screen0.tab.rotatevertical: true session.screen0.tab.alignment: Left session.screen0.toolbar.onhead: 0 session.screen0.toolbar.placement: BottomCenter session.screen0.toolbar.onTop: false session.screen0.toolbar.widthPercent: 66 session.screen0.toolbar.autoHide: true session.screen0.desktopwheeling: true session.screen0.strftimeFormat: %k:%M session.screen0.rowPlacementDirection: LeftToRight session.screen0.sloppywindowgrouping: true session.screen0.focusModel: ClickToFocus session.screen0.antialias: true session.screen0.maxOverSlit: true session.screen0.windowPlacement: RowSmartPlacement session.screen0.workspaces: 4 session.screen0.focusNewWindows: true session.screen0.fullMaximization: false session.screen0.workspacewarping: true session.screen0.imageDither: false session.screen0.focusLastWindow: true session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -f ~/.fluxbox/backgrounds/back.jpg session.screen0.workspaceNames: one,two,three,four, session.screen0.edgeSnapThreshold: 0 session.screen0.showwindowposition: true session.screen0.colPlacementDirection: TopToBottom session.titlebar.left: Stick session.titlebar.right: Minimize Maximize Close session.tabs: true session.imageDither: Trueinit session.autoRaiseDelay: 250 session.cacheMax: 200l session.opaqueMove: false session.menuFile: /home/adam/.fluxbox/menu session.slitlistFile: /home/adam/.fluxbox/slitlist session.colorsPerChannel: 4 session.doubleClickInterval: 250 session.styleFile: /usr/X11R6/share/fluxbox/styles/Cthulhain session.keyFile: ~/.fluxbox/keys session.iconbar: true session.cacheLife: 5l session.groupFile: bash-3.00$

This is the important bit:

session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -f ~/.fluxbox/backgrounds/back.jpg

I just set it like that so I can quickly change the background by deleting the back.jpg and copying my next background to the same name.

I hope that helps assuming thats what you wanted to do.

umm kinda... i did that and it worked


but what i did was write a simple .xinitrc with using Eterms Esetroot command to place the background on the desktop and keep it there..

and for some reason with 0.9.11 that is not working but when i use older versions it works

i dono why?

i guess its just a big because the older versions it worked

That file is in ~/.fluxbox