Must start X manually - is this normal in Slackware?
 

My experience is in Ubuntu. This is my first Slackware installation. The system boots to a basic login prompt. I log in and type "startx" and then my xfce desktop takes over. Is this how it is supposed to work? Ubuntu always boots straight into your window manager and you log in at that level.

Initially, there was not even a user account, only root. I'm not a newbie, so I was able to create a regular user account. Did I somehow miss a step in the install process?

it'll depend on the runlevel you're botting to in /etc/inittab. Slackware does somethign stupid with the runlevels doesn't it. you need runlevel 4 as the default I think.

No need to get offensive even (or especially) if you are a "moderator".
Slackware does not boot to a graphical runlevel by default, and that is easily changed by editing /etc/inittab . See? Just giving the answer would have been sufficient.

A must-read for the OP (and for the moderator) would be: http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide which will answer this question as well as the "thre was only a root account" question, and a lot more.

Eric

offensive? As advanced as some AI code has become, I didn't think software was quite able to take offense yet.

Nope that is quite normal, and in keeping with how slackware users like to do things. Coming from Ubuntu you may find this approach a little alien at first, but once you get over the culture shock the concept has a lot of sense in it.

• Maybe someone needs to add custom entries to /etc/skel before creating their users.
• Maybe they're going to use 'newusers' or some other method to bulk create a batch of users all at once.
• And, maybe someone wants to create a user with a home directory /u/gazl with /u being an autofs automount mapping to /srv/crypt/home on an lvm encrypted lv mounted as /srv/crypt. ;)

Slackware tries not to make any assumptions about how you intend to use your system, and leaving you to create your own users via whatever method you choose is just one example of that philosophy in action.


The default runlevel 3/4 thing is the same sort of deal, maybe you want to make changes such as installing the nvidia binary driver before invoking X for the first time. IMO the slackware approach is sensible, not "stupid".

Thanks for the help, guys. The Beginner's Guide is probably exactly what I need.

I expected Slackware to be more expert-oriented than Ubuntu, so I don't mind having to edit config files to get things working the way I like. My hope is that this distro is better built and tested than some of the others that today seem to be preoccupied with eye-candy rather than solid functionality. So far, I like what I see, even if it is a bit more challenging to set up.