I have a program i want to start when i startx (gkrellm) I don't like having to open after i startx every time. If this is needed I am running enlightenment. Thanx in advance.

add the command to /home/yourname/.xsession should load automatically

startx should be dealing with ~/.xinitrc shouldn't it?

Depending on what distro your using which is not specified. If your using something like Redhat, it can go in your .Xsession file like acid stated, if something like Slackware which doesn't use that file, I believe it can go in your .xinitrc file.

Hmm.. as per my understanding, the shell script called 'startx' when called from runlevel 3 checks for ~/.xinitrc, ~/.xserverrc and their systemwide versions, choosing the local versions if both exist and pass it to xinit, which calls X, the server. When ~/.xinitrc ( assuming you have one ) ends, your X session ends, and the X server gets terminated. This behaviour is seen across all distros I've seen that use the XFree86 server. You've chosen the perfect distros for me here, since I use both of those.

The ~/.xsession files are for those folks who boot into runlevel 5 and use XDM for their X session manager. When a user logs in successfully, ~/.xsession gets run and their session persists as long as .xsession lasts. The server continues to run even after they logout though. Again, some distros use GDM/KDM as their display managers and as far as I've seen, these variants do not care for ~/.xsession.