setting up x
 

Hey

thanks to all those people who helped me boot yesterday. now i was just wondering if anyone knew where a simple guide to setting up x (i know near nothing about linux) and somewhere i can download x (i have zipslack so i dont think i have it). also i noticed root doesnt have a password, and i was wondering how i would go about assigning it one.

thanks

Type "passwd" on the commandline will prompt u on howto set a new password. Try "startx" to see wether u can bring X up.

If not just see wut it says, to choose a WindowManager use "xwmconfig". The files reponsible for customizing X is /etc/X11/XF86Config. Try them out, paste in wut come out if not worked ..

when i type startx it says:
"bash: startx: command not found"

when i type xwmconfig it says:
" bash: xwmconfig: command not found"

thanks for tellin us how to change the password!

ZipSlack doesn't come with an X to configure - or didn't when I was using it.

http://www.slackware.com/faq/do_faq.php?faq=zipslack#3

It's easy - just download the *.tgz packages, install them with 'installpkg' and edit XF86Config and 'startx'. The link doesn't work but go to 'get slack' and pick a mirror from there.

Also, do 'adduser' in addition to what linuxJaver says about 'passwd' and create a regular user for yourself. Might have to get the package - can't remember what's included in ZipSlack.

rightio, so where do i put the .tgz files?

just in the root linuz directory?

put the files where ever you want.
for example we will put them in /tmp/install/ for intsalling, make a backup anywhere.
now you need to type "pkgtool" select the point "other directory"
type there "/tmp/install/" install everything you want to install.
to configure your x-server you will have to type "xf86config" and go through instruduction there. remember you will need the xf86-server and a windowmaker, kde or gnome or something like that.
after all, you schould be able to type "startx" and starting the x -server. If it won`t works it will create an error page and an error log. With these little ones you should be able to solve the problem, if not post it here again :-)

I wouldn't put them in /. I like a clean root. Since this is a ZipSlack it doesn't really matter beyond that. If you had a separate /home or /usr partition I'd say to put them somewhere in there. For tarballs, /usr/local/src is the standard place but, unless you chmod it, regular users don't have write permission to that directory and these are precompiled, for what it's worth. As is, I'd just create a download/source-type directory in your home directory regardless. Easiest to get to that way and keeps what you might want to back up in the same main part of the tree. I wouldn't treat them as 'temp' though because if something goes wrong at any point, you'd have to waste time downloading stuff again. I'd keep them in /home and back 'em up and then maybe delete them from the HD if necessary. But that's just preference - like sudden says, they *can* go anywhere.

Looked like that ur commands search path isn't set correctly..
startx located on /usr/X11R6/bin/startx.

So, if u wonna run X, it is a must to have this on yer search path.
Edit yer ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bashrc if u have one on yer home directory. Just type "cd" without will bring u to yer home dir, like

# cd

To see if u have such .bashrc or .bash_profile, do
# ls -lA

If u have them then edit on of them, append "/usr/X11R6/bin:" without "" into the line look similar to "export PATH=..." (after the '=')

If u don't have them, then type the following:

# cat <<! >>~/.bash_profile <ENTER>
export PATH=/usr/X11R6/bin:$PATH
!

Then,
# ls -lA

It should be a file ".bash_profile" there on yer home dir. By next time u will know howto edit ur commands search paths. U may need to append other paths into that "PATH" variable later, am not on linux to give u a reasonable content for PATH for newbie.

Remember to source the modification of ~/.bashrc or ~/.bash_profile each time u modify them to make them guilty ..

# source ~/.bash_profile
# xwmconfig
# startx

Nextstep u ll maybe need to get used to any editors, try this out, whether u like them:
gedit, pico, vim (run on textmode); xedit,gvim,emacs (must have X window running).

would it be possible for him to use swaret with zipslack? and then just type swaret --update, swaret --in-all x ????