Hey all, this is my first post so be kind to the mostly noob.

I just installed Slackware 10.2 to a Compaq Presario 1275 laptop. It installed beautifully, but when I log in as root and type 'startx' is can't find the command. I also can't run xorgsetup.

I'm sure there's something simple that I'm missing, but I can't seem to find an old thread covering this.

Thanks!

startx is not in the path for root user.
log in as a normal user and startx will/should work
alternatively specify the exact full path for user root /usr/X11R6/bin/startx

There is a way to avoid this detailed in one of the stickies here but I've never bothered myself.

Hi and welcome

Try running xorgconfig at the command line to configure your X sessions. That will launch the configuration script.

Let us know how you get on.

Regards

dkpw

PS startx IS in the path for root in Slackware. You can configure X sessions both as root and non-privileged users. The path for the resultant xorg.conf will be /etc/X11 in Slackware 10.2.

Ok, thanks for the replies. This is really odd. startx doesn't actually exist anywhere. I created a db for slocate and it can't find it anywhere, doesn't exist in /usr/X11R6/bin.

Also, I still can't run xorgsetup, it accepts the command but doesn't do anything after that. No error message, but there no process running either.

Just for yucks I created a user account and it says that only root can configure X. I DO have an xorg.conf in /etc/X11, but looking through the configuration it doesn't mention anthing about KDE (not sure if it's supposed to).

I'll also mention that I'm in init 3, should I be in init 4 to even try to do these things? I would have thought I'd at least have been able to find the binaries.

Strange. What does exist in /usr/X11R6/bin ?

No, it's not supposed to.

Runlevel 3 is ok.

Xorgconfig is a very basic tool. This suggests that the installation is cracked. But why would you log into X as root?

Yep, it may well be that the easiest thing to do it is perform a reinstall - on a fast laptop like yours it should take no more than half an hour or so.

Why not? It's his computer. He can do what he likes, logged in on whatever account he likes.

This "hard-core" attitude (inverse snobbery to my mind) is not always the most helpful when answering questions from new users of Slackware or Linux. Not everyone is comfortable on the command line, and even those who are on occassions may prefer to use X.

The important point surely is to offer the caveat that he should be careful what commands he issues when root regardless of whether he is on the command line or in X.

When you installed, what packages did you choose to be installed. If you did not install KDE, then that could be why you can not get into kde. During setup it should ask you which window manager you would like to use. There in the list should have been xinitrc.kde I believe that is if you installed it. One quick way to see which windows managers you have installed it to as root navigate to your /etc/X11/ and see what all files start with xinitrc. For example, xinitrc.kde will load kde. As for your xorgsetup problem, you may very well have some files missing. I would mount your slackware cd, and try reinstalling the packages via "pkgtool install <package name without extension". Thus slackware/x/x11-6.8.2-i486-3.tgz minus the .tgz.

It also may be work mentioning that since you are wanting to use X, you may want to have it as default. To change the default runlevel for your linux system, you need to edit you /etc/inittab file. In this file there is a mention of default, just run a search for default (in pico do a Ctrl+W and type default and press enter - in vi or vim type /default and press enter) and change id:3:initdefault: to id:4:initdefault:. Voila, you are running X on boot. All you have to do now is edit your default display manager from gdm to kdm if you want. You do this by editing a file in your /etc/rc.d/rc4.d I can not totally remember which one right off hand, and I cannot find out since I am at work and I cannot remote into my linux box from here, it is a security violation.

Point taken. And it isn't inverse snobbery. I was trying to determine whether the man was trying to achieve something this way and hasn't been informed that it is a healthier approach to log in as a user with limited privileges. But I will agree it wasn't too well put.

I'm very well informed about root, thanks.

I'm only trying to start X as root because that was the first thing I logged in as and realized that X didn't work. So it was somewhat of a one-mindedness rather than the desire to destroy my installation with a misplaced rm.

I'll give reinstalling the packages a try and see what goes on, I'll keep you guys posted, thanks!

go to /usr/X11R6/bin to run your programs or make sure path is setup. do a ls make sure program is in the directory. run pkgtool check the packages are installed.

I had problems myself running the configure and setup programs for X ran fine when I went to the programs directory and did a ./program. fresh 10.2 install bittorrent iso. minus this minor problem everything else runs fine.

make sure your logged in as root and not just su
have never had slackware run X while su. fedora/redhat will not sure what else will.

Ok, so the laptop is currently installing itself. Full install, X and KDE were certainly checked off.

We'll see what happens <crosses fingers>.

Oh, and the kernel I'll be using is bareacpi.

The install was successful and I'm staring at the beauty of KDE. I love KDE.

I think part of what happens was I had the HD partitioned all wonky and it ran out of space on the initial installation, hence the missing files. This time around the install failed twice due to a big scratch on the CD, so I burned another and it worked great.

Now I get to try and figure out how to set up the wireless. Search time on the forums!

Thanks everyone!