Ok, I have SW 9.1 for a few Weeks now, compiled the kernel for my needs (most - sometimes I didn't knew if select or not or as a module)..
I configuered X .. I wrote some scripts with the help of one or another manual in my /home directory . .now if I type startx everthing is fine .. but I noticed that there is the "other" way to start X with a display manager (I thought to take xdm first) ..
I tryed xdm using the init4 command, which causes to start xdm through inittab and rc.4 .. it works I thought. The loginmanager appeared I logged in and saw the nice fluxbox grey. The Problem is, if I exit fluxbox (X will shutdown) tty0 - tty4 is a kind of disabled; every key is only showed as ^? for space for example (means Ascii code ???)
Does anyone know where I have to change something to solve this problem ?

Runlevel 4??

I don't use slackware, but normally rl4 is not used. rl 5 is for graphical logins:

runlevel 0 is System halt (Do not use this for initdefault!)
runlevel 1 is Single user mode
runlevel 2 is Local multiuser without remote network (e.g. NFS)
runlevel 3 is Full multiuser with network
runlevel 4 is Not used
runlevel 5 is Full multiuser with network and xdm
runlevel 6 is System reboot (Do not use this for initdefault!)

Might be that this is the base of your problem.

runlevel 4 is ok to start the Xserver.
you can choose your favourite wm by xwmconfig and then startx.
You can exit any wm by Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
if you want to boot X automatically modify your inittab like that


Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault: this line is set 3 as default

# System initialization (runs when system boots).
si:S:sysinit:/etc/rc.d/rc.S

# Script to run when going single user (runlevel 1).
su:1S:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.K

# Script to run when going multi user.
rc:2345:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.M

# What to do at the "Three Finger Salute".
ca::ctrlaltdel:/sbin/shutdown -t5 -r now

# Runlevel 0 halts the system.
l0:0:wait:/etc/rc.d/rc.0

Do that only if you're quite sure X works perfectly well
Ciao