I installed Slackware 10.2 today. I tried to run a window manager by typing "startx" but the computer told me that there was no such command as "startx." I've tried to setup X by typing both "xorgconfig" and "xf86config," but I was again told that there was no such command as "xorgconfig" and "xf86config" respectively.

What am I doing wrong? How can I set up a GUI?

The command is:

Xorg -configure

startx and xorgconfig don't work on my machine as root, try logging in as a user.

Samac

hmm, it's the exact opposite for me. Isn't the '/etc/X11/xorg.conf' owned by root?

halfpower, try running 'xorgsetup' first and see if that works. This will usually autodetect your settings and set up everything for you. The only things I had to change was my default resolution.

If it does not autodetect correctly, you can go though the manual configuration as suggested.

regards,
...drkstr

Is X installed?

startx should work in any login.

What is the output of "whereis startx" ?

Does that really matter? It (like all your other system-wide configuration files) should be readable by all. ie. It's permissions should be rw-r--r--.

Yes, but to write to it....

I think the difference is how you have X set up in your system. Do you have it installed to the home directory of the user or something? If not, how did you initially configure X?

regards,
...drkstr

Errr... Slackware 10.2 installs X under /usr/X11R6 by default.

It comes with a default configuration file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) which works with the frame buffer device. It has worked for me straight out of the box on several different hardware combinations.

So after you've installed Slackware, "startx" should result in X starting without the need to tweak anything.

If the "startx" command is not found, then I'd hazard a guess that X wasn't installed.
In what circumstances does a normal user need to write to system-wide configuration files?

Right, which means that you would not be able to modify any of the system setting as a non root user. (which are located in /etc/X11)

Never.

I see where the confusion is. My X did not work out of the box. I thought you were saying you had to configure X as a non-root user. Since the Xorg configuration file is owned by root, I was curious how you went about doing this.

You are correct in saying that a non root user can run X, assuming that root has configured it correctly for that user.

regards,
...drkstr

Maybe a distillation of what's been said:

AS ROOTEither one should work, but must be run as root

If you are still having issues (i.e. 'not found'), you may not have X installed correctly.

Let us know the results

Interesting. I wonder why? The default configuration has worked for me since I can't remember when.

Different hardware. Mine doesn't work straight out of the box, either. (On my Nvidia box it did, but not my i8xx boxes at all.)

I'm pretty sure I installed it durring the initial installation.

OK. So X is installed and startx is in your path.

And typing "startx" yields "Command not found?" Odd.

Try typing "/usr/X11/bin/startx" and report back with the results.

xorgsetup does not work either. I suppose I might have screwed up the X install when I was installing the OS. I don't knwo how I could find out though.