Path of xinit; window managers location; root's home;

frankie_DJ · 08-01-2005, 09:23 AM

I am starting with Solaris 10 and I have few quick questions:

1)I wanted to use xinit to try to customize my own X windows session, so I went:

Code:

/usr/openwin/bin/xinit

but it didn't work. Only after I added /usr/openwin/bin to the path and typed xinit did I start Xwindows.
What is the difference between these two methods?

2)Where are all the windows managers located? The only one I was able to call from the command line is twm

3) This one's driving me crazy: When I am initially loging in, I only have limited amount of time to login at the command line and than I am taken to the GUI login. Where is this feature controlled from? I would like to turn it off, login at the command line and start xwindows when I feel like it.

4) OK, this one's kinda wierd: My users' home is in export/home, and that's fine, I don't have problem with that. But than if I login as a user, say user1, there is also a usr1 directory in /home. When I login as root, /home is empty. What gives?

5) Does a root have a home directory? If not, where do I configure my Backspace key to erase, so I don't have to

Code:

stty erase ^H

every time I log in as a root.

Thanks.

jlliagre · 08-01-2005, 02:59 PM

1) you wrote the difference: xinit has no reason to set the PATH, so it fails to start commands located in /usr/openwin/bin.

2) /usr/dt/bin/dtwm
/usr/bin/gnome-wm

plus a bunch of other you can install from sunfreeware or blastwave.

3) /usr/dt/bin/dtconfig -d

4) man automount

5) root home directory, like most unix, is /
You can add

Code:

if [ -t 0 ]
then
stty erase ^H
fi

in /.profile

frankie_DJ · 08-01-2005, 08:11 PM

1)
I thought that if a command is not in your PATH, it can be called by specifying its full path (unless only root has privilege). But now I am confused: /usr/openwin/bin IS in my PATH variable. Why can't a command that is in this dir, like xinit, be called from the command line without specifying the full path?

In Linux I can call xinit without its entire path /usr/X11R6/bin/xinit.

jlliagre · 08-02-2005, 01:22 AM

In both cases, xinit is called and executed. The problem is that xinit inherit the PATH variable from its caller (nothing specific here), and when it runs .xinitrc or whatever, it just launch some commands without specifying their full PATH, including the X server. As it doesn't find them, it fails and returns.

Quote:

In Linux I can call xinit without its entire path /usr/X11R6/bin/xinit.

Same is true with Solaris, which is unsurprising as concerning about the same original code, which is not Sun or Linux specific, but MIT.

By the way, why do you want to disable the Solaris graphical login window ?
It allows you to select your preferred window manager and remember this choice.
When you install additional graphic environments, they are automatically added on the menu (at least when using pkg-get and blastwave), and still let you go to the text console should you want to experiment.

frankie_DJ · 08-02-2005, 03:46 AM

I see. It looks like I need to fix my path before I can do anything. It's giving me major headaches to search for stuff in man pages, and my whatis, which and apropos are hardly functional.

Quote:

By the way, why do you want to disable the Solaris graphical login window ?
It allows you to select your preferred window manager and remember this choice.
When you install additional graphic environments, they are automatically added on the menu (at least when using pkg-get and blastwave), and still let you go to the text console should you want to experiment.

When I switch between users and root freqently (as I still try to configure everything), the GUI login is kind of annoying - it takes forever for X windows to load. I could login graphicaly as a user and 'su', but I wanna experiment by building my own Xenvironment.