X Window System User's Guide for X11 R3 and R4 of the X Window System

2

Getting Started

This chapter shows you how to begin working if X is already running on your system and how to start the X server manually if X is not running. It also provides preliminary instructions for starting the window manager, twm, and the xterm terminal emulator.

In This Chapter:

If X is Being Started Automatically

Starting X Manually

Starting the First xterm Window

Bringing Up the Window Manager

Starting a Second xterm Window

Exiting from an xterm Window

Special Keys

How a Client Looks and Behaves: Application Defaults

Starting Other Clients

Running a Client on Another Machine

Where to Go From Here

2

Getting Started

This chapter introduces the basics of using X: starting the server and creating the first terminal window; starting the window manager; adding additional windows; exiting. While it is written as a tutorial, you do not necessarily have to follow along at a workstation.

Before you can begin using the X Window System, you must do three things:

•   Start the X server.

•   Start at least one instance of the xterm terminal emulator.

•   Start a window manager. (Though you can run X without a window manager, this is fairly limiting.)

Depending on how X is configured on your system, some or all of these steps may be performed for you automatically. First, this chapter explains how you can tell if X is being started automatically and how to begin working if it is. Then this chapter describes how to start X manually. Later sections show you how to exit from an ...