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Xinitrc

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The xinit program is used to start the X Window System server and a first client program on systems that cannot start X directly from /etc/init or in environments that use multiple window systems. The .xinitrc file is therefore a simple way to start X usually in conjunction with running the startx script directly from inittab]].

Contents

How it works

The .xinitrc file is really just one more shell script to run. It can be used to start various applications you want to associate with starting X, e.g. the X screensaver, and to set global environment variables, like MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH. Its foremost use however, is as a replacement for a display manager when on a single-user machine.

When a display manager is not used, it is important to keep in mind that the life of your X session starts and ends with the .xinitrc script. What this means is that once the script finishes, X quits regardless of whether you still have running programs (including your window manager). It is therefore important that the window manager quitting and X quitting should coincide. This is easily achieved by running the window manager as the last program in the .xinitrc script, e.g.:

File: ~/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh

/usr/bin/autocutsel -fork &
/usr/bin/autocutsel -selection PRIMARY -fork &
/usr/local/bin/urxvtd -q -f -o &
/usr/bin/xscreensaver -no-splash &
/usr/lib/notification-daemon/notification-daemon &

export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH="/usr/lib/mozilla/plugins:/opt/mozilla/lib/plugins"

exec openbox-session

Notice that applications such as autocutsel, xscreensaver, urxvtd, and notification-daemon are run in the background (& appendage). Otherwise, the script would halt and wait for the programs and daemons to quit before continuing to export the variable line and executing openbox-session.

The openbox-session line starting an Openbox session however, is not backgrounded. This ensures that the script will not quit until Openbox does. If you run the startx script manually, ending the script will terminate X and leave you with whatever virtual consoles your inittab has started.

If running it from inittab and have set the line to 'respawn' (rather than 'once'), .xinitrc will be run again. In this way X can be restarted without having to restart the computer.

A standard .xinitrc

Using this template you can simply uncomment your choice, e.g. GNOME:

File: ~/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
#
# exec ion
# exec jwm
# exec wmaker
# exec startkde
# exec icewm
# exec pekwm
# exec blackbox
exec /usr/bin/ratpoison
# exec gnome-session
# exec startfluxbox
# exec startxfce4
# exec xfce4-session
# exec openbox
# exec startlxde
Note: Prepending exec is recommended as it replaces the current process with the manager, but its not necessary if all additional desktop/window managers are commented out as in the above example. Use the full path when possible type startkde.
Note: When X is started manually via startx, the tty is automatically switched to the closest one not running agetty/mingetty. Programs like xscreensaver will only lock this last tty (i.e. the current X session), but not the one which called startx. Therefore, someone can just use CTRL-ALT-Fn to switch tty and kill X with CTRL-C, and gain access to the user data. Please consider locking the tty after executing startx. More information can be found at Login Security Hole.

Multiple DE options

On the command line

If you have a working .xinitrc, but just want to try other WM/DE you can run xinit from command line like this

xinit /full/path/to/window-manager

The full path is required. Optionally you can pass options to X server after '--', e.g.

xinit /usr/bin/enlightenment -- -br +bs -dpi 96

You can use the following example .xinitrc to start a particular window manager with an argument:

File: ~/.xinitrc
#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [[ $1 == "fluxbox" ]]
then
  exec startfluxbox
elif [[ $1 == "scrotwm" ]]
then
  exec startscrotwm
else
  echo "Choose a window manager"
fi

Using this .xinitrc you can start Fluxbox with the command xinit fluxbox or start scrotwm with the command xinit scrotwm.

At startup

You can also have a choice of window managers and desktop environments at startup, using just .xinitrc and GRUB and no display manager. The idea is to take advantage of the fact that Arch doesn't make any particular use of the runlevel system. The following .xinitrc tests for the current runlevel and will start Openbox and GNOME on runlevels 5 and 4 respectively:

rl=$(runlevel | grep -o [0-6])

case $rl in
    4) exec gnome-session;;
    5) exec openbox-session;;
esac

Choosing between different runlevels is simply a matter of cloning a GRUB entry and adding the desired runlevel to the kernel arguments. Inserting the runlevel at the end of the 'kernel' line indicates that the inittab default of runlevel 5 should be overridden and replaced with the desired runlevel, 4 in this instance:

title  Arch Linux GNOME
root   (hd0,2)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz26 root=/dev/sda1 ro 4
initrd /boot/kernel26.img

Finally, you will need to ensure that the .xinitrc file is actually run at the chosen runlevel. Using the tip from Start X at boot#/etc/inittab, you can edit the inittab to simply run startx on the desired runlevel which will in turn use your .xinitrc script:

x:45:once:/bin/su PREFERED_USER -l -c "/bin/bash --login -c startx >/dev/null 2>&1"

Notice that "45" means that this will happen on both runlevels 4 and 5. The final differentiation between 4 and 5 will then come in .xinitrc as described above. This is preferable to attempt differentiating in the inittab file as we stick pretty close to using the various configuration files as they were intended.

Policykit

Various Gnome(*) applications expect policykit to be active, and will produce errors if absent. Login managers such as Gdm will start PolicyKit automatically, but when using .xinitrc only, you should make it run like so:

exec ck-launch-session gnome-session

(*) I specifically recall Rhythmbox/Gstreamer, but there are probably many more examples. <Expand and improve this section plz!>

Alternative method

If you need to start your window manager before launching additional applications, use the following method:

#!/bin/bash

openbox & wmpid=$!

urxvtd -q -f -o &
xscreensaver -no-splash &
fbpanel &

wait $wmpid

The first line runs openbox as a background process and immediately stores the process id ($!) in the variable wmpid. On the last line, the wait builtin is used to wait until the process specified by wmpid terminates.

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