Arch Linux

KamiCrazy

Member

Registered: 2007-04-26

Posts: 11

Getting xfce to autostart

So I nuked my ubuntu installation today and decided to delve into the world of archlinux. No backups so this was a 1 way street!

I knew it was going to be hard for someone who didn't have a very good understanding of linux .txt based configuration and lightweight packages and yeah had a few teething moments but I've been able to do everything after consulting the documentation... eventually. Of course no clue if I've actually setup my installation right.

Anyway something that has been annoying me is that I can't get xfce to autostart. I want it to boot into a gui. I've set my inittab to run level 5. and changed the last like to /usr/bin/xfwm4 but it still doesn't go! the errors that pop up on start up disappear to quickly though when the login prompt appears so I can't read it -_-, need to track down where the startup log logs to.

George_K

Member

From: Russie, Saint-Pétersbourg

Registered: 2006-09-27

Posts: 75

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

xfwm4 is a window manager - it cannot start X. Setup login manager, such as xdm, slim, enter, kdm or gdm and configure autologin. Or figure out how to start X with your user`s privileges, but this might be not enough clean way.

tom5760

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Registered: 2006-02-05

Posts: 283

Website

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

In addition to what George_K said, check out this wiki page: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Login_manager

.:B:.

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2006-11-26

Posts: 5,819

Website

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

startxfce4 does the job too .

I think it should be added in some .initrc to start up automatically (but I've never done that myself).

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KamiCrazy

Member

Registered: 2007-04-26

Posts: 11

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

Thanks for pointing out where I went wrong,

I chose to install slim, then I probably spent another 1 and a half hours trying to make sense of the slim.conf file.

I just want to check that I have set it up right, to get it to start xfce4 I set the login_cmd line to

login_cmd           exec /bin/bash -login /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc %session

? is that the correct method of calling xfce4 to start? I'm a bit worried cause the xinitrc script in there says that certain parts of it are not called if xinitrc-sessions is running, so maybe I'm supposed to call that instead...

Last edited by KamiCrazy (2007-04-26 17:31:03)

tom5760

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA, USA

Registered: 2006-02-05

Posts: 283

Website

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

What I do, is leave the slim.conf alone, and add this to my ~/.xinitrc

exec xfce4-session

Works like a charm!

KamiCrazy

Member

Registered: 2007-04-26

Posts: 11

Re: Getting xfce to autostart

I've changed it to the way tom has it, except I use startxfce4.. not sure what the differences are