Gnome running in X Window!!

1r0nman · 2008-08-20 04:53:59

ok, i have installed gnome on my archlinux box, forgive me if this is a stupid question, but is gnome supposed to be running inside of X windows? i am a long time user of Fedora and Ubuntu,and decided to give archlinux a try,and so far like it,im ok if gnome runs in X windows but if it isnt supposed to i would like to run normal gnome? if possible would someone tell me how?

thanks

kett · 2008-08-20 05:31:53

What do you mean inside of X windows? Is it not full screen, is that what you mean? X is used to provide graphical interfaces in linux, so it is necessary to run gnome. And you do start gnome using X.

How exactly are you starting gnome? Are you using a login manager? Or are you logging in in a console and typing startx? We really need more information to be able to help.

Statix · 2008-08-20 07:10:05

Sounds like you're a bit confused about what X is.

(It's great that you've come to Arch and are starting to learn the internals of your linux system. )

X is one of the few ways to transform your console Linux into the graphical Linux that you know well. It is used by pretty much every distribution (including Fedora and Ubuntu) and serves as the very base of your graphical system.
All desktop environments and window managers like Gnome, KDE, Xfce, Openbox, whatever run on top of X. So you're right to be using Gnome on top of X.

That's why Linux is often considered to be in layers.

This wiki entry explains it pretty well:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Win … re_they%3F

Edit:
Another thing I thought of is maybe you think that xfce is X? Xfce is a desktop environment like gnome, but X windows is the graphical base I'm talking about.

Last edited by Statix (2008-08-20 07:12:10)

1r0nman · 2008-08-20 19:02:31

thank you for the information,well i try to type gnome-session and i get a few errors,i type startx and load up the original X windows system,then i can type gnome-session in one of the terminals and it will load,from there on it forces me to put everything where i want it, the bottom pannel,the top pannel,the desktop itself,and any windows for programs, i tried putting exec gnome-session in the "/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc" config... then if i type startx, it will load up X windows and then go on to start gnome like before,just kind of weird to me...do yalls gnome run just like fedoras or ubuntu or is it supposed to run like that?

alleyoopster · 2008-08-20 19:19:37

In Fedora and Ubuntu I believe Gnome is started through GDM. This is the login manager that gnome (and others) can use. This is started as a daemon and firstly needs to be installed:

pacman -S gdm

Then you need to add gdm to the daemon list in /etc/rc.conf

DAEMONS=(...............other daemons here....... gdm)

With this config when you boot the system you will see a graphical logon interface and you can select gnome or others to work with.

You current config sounds like it is using ~/.xinitrc. When you call startx it will look at this file and call the Desktop that is configured. In this example it calls openbox. If you place "exec gnome-session" you can start gnome this way. Or the see above for graphical method

#!/bin/sh

#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
#

# exec wmaker
# exec startkde
# exec icewm
# exec blackbox
#exec fluxbox
#exec wmii
#exec ion3
exec openbox

See http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gnome for all this info and more

Last edited by alleyoopster (2008-08-20 19:26:59)

1r0nman · 2008-08-20 19:21:42

ok,never mind guys,i figured it out, i did not have my own /home/bryan/.xinitrc so i created one and added exec gnome-session inside, executed startx and everything is working perfectly, thanks for your help and so far i am enjoying my expierice with archlinux, i run a newer computer with Windows XP(hate it) for games....an old desktop computer with archlinux and gnome and an even older Pentium II laptop running Archlinux without X on frame buffer...i am starting to grow fond of arch

btartsa · 2008-08-20 19:26:29

You want exec gnome-session in .xinitrc in your home directory not /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

EDIT: heh you beat me too it!

Last edited by btartsa (2008-08-20 19:29:38)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-20 04:53:59

Gnome running in X Window!!

#2 2008-08-20 05:31:53

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

#3 2008-08-20 07:10:05

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

#4 2008-08-20 19:02:31

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

#5 2008-08-20 19:19:37

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

#6 2008-08-20 19:21:42

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

#7 2008-08-20 19:26:29

Re: Gnome running in X Window!!

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