minimal CD --> startx

[Liam Proven]

On 16 September 2012 00:53, Oliver Grawert <ogra at ubuntu.com> wrote:
> hi,
> On Sat, 15 Sep 2012 18:40:02 +0100
> Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> wrote:
>> And what exactly does one *do* with this, that is the question?
>>
>> It ain't "X-Windows" if there aren't any windows. ;¬)
>>
> wow, i love that we have this discussion since it reminds me how far
> linux on the desktop has come since people like i started using
> it ...
>
> had you started where i come from then you would have used a desk
> calculator to compute the proper modelines for your CRT by hand (always
> being anxious because you know a single wrong number could fry the
> thing into an irreparable boulder)
>
> anyway, back to the topic, after you would have successfully started
> your new X the only thing that would show up was an unmanaged xterm
> window in the top left of your screen after you ran startx ...
>
> and guess what, that didnt change til today ;) ... and you can do a lot
> with an unmanaged xterm (compile a window manager and run it for
> example)
>
> its really good to see that only old farts like me seem to remember
> this and that its knowledge thats only good for an anecdote in a ML
> today because our system got so far ...

:¬)

Yes indeed. Linux was like this when I started, with Slackware in about 1995.

The thing that surprises me is that FreeBSD still is much like it today.

> but in any case: sudo apt-get install xorg && startx
> gets you actually something to work with, there is exactly one window
> and it is unmanaged.

I would not have linked the commands like that.

Is the single unmanaged terminal session the default? I have often
found myself without, in which case all you can do is kill X with
Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (if "noclobber" is not enabled) or switch to a
different vconsole with Ctrl-Alt-1/2/3/4/5/6 and kill X.

-- 
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