Re: GNU/Hurd Newbie question: Configure Xorg with twm for normal user

[Svante Signell]

On Sun, 2011-11-13 at 13:19 -0600, Mark Lies wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Today is November 13, 2011.  I am a new user of GNU/Hurd.  I am
> comfortable with a command line interface, and originally intended to
> use GNU/Hurd exclusively in CLI mode, but over the past week decided I
> would like to install Xorg and use a lightweight window manager like
> twm so I can have several terminal windows open on the same screen. 
...
>   However, I'm still very interested in setting up xorg.

OK

> So far I have Xorg running on my computer and have twm set as the
> default window manager.  I am having the following problem.  When I
> type startx as root, everything seems to work as expected; I have a
> black screen with an X-shaped cursor and twm behaves as normal.  When
> I type startx as a normal user, I only get a black screen.

dpkg-reconfigure x11-common

Choose Anybody are allowed to start the X server:
Root Only or Console Users Only does not work.

> 
> What have I done to attempt to fix this?
> Dpkg-reconfigure x11-common did not work for me. 

It should, see above. And create the file ~/.xinitrc:
#! /bin/bash
exec twm
(I normally use wmaker)

When twm has started, press the left mouse button to see the menu, etc!

> Also, I found that I had no xorg.conf file in /etc/X11, and for some
> reason, my GNU/Hurd system does not even have dpkg-reconfigure
> (perhaps I need to modify PATH to find it???).

If you become root with su, use "su -" to get the root environment,
including /sbin,/usr/sbin.

> I found this link to generate a xorg.conf file [2] and moved it
> to /etc/X11, though I recently renamed it because I learned from
> reading my startx log that xinit was using a different configuration
> file rendering xorg.conf useless anyway.

Some options ar no longer honoured others are. Inlined below is a
minimal xorg.conf that might help you.

> cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
# Use when the mouse cursor looks strange/behaves badly.
Section "Device"
  Identifier "Configured Video Device"
  Option "HWCursor" "off"
EndSection

# Exiting X when xinit cannot shut down X (as user):
Section "InputDevice"
  Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
  Driver "kbd"
  Option "XkbRules"   "xorg"
#  Option "XkbModel    "pc105"
  Option "XkbLayout"  "se"
  Option "XkbOptions" "terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp"
EndSection

- Adjust to your keyboard and language needs!
- Turn off the HWCursor if you have problems to with a choppy/erratic
mouse.
- The terminate:... option enables you to exit from X as a regular user
with that keyboard sequence after exiting you WM. Otherwise you are
stuck in X as you write:( 


HTH,
Good luck!