8mb of memory is a recommended minimum for running X. The server, window manager and an xterm take about 4 Mb of memory themselves. On a 4Mb system that would leave nothing left over for other applications like gcc that expect a few meg free. X will work with 4Mb of memory, but in practice compilation while running X can take 5 or 10 times as long due to constant paging.
The easiest way for new users to start X windows is to type:
startx >& startx.log
Error messages are lost unless you redirect them
because the server takes over the screen.
To get out of X windows, type: ``exit'' in the console xterm.
You can customize your X by creating .xinitrc, .xserverrc,
and .twmrc files in your home directory as described in the xinit
and startx man pages.
To start the display manager, log in as root on the console and type:
``xdm -nodaemon''.
You can start xdm automatically on bootup by disabling the console getty
and adding the following code to /etc/rc.local:
if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm ]; then
echo -n ' xdm'; /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm
fi
To disable the console getty, change ``on'' to ``off'' in
the console entry in /etc/ttys:
ttyv0 "/usr/libexec/getty Pc" pc off secure
Under NetBSD 1.4 with the wscons console driver, you must enable a virtual console for the X server first. To do this follow these steps:
cd /dev ;
./MAKEDEV wscons''. wscons=YES'' in
/etc/rc.conf./etc/wscons.conf exists. The relevant
bits:
#screen 0 - vt100
screen 1 - vt100
screen 2 - vt100
screen 3 - vt100
screen 4 - -
screen 5 - vt100
<mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us> for
this explanation)
Note that the binary distributions of XFree86 for NetBSD don't include support for the XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 protocol.