Runlevel 5 - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4.5.0 Reference Manual

directory to define the desktop environment and possibly other X client applications to run. If no
file is present, it uses the system default
.xinitrc
The default script then looks for user-defined files and default system files, including
xinitrc
,
.Xresources .Xmodmap
and in the
Xkbmap /etc/X11/
the utility to configure the keyboard. The
xmodmap
preference values to applications.
After setting these options, the
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/
configures settings such as the default language.
Next, the script tries to execute
xinitrc
/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients
the desktop environment or, possibly, just a basic window manager. The
user's home directory starts the user-specified desktop environment in the
file. If does not exist in the user's home directory, the standard
.Xclients
/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients
GNOME first and then KDE followed by
The user is returned to a text mode user session after logging out of X from runlevel 3.

5.2. Runlevel 5

When the system boots into runlevel 5, a special X client application, called a display manager,
is launched. A user must authenticate using the display manager before any desktop
environment or window managers are launched.
Depending on the desktop environments installed on the system, three different display
managers are available to handle user authentication.
• — The default display manager for Red Hat Enterprise Linux,
GNOME
configure language settings, shutdown, restart or log in to the system.
• — KDE's display manager which allows the user to shutdown, restart or log in to the
KDE
system.
• — A very basic display manager which only lets the user log in to the system.
xdm
When booting into runlevel 5, the
referencing the
/etc/sysconfig/desktop
/usr/share/doc/initscripts-<version-number>/ sysconfig.txt
file (where
<version-number>
Each of the display managers reference the
, and in the user's home directory, and
.Xkbmap
directory. The
Xmodmap
script executes all scripts located in the
xinitrc
directory. One important script in this directory is
.Xclients
if it cannot be found. The purpose of the
script attempts to start another desktop environment, trying
.
twm
script determines the preferred display manager by
prefdm
file. A list of options for this file is available within the
is the version number of the
/etc/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
and files, if they exist, are used by
Xkbmap
file is read to assign specific
Xresources
in the user's home directory and turns to
Xclients
GNOME
initscripts
file to set up the login
Runlevel 5
file instead.
,
Xresources Xmodmap
, which
xinput
file is to start
script in the
.Xclients
.Xclients-default
allows the user to
package).
113
,