Chapter 4. Using Cygwin/X

Table of Contents
Starting Cygwin/X
Switching Out of Cygwin/X
Stopping Cygwin/X
Window Managers
Windows Clipboard Integration
Shared Memory Support (MIT-SHM Extension)
Remote Sessions via XDMCP
Displaying Remote Clients

Starting Cygwin/X

There are several methods of starting the Cygwin/X X Server with a startup script that optionally starts initial clients and loads keyboard modifier maps. Several startup methods are described below.

startxwin.bat

startxwin.bat - Use a MS-DOS batch file as the startup script. An example startxwin.bat is included in X-startup-scripts, which is extracted according to the instructions in the Section called Installing Cygwin/X in Chapter 2. Run /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.bat by double-clicking it in Windows Explorer.

startxwin.sh

startxwin.sh - Use an sh shell script as the startup script. An example startxwin.sh is included in X-startup-scripts, which is extracted according to the instructions in the Section called Installing Cygwin/X in Chapter 2. Run /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh in a Cygwin shell:


Username@CygwinHost ~
$ sh /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh

startx

startx - Use the standard X Window System startx script with its attendant ~/.xinitrc configuration file. First you need to create ~/.xinitrc from the template in /etc/X11/xinit/:


Username@CygwinHost ~
$ cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Now you may customize ~/.xinitrc and start Cygwin/X with:


Username@CygwinHost ~
$ cd /usr/X11R6/bin && startx

Or, you can run startx by first adding /usr/X11R6/bin/ to the search path:


Username@CygwinHost ~
$ PATH=%PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin

Username@CygwinHost ~
$ startx

Or, you can run startx by first changing directories to /usr/X11R6/bin/:


Username@CygwinHost ~
$ cd /usr/X11R6/bin

Username@CygwinHost /usr/X11R6/bin
$ startx