Getting X to run as a normal user

["Rich Harran." <95rmwh@eng.cam.ac.uk>]

I one of those people who've moved from windows, and use their computers
as a single user.  Thus I've always done everything as root.  I'm finally
trying to get out of this habit, but it's not so easy once everything is
set up.

I'm having problems getting X running properly as a normal user: it loads
up, but the window manger / xterm don't appear.  I exit it using
<cntl><alt><<->, and get the error:

	/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc: /dev/null: permission denied

repeated three times.

I originally had no .Xsession in root or in the home of the normal user,
but I sym-linked .Xsession in the user directory to .Xsession in /etc/X11,
to no avail (same errors).

Please help

TIA Rich.