X won't start without .xinitrc/.xsession

[Kent West <westk@nicanor.acu.edu>]

I'm running XFree86 Version 4.1.1.1 on Debian (Sid) with a 2.4.7 kernel. 
This is a fresh install.

If I create a .xinitrc in my home directory and put a window manager in 
it, X starts fine. However, without the .xinitrc X won't start. On all 
other systems I've installed, X starts without a user have .xinitrc, so 
I'm concluding that a default xinitrc is not being read. This also means 
that a graphical session manager (KDM is the only one I've tried) 
doesn't work either.

I looked at /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, which I would have thought was the 
global xinitrc file, and it sources /etc/X11/Xsession.

So I looked in etc/X11/Xsession, and I can't really make sense of the 
file, nor do I see a reference to any window managers.

Can anyone tell me what I'm missing?

Thanks!


Kent