Initializing X clients (Was: List mail being redirected?)

[brownh@hartford-hwp.com (Haines Brown)]

> > At present, my X server starts, but all I get is a blank blue
> > screen. I try to start icewm (it seems to be ready to run) by
> > adding an exec into /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc and in ~/.Xinitrc, but
> > nothing happens.
> 
> This should be ~/.xinitrc (all lowercase). Actually, I always put it
> in ~/.xsession , I believe both things should work, but try the
> later. Also, make sure that they have executable permisions
> 
> $ chmod +x ~/.xinitrc ~/.xsession

Actually, the .Xinitrc was a typo; I usually use .Xclients. I tried
your .xinitrc and .xsession, but they did not help. Actually, there's
some more relevant information. 

First, I do get the debian logo white screen, and then the blue
screen, and that I take implies the X server successfully loads
(also, it reports no errors). 

Second, the actual error that shows up in .xsession-errors is:

  IceWM: Bad Option:

I take this to mean that the problem is not with X, but with IceWM. I
also infer that the icewm executable is called, but it has an
invalid option. However, the icewm binary has no options, and I've no
user defined options that would cause this. 

Third, the actual command I use to start icewm is:

  exec icewm || exec xterm

and my understanding is that this opens an xterm if the window manager
fails to run. But that does not happen. Hard to reconcile this with
previous point unless the failure of icewm to load an option properly
halts the process entirely at that point.
 
Haines