The The X Server Configuration HOWTO: http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/xorg-config.xml only tells you to emerge xorg-server, which doesn't install xterm or a window manager. That's fine (users should be able to choose their own terminal emulator and window manager as they wish), but the guide also mentions running startx to test whether X is working. There should be a warning that you may not be able to tell whether it's working unless you install such software before testing it, and possibly do some configuration to set what happens when startx is run. Reproducible: Didn't try emerge --info Portage 2.1.7.16 (default/linux/x86/10.0, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.10.1-r1, 2.6.27-17-generic i686) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.27-17-generic-i686-AMD_Athlon-tm-with-gentoo-1.12.13 Timestamp of tree: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:00:01 +0000 app-shells/bash: 4.0_p35 dev-lang/python: 2.6.4 dev-util/cmake: 2.6.4-r3 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.13 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.63-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc: 4.3.4 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6b virtual/os-headers: 2.6.30-r1 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86" ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA" CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe" CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/X11/xkb" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo" CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=native -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="assume-digests distlocks fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca/gentoo-distfiles http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/distributions/gentoo" LANG="en_CA.UTF-8" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X acl bash-completion berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cscope cups cxx dri fortran gdbm gpm hal iconv ipv6 modules mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam pcre perl png pppd python readline reflection session spl ssl sysfs tcpd unicode vim-with-x x86 xcb xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia nv vesa" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY
You don't run "startx" from within an xterm, and we shouldn't tell users to install an ugly, useless, hard-to-configure terminal they'll never use again.
You may have misunderstood my request - I didn't mean to imply that startx is run from an xterm, nor did I mean to suggest that the guide recommend the (pitiful, I agree) xterm program. I just meant that if you don't install anything but xorg-server, then run startx, as the guide describes, you just get a blank screen. In fact, X is working because the user hasn't run any software, but they might not know that - they might think the blank screen indicates a failure. I just think the guide should warn them that this isn't actually a failure. Relatedly, the default system-wide xinitrc in gentoo starts a few xterms.
