If you are not using a graphical display manager (gsm, lightdm, kdm, ...), please consider adding this lines to your ~/.xinitrc #!/bin/sh userresources=$HOME/.Xresources usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap sysresources=/usr/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources sysmodmap=/usr/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap # merge in defaults and keymaps if [ -f $sysresources ]; then xrdb -merge $sysresources fi if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then xmodmap $sysmodmap fi if [ -f $userresources ]; then xrdb -merge $userresources fi if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then xmodmap $usermodmap fi # Start the window manager: if [ -x /usr/bin/ck-launch-session ]; then LAUNCH="ck-launch-session" else LAUNCH="" fi if [ -x /usr/bin/dbus-launch ]; then LAUNCH="$LAUNCH dbus-launch --exit-with-session" fi exec $LAUNCH /usr/bin/ratpoison