Starting a Window Manager
Most window managers are started by line entries in a file called .xinitrc in your home directory. The systemwide default .xinitrc file is found under the /etc/X11/xinit or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit directory. When you first start X (as detailed in the section Starting X11 in Chapter 12, "Running and Configuring X11"), the xinit program (started by the startx command) first looks for the initializer file .xinitrc in your home directory. If it is not found, xinit then looks for .xinitrc in the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit directory.
You do not have to use the default .xinitrc system file, but if you want to experiment, use the cp command to copy and create your own .xinitrc file, like this:
# cp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc ...
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