startx > xauth - bad display name error

[Bryan Pierce <bdpierce%qwest.net@localhost>]

Hello again, everyone!!

I've been up and running with NetBSD 4.0 on an 333Mhz iMac for about a 
week now!
And I've gotta admit that I'm pretty impressed with how things have gone 
so far :D

I did run into a hitch trying to get Xfree86 going. (remember...I'm a 
total newbie here ;-P  )
The configuration seemed to go fine, but I'm getting an error when I 
type 'startx'
I've also had a couple smaller questions that I've been wondering about 
and so I thought that
maybe I could hit up everyone up for answers to those as ell.

################## Xfree86 problem ###################

So first off, I'm trying to run Xfree86 for the first time

I ran
     # xf86config
to set up the XF86Config file

Then I ran these checks

   *

     ||*|ls -l /usr/X11R6/bin/X|*||

   *

     |#| *|X -probeonly|*

And they both check out fine, but when I run
       # startx
I get this message...
       xauth: (argv):1: bad display name "myComputer.myDomain.dom:0" in 
"list" command

Unfortunately, my brain's having a hard time parsing the error message. 
I don't know
if there's a problem with a file somewhere on my computer, or it's some 
sort of network
problem. (Setting dhclient=YES seemingly got my network working 
fine...although I
still tried to set up the rest of the settings as best as I could figure 
out, just to try to be thourough)


I've tried reading through the man pages, searching the archives, 
and...well...I don't really
understand what I'm reading anyway :-P



The only other thing I know is trying to reinstall it using pkg_add, but 
that's going to
probably take a dedicated evening.

################## A couple extra tiny questions ###################

And that does bring up a couple of newbie administration questions that 
I haven't
stumbled across answers for yet, so while I'm here...

When setting up the package system...I have to type...
(actually the way the documentation lists this doesn't make total sense 
to me...
... I mean, why the 'export' in both lines? is that right?'

   export   PKG_PATH="ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/etc/etc/etc";
   export   PKG_PATH

So I'm thinking "export" is for normal users because it doesn't work as  
root  (?)
(so would using "set" work as root?  - just an intuitive guess)

Anyway,  is there a way to make typing this more permanant?  Can I just 
type it into
the rc.config  file so that I don't have to type it  every time I want  
to use the package
installer?


And the same with
      stty erase '^h'
actually it seems like I have to type this everytime I su to root. Is 
there a way to make this
more permanant... (I've seen some terminal settings in the rc.conf...but 
nothing that popped
out at me as possibly fixing this)

And while I'm here...is there a way to make the command-line history 
(i.e. <uparrow>) work?
( all I get is '^[[A' characters)


Thanks in advance, everyone, for your time and patience!!!

Sincerely,

Bryan Pierce