>I have been trying for a little bit to get X up and running.  "startx" and
>"xterm" don't want to work but if I type "X" it launches into X windows but
>then I can't do anything (no windows- only the patterned background with my
>mouse cusor looking like an X).  I cannot get out of this and I can't get
>any response from the machine.  Any ideas?
>
>- JAM

type "xinit". this will run the X server and an xterm.
to make it more customized, edit ~/.xinitrc and add stuff in there. "man
xinit" for details.
you probably want to use "twm" as your last line, so when you quit your
window manager (twm), the X server will die too, otherwise you'll have to
kill -9 the xserver, and that's annoying, unclean too.
good luck,
  - a