Why I can't use 'startx' command to start X Server on RHEL7 with "X window system" package group?

Solution Verified - Updated -

Issue

  • Can't start the X server using the startx command, while the basic xinit command works.

  • The server is running RHEL7, installed as a minimal server, only the core and "X window system" package group plus xterm are installed. But when try to run startx command, it fails with following error:

    xinit: connection to X server lost

waiting for X server to shut down (EE) Server terminated successfully (0). 
Closing log file.

  • xinit command without any options starts fine, but startx with the default RHEL7 system xinitrc script fails. What is causing this problem?

Environment

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • xorg-x11-xinit-1.3.2-14.el7.x86_64

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