Cannot start X server

["Jon S. Berndt" <jsb at hal-pc dot org>]

I have been using Cygwin for some time and today I needed to try out the XFree86
server. I downloaded everything and got to the point where I could run the
startxwin.bat script (which is broken in the first place) but all I ever got was
a blank X background screen and X cursor.

startxwin.bat seems to be broken because

1) /B is not an option for "start"
2) There doesn't seem to be a "vtwm"

I tried running xdm, but got a message saying only root wants to run it.

I tried alt-tabbing back to the bash shell after I had double-clicked
startxwin.bat but found I could not alt-tab to anywhere.

I tried running xinit supplied with xterm and then again with twm but got
nowhere.

I tried setting up a .xinitrc that would have started xterm and twm but that
wouldn't work.

I tried setting up my own startup script based on startxwin.bat but for bash
instead. I thought this had the best chance for success but I was wrong. The
cross-hatched X display background always displayed nicely, but everything else
hung. I found I was able to kill it by alt tabbing and then hitting
control-alt-delete. When I saw the shell again it seemed that whatever I did the
xterm and/or twm tried to start before the X display server was completely
started up. I kept seeing a "Connection refused (error 111)". It is funny
because the installation guide says "download the stuff and run, it works!" in
so many words. I can't get any applications to start. I've checked the list mail
archives, but that wasn't very helpful. Any light anyone could shed on this
problem will be much appreciated.

Jon Berndt