X server start problem

[Peter Scott <drip at ucsc dot edu>]

I've just downloaded and installed cygwin on my Dell Inspiron
8600 laptop, which runs Windows XP.  However I am having
difficulty getting the X server to work, and I am writing to
ask for suggestions and help.  What follows is a description
of what I have done, and a copy of an XWin.log file that was
produced upon trying to start X.

1. I downloaded and installed cygwin (version 1.5.24-2), using
the "install all" option (not the "default" option---but I've
tried both, it seems not to matter), as user "peter" with full
administrative privileges.  The installation seemed to proceed
flawlessly.

2. Clicking on the cygwin desktop icon brings up a cygwin
window, but does not copy .bashrc, .bash_profile, or .inputrc
to my home directory.  [However if I log in to a different
account on the same (stand-alone) machine, those files DO get
copied to the home directory of that user upon the first
invocation of cygwin.]

3. Clicking on the X icon (either before or after step 2) will
then cause the appearance of a window (xterm?) for a fraction
of a second, BUT NOT LONGER.  Although XWin is started (along
with xinit), it is non-functional.  The command "ps -elf"
shows both XWin and xinit as running processes, owned by
user "peter".  No X applications will run, and no DISPLAY gets
set.  [Even if I manually set the DISPLAY=:0.0 (or
DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0) it does not work---I would expect that
the DISPLAY environment variable would get set automatically.]
If i give the command "gnuplot" in the cygwin window, it
starts, but with term=unknown.  [If I manually set the DISPLAY
variable, gnuplot starts with term=X11, but a command such as
"plot x" does not work.]

4. If I attempt to log out at this point, Windows fails to
kill XWin gracefully, and pops up the "Exit Now" window, which
says "A fatal error has occurred and Cygwin/X will now exit...
     ...
     Release: 6.8.99.901-4
     ...
     XWin started with the following command line:
     /usr/X11R6/gin/XWin -multiwindow -clipboard -silent-dup-error

and I have to click on the "Exit Now" button to complete the
log out.

5. Sometimes step 4 happens even when I have used the "kill -9"
command to kill the XWin process number shown in the output from
ps -elf.

6. The X server will also not start when invoked from a different
account on the same machine.

7. Giving the "startx" command in the cygwin window also does not
work, with results similar to the above.

Here is a typical XWin.log:

=======================================================================
_XSERVTransmkdir: ERROR: euid != 0,directory /tmp/.X11-unix will not be created.
(II) XF86Config is not supported
(II) See http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-x-faq.html for more information
winAdjustVideoModeShadowGDI - Using Windows display depth of 32 bits per pixel
winAllocateFBShadowGDI - Creating DIB with width: 1920 height: 1200 depth: 32
winInitVisualsShadowGDI - Masks 00ff0000 0000ff00 000000ff BPRGB 8 d 24 bpp 32
null screen fn ReparentWindow
null screen fn RestackWindow
InitQueue - Calling pthread_mutex_init
InitQueue - pthread_mutex_init returned
InitQueue - Calling pthread_cond_init
InitQueue - pthread_cond_init returned
winInitMultiWindowWM - Hello
winInitMultiWindowWM - Calling pthread_mutex_lock ()
winMultiWindowXMsgProc - Hello
winMultiWindowXMsgProc - Calling pthread_mutex_lock ()
MIT-SHM extension disabled due to lack of kernel support
XFree86-Bigfont extension local-client optimization disabled due to lack of shared memory support in the kernel
(--) Setting autorepeat to delay=500, rate=31
(--) winConfigKeyboard - Layout: "00000409" (00000409) 
(--) Using preset keyboard for "English (USA)" (409), type "4"
(EE) Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap
(--) 3 mouse buttons found
Could not init font path element /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/, removing from list!
FreeFontPath: FPE "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/" refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing.
=======================================================================

Any thoughts or suggestions as to how I might proceed would be most appreciated.
Should I pay attention to the line above that says:
"(EE) Couldn't load XKB keymap, falling back to pre-XKB keymap"?

If so, what should I do about it?

[that line does not always appear in XWin.log files that are
produced when I fool around trying things.]

    -- Peter Scott

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