If you’ve got a RedHat box, with X11 set up, and you’re moving the box to a new location (like I did yesterday), with new IP addresses, and you want to use the GUI tools (like redhat-config-network) to set the new network settings, you might be disappointed to find that typing startx to start up X11 won’t work — the machine just sits there doing nothing.

The root of this appears to be that missing, or incorrect network settings (and/or DNS settings) give the X startup process problems.

The solution?

Just turn off your Ethernet interfaces temporarily:

ifdown eth0

Then you can startx as normal, set up your network, and then either activate the interfaces with GUI tools, or, from the command line:

ifup eth0