UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi guys

I'm having a slight problem. Every time I run the StartX command from my csh, it just says cannot access terminal. Can anyone tell me why this is and what it means?

Thank you

hellz.

Can you give more details?
What OS? How are you accessing that machine...
from the console? from a terminal? from Windows
machine?

hi mate,

Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry I've been so vague with every question I've asked but I've kind of been set a 'Linux Challenge', and although I'm allowed to ask for help, I can't be incredibly specific (which is frustrating the hell outta me.).

Apparently, StartX has been disabled, so my situation is this. A Linux environment (using a C-shell.) has been completely tailored for me to solve a challenge. I'm not allowed to use any scripts, I have no permissions on practically everything as I'm supposed to use my observation skills to determine my goal.

Now here's my problem. Whenever I type "echo" with anything after it, it will ALWAYS output:

$input

So even if I try "echo 'Hi, how are you?'", it would always output: $input. I'm pretty certain that my goal lies within this variable, but it won't let me print the damn thing. I've tried cat $input, print $input, print($input), but nothing happens (most commands have been disabled too to be incredibly restrictive.)

Is there a way to display the contents of a variable, without the use of any scripting, and without the cat/print commands?

Thanks guys, sorry to harp on about this.

hellz.

sounds to me like you're not even running the
"real" echo command. What do you get when
you run: which echo

I'm wondering if you're "environment" has it
(and other commands) aliased to somthing else.
In any case, it sounds like you're being tested
so I'm not sure how much info. I should give

Maybe double substitution could be an idea? Try using eval and see what happens, that is if eval works...

hi mate

I've run "which echo" but it comes up with nothing. It's just a simulation, there are no marks for this or anything like that. It's more of a "test project" to see if linux newbies (not computer newbies.) are able to investigate and find holes in systems by doing their own research.

I mean with regards to Linux, I really don't know anything, and most of the things I've read up on have been disabled which is why I've resulted to asking questions in here in the hope I can find something. I totally apologise if this is the wrong place to post in but I just can't find anywhere else that will help.

Thanks again

hellz.

eval didn't work

hellz.