Keep getting 'can't open display' for whatever remote client i try

[coreuser]

I installed core only but added x since it was needed to run these apps. by the way who's bright idea was it to change the name from microcore to just core. Not only does it sound much less cool but it also makes searching for relevant info online a real nightmare since core is an exremely generic term and brings tons of irrelevant results.

I kept getting that message 'can't open display' on the tinycore command line. I tried with tight vnc and rdesktop.

I have installed the xstart thing and now the core install loads into the desktop by default. As a side note how do I stop that? I want x for rdp etc but i still want to boot into core and load X only as needed.
Anyhow I was reading an article which said:
If you have problems the first thing to do is to see the value of the variable DISPLAY on the client. If it is not set at all or set incorrectly you need to fix that, for example
export DISPLAY=10.10.10.1:0.0
So I put that line into the command line. Then I tried the clients again. Now it seems to hang for like two mins on the pressing of return but eventually it just returned: ERROR: Failed to open display: 10.10.10.1:0.0
What should I do now?
btw I'm trying to connect to windows 8.1. I initially tried with rdp/rdesktop but tightvnc is looking more appealing to me now.
oh yes I also tried running both from within the startx gui. rdesktop gave me another errror of could not connect or similar and tightvnc just dissappeared after I entered the server ip and nothing else happened.


I try and connect via rdesktop gui and get: Error: connect: Network is unreachable.
I try in to use both the public ip address and the local one that shows in ip config.
I tried putting: DISPLAY=myactualipofserver:1 and also DISPLAY=myactualipofserver:5901
Also export DISPLAY=myactualipofserver:0
All that did was change the can't open display to the ip I changed it to. Am I supposed to be putting the ip of the server I'm trying to connect to? which is what I did above?
I also tried xvhost + and that did nothing.
What to try next?

[gerald_clark]

You need to run rdesktop or vnc in X, not from the text console.
Before they will connect to the remote machine you need to make sure you can reach that machine over our network.
DISPLAY is the X display the X client is to connect to.  You do not need to set DISPLAY when displaying local xclients on the local X server from your aterm.

It sounds to me like you do not have your network properly configured.
To start in text mode, add the "text" boot option in your boot loader's config file.
Please read the book.  It explains how to launch X programs when you start the X server.

http://tinycorelinux.net/book.html

[coreuser]

Do you care to offer even a small clue as to how my network might not be properly configured? I tried to ping my windows machine and no issues there. I really know nothing about networking since Ive never needed it before.

As mentioned above I also tried running the programs in the gui which is what running in x means right? for vncviewer I input the server ip and as soon as I press return the little white box just dissappears and nothing happens.

[gerald_clark]

Vncviewer works if you have a compatible vncserver running on the other machine.
vncviewer IP:port

[Juanito]

I have installed the xstart thing and now the core install loads into the desktop by default. As a side note how do I stop that?

Use the "text" bootcode.

[coreuser]

Vncviewer works if you have a compatible vncserver running on the other machine.
vncviewer IP:port

I know and it still dissappears when I put them in