The X Window System
The Linux FAQ
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16. The X Window System
Q:
Does Linux Support X?
Q:
How To Get the X Window System to Work
Q:
Where To Find a Ready-Made
XF86Config
file
Q:
What Desktop Environments Run on Linux?
Q:
xterm
Logins Show Up Strangely in
who
finger
Q:
How to Start a X Client on Another Display
Q:
Does Linux Support X?
A:
Yes. Linux uses XFree86 (the current version is 4.0, which is based on X11R6). You need
to have a video card which is supported by XFree86. See the
XFree86 HOWTO
for more details.
Most Linux distributions nowadays come with an X installation. However, you
can install or upgrade your own, from
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/
and its mirror sites, or from
Q:
How To Get the X Window System to Work
A:
The answers to this question can, and
do, fill entire books. If the installation program wasn't able to configure
the X server correctly, Linux will most likely try to start the X display,
fail, and drop back into text-only terminal mode.
First and foremost, make certain that you have provided, as closely as possible, the
correct information to the installation program of your video hardware: the
video card and monitor. Some installation programs can correctly guess a
"least common denominator" screen configuration, like a 640-by-480
VESA-standard display, but there are many possible video hardware
configurations that may not be able to display this standard.
The X Window System configuration file is called (usually)
/etc/XF86Config
/etc/X11/XF86Config
, or
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config
If you need to manually configure the X server, there are several possible methods:
Try to use the
XF86Setup
program, which can help identify the correct X
server and monitor timings for the video hardware.
Make sure that the X server has the correct options. If you
log in as the superuser, you should be able to use
--probeonly
to get a listing of the video card chipset, memory, and
any special graphics features. Also, refer to the manual page for the X
server. (E.g.;
man X
), and try running the X server and
redirecting the standard error output to a file so you can determine, after
you can view text on the screen again, what error messages the server is
generating; e.g.,
X 2>x.error
With that information, you should be able to safely refer to
one of the references provided by the Linux Documentation Project. ("Where
can I get the HOWTO's and other documentation? ") There are several HOWTO's
on the subject, including a HOWTO to calculate video timings manually if
necessary. Also, the
Installation and Getting Started
guide has a chapter with a step-by-step guide to writing a
XF86Config
file.
Also, make sure that the problem really is an incorrect
XF86Config
file, not something else like the window
manager failing to start. If the X server is working correctly, you should be
able to move the mouse cursor on the screen, and pressing
Ctrl
Alt
Backspace
will shut down the X server and return to the shell prompt in one of the
virtual terminals.
Q:
Where To Find a Ready-Made
XF86Config
file
A:
If you can't seem to get X working using the guidelines above, refer to the
XFree86 HOWTO
, recent versions of
Installation and Getting Started
, and the instructions
for the
XF86Setup
program.
The contents of the
XF86Config
file depend on the your
exact combination of video card and monitor. It can either be configured by
hand, or using the
XF86Setup
utility. Read the
instructions that came with XFree86, in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc
. The file you probably need to
look at most is
README.Config
You should not use the sample
XF86Config.eg
file which
is included with newer versions of XFree86 verbatim, because the wrong video
clock settings can damage your monitor.
Please don't post to
news:comp.os.linux.x
asking for an
XF86Config
, and please don't answer such requests.
If you have a laptop, look at the Linux Laptop Web page at
How Do I Find Out If a Notebook Runs Linux?
Many of
the installation notes also have the
XF86Config
file for
the display. If you have a desktop machine, there are a few sample
XF86Config
files at
ftp://metalab.unc.edu/
. Refer also to the
XFree86 FAQ
and the monitor timings
list
, and in the
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/
directory of your X distribution.
Q:
What Desktop Environments Run on Linux?
A:
Linux with XFree86 supports the
KDE, GNOME, and commercial CDE desktop environments, and extended window
managers like WindowMaker. Each uses a different set of libraries and
provides varying degrees of MS Windows-like look and feel.
Information on KDE is available from
. The KDE environment uses the
Qt graphics libraries, available from Trolltech at
The desktop uses its own window manager, kwm,
and provides a MS Windows-like look and feel.
The GNOME home page is
The environment uses the free GTK libraries,
available from
, and window managers like
Enlightenment,
and SawFish,
There's also a Web page for
Red Carpet
, a
GNOME installation and upgrade utility that functions much like Debian's
apt-get
utility with a friendly GUI front end.
It's at
The commercial CDE environment uses the Motif libraries and a variation of
the Motif
mwm
window manager,
dtwm
, and
provides a suite of desktop and
session-management utilities. Several vendors have made the source
code of Motif available and provided binary packages for Linux
distributions. As a starting point, download and installation
information is available at
A free version of Motif, called LessTiF, is available from
WindowMaker,
is a window manager that
has many desktop environment-like features. It provides support for
GNUstep,
, a clone of the
commercial NeXTStep environment.
Q:
xterm
Logins Show Up Strangely in
who
finger
A:
The
xterm
that comes with XFree86 2.1 and
earlier doesn't correctly understand the format that Linux uses for the
/var/adm/utmp
file,
where the system records who is logged in. It therefore doesn't set
all the information correctly.
The
xterms
in XFree86 3.1 and later versions
fix this problem.
Q:
How to Start a X Client on Another Display
A:
To start a X client on another system that has a running X
server, use the following commands:
Use
xhost
on the server system
to allow the client system use the display. If the server's
IP address is 192.168.20.1, enter the command:
$ xhost + 192.168.20.1
On the client system, open a telnet connection to the server system.
In the telnet session, start a
xterm
in
the background with the
-display
and
-e
options. For example, if the IP address of
the machine running the server is 192.168.20.1 and the client
program name is named
clientapp
, use the following command:
$ xterm -display 192.168.20.1 -e clientapp &
[Pierre Dal Farra]
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