X Window System Administrator's Guide

As X moves out of the hacker's domain and into the "real world," userscan't be expected to master all the ins and outs of setting up andadministering their own X software. That will increasingly become thedomain of system administrators. Even for experienced systemadministrators, X raises many issues, both because of subtle changes inthe standard UNIX way of doing things and because X blurs the boundariesbetween different platforms. Under X, users can run applications acrossthe network on systems with different resources (including fonts,colors, and screen size). Many of these issues are poorly understood,and the technology for dealing with them is in rapid flux.This book is the first and only book devoted to the issues of systemadministration for X and X-based networks, written not just for UNIXsystem administrators but for anyone faced with the job of administeringX (including those running X on stand-alone workstations). The bookincludes:* An overview of X that focuses on issues that affect the system administrator's job.* Information on obtaining, compiling, and installing the X software, including a discussion of the trade-offs between vendor-supplied and the free MIT versions of X.* How to set up xdm, the X display manager, which takes the place of the login program under X and can be used to create a customized turnkey X session for each user.* How to set up user accounts under X (includes a comparison of the familiar shell setup files and programs to the new mechanisms provided by X).* Issues involved in making X more secure. X's security features are not strong, but an understanding of what features are available can be very important, since X makes it possible for users to intrude on each other in new and sometimes unexpected ways.* How fonts are used by X, including a description of the font server.* A discussion of the issues raised by running X on heterogenous networks.* How colors are managed under X and how to get the same colors across multiple devices with different hardware characteristics.* The administration issues involved in setting up and managing an X terminal.* How to use PC and Mac X servers to maximize reuse of existing hardware and convert outdated hardware into X terminals.* How to obtain and install additional public domain software and patches for X.* Covers features new in R5, including the font server and Xcms.The X Window System Administrator's Guide is available either alone orpackaged with the XCD. The CD provides X source code and binaries tocomplement the instructions for installing the software that are givenin the book. It contains over 600 megabytes of X11 source code and binariesstored in ISO9660 and RockRidge formats. This will allow several types ofUnix workstations to mount the CD-ROM as a filesystem, browse through thesource code, and install pre-built software. The XCD includes:* Source code for MIT X11 Release 4 and Release 5 "core" and "contrib" distributions and recent "fixes".* Binaries of MIT Release 5 "core" for Sun3, Sun4, DECstation and IBM RS/6000 platforms. This includes the X Server and important clients such as the twm window manager and xterm.* Several of the non-MIT programs described in the book that can be used in administration (getbdf, xtici, xcoloredit) in source and binary form.* Young Minds "RockRidge" CD-ROM software to permit mounting the CD-ROM as a Unix-like filesystem.* Software that allows custom installation or compilation of source code on the CD-ROM.* Examples from the O'Reilly X Window System Series books and The X Resource.