Chapter 15: Managing X Servers and X Clients

Overview

Newer Linux users often prefer a graphical user interface (GUI). If they re not administrators, they don t need the flexibility of the command line. They do need optimized graphics to design airplanes, create movies, chart statistical data, and other tasks . Some are regular consumers who want an easy transition from another operating system. The two most common GUIs are GNOME (see Chapter 16 ) and KDE (see Chapter 17 ).

While most veteran Linux administrators prefer the command-line interface, they should recognize that many users have a legitimate need for the GUI. To this end, Red Hat Linux includes the X Client and X Server system developed by the XFree86 project ( www.xfree86.org ). Linux GUIs use this client-server structure.

You may have already configured the X Window and installed GNOME and/or KDE when you installed Red Hat Linux. As long as you ve installed the basic X packages, you can use the basic xf86config or redhat-config-xfree86 tools to configure the X Window on your computer.

The critical X Window configuration file is XF86Config , in the /etc/X11 directory. It includes a number of sections that we ll analyze in detail. There are several other significant X Window configuration files that can help you customize your system. This chapter covers the following topics:

• Using the basic configuration tools

• Understanding the configuration files

• Troubleshooting the X Window