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Book Description

As X moves out of the hacker's domain and into the "real world," users can't be expected to master all the ins and outs of setting up and administering their own X software. That will increasingly become the domain of system administrators. Even for experienced system administrators, X raises many issues, both because of subtle changes in the standard UNIX way of doing things and because X blurs the boundaries between different platforms. Under X, users can run applications across the 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 system administration for X and X-based networks, written not just for UNIX system administrators but for anyone faced with the job of administering X (including those running X on stand-alone workstations). The book includes:

  • 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 upĀ 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  • How to use PC and Mac X servers to maximize reuse of existing hardware and convert outdated hardware into X terminals.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.

  • Table of Contents

    1. Cover Page
    2. Title Page
    3. Copyright
    4. Table of Contents
    5. Figures
    6. Tables
    7. Preface
      1. How to Use this Book
      2. Assumptions
      3. Related Documents
      4. Font Conventions Used in This Book
      5. Request for Comments
      6. Bulk Sales Information
      7. Acknowledgments
    8. Chapter 1 An Introduction to X Administration
      1. 1.1 The Design of X11
      2. 1.2 X Administration
    9. Chapter 2 The X User Environment
      1. 2.1 The Configured X Session
      2. 2.2 Components of the X Environment
      3. 2.3 The Shell Environment
      4. 2.4 Startup Methods
      5. 2.5 Related Documentation
    10. Chapter 3 The X Display Manager
      1. 3.1 xdm Concepts
      2. 3.2 xdm Configuration Files
      3. 3.3 xdm the Easy Way
      4. 3.4 Troubleshooting xdm
      5. 3.5 Customizing xdm
      6. 3.6 Testing Your xdm Setup
      7. 3.7 Permanent Installation of xdm
      8. 3.8 Related Documentation
    11. Chapter 4 Security
      1. 4.1 Host-based Access Control
      2. 4.2 Access Control with MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1
      3. 4.3 The XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 Mechanism (R5)
      4. 4.4 The SUN-DES-1 Mechanism (R5)
      5. 4.5 xterm and Secure Keyboard
      6. 4.6 Other Security Issues
      7. 4.7 Related Documentation
    12. Chapter 5 Font Management
      1. 5.1 Fonts on the X Window System
      2. 5.2 All About Fonts
      3. 5.3 Adding New Fonts
      4. 5.4 Providing Fonts Over the Network
      5. 5.5 The R5 Font Server
      6. 5.6 Related Documentation
    13. Chapter 6 Color
      1. 6.1 Color Specification in Release 4 and Earlier
      2. 6.2 Color Specification in Release 5 (Xcms)
      3. 6.3 Related Documentation
    14. Chapter 7 X Terminals
      1. 7.1 Buying an X Terminal: What's What
      2. 7.2 X Terminal Setup
      3. 7.3 Network Setup
      4. 7.4 Fonts on X Terminals
      5. 7.5 Configuring for the X Display Manager
      6. 7.6 Remote Configuration of X Terminals
      7. 7.7 Reconfiguring the Host
      8. 7.8 Related Documentation
    15. Chapter 8 Building the X Window System
      1. 8.1 Installation Issues
      2. 8.2 Source Preparation
      3. 8.3 Simplest Case Build
      4. 8.4 Host Problems
      5. 8.5 Simple Configuration
      6. 8.6 Building Programs After X Is Installed
      7. 8.7 More About imake
      8. 8.8 Porting Hints
      9. 8.9 Related Documentation
    16. Appendix A Useful Things to Know
      1. A.1 The comp.windows.x Newsgroup
      2. A.2 How to ftp a File
      3. A.3 The xstuff Mail Archive Server
      4. A.4 Unpacking Files
      5. A.5 Making a Filesystem Available via NFS
      6. A.6 How to Add a Host
      7. A.7 Adding an Ethernet Address
      8. A.8 Printing Documentation in the MIT X Distribution
      9. A.9 Converting a Number Into Hexadecimal and Back
      10. A.10 Configuring a Sun as an X terminal
      11. A.11 Using More than One Frame Buffer Under SunOS
    17. Appendix B Compiling Public Domain Software
      1. B.1 Finding the Sources
      2. B.2 An Example: xarchie
      3. B.3 Using Patches
      4. B.4 Another Example: xkeycaps
      5. B.5 Related Documentation
    18. Appendix C X on Non-UNIX Platforms
      1. C.1 X on DOS-based PCs
      2. C.2 X on Macintosh Computers
      3. C.3 X on NeXT Computers
    19. Appendix D Resources and Keysym Mappings
      1. D.1 Using Resources
      2. D.2 Defining Keys and Button Presses With xmodmap
      3. D.3 Related Documentation
    20. Appendix E The Components of X Products
      1. E.1 MIT X11 Release 5
      2. E.2 OSF/Motif
      3. E.3 Sun OpenWindows
      4. E.4 DECWindows
      5. E.5 AIXWindows
      6. E.6 Silicon Graphics
      7. E.7 A Guide to X11 Libraries
    21. Appendix F Getting X11
      1. F.1 Where Can I Get X11R5?
      2. F.2 Where Can I Get Patches to X11R5?
      3. F.3 Where Can I Get X11R4?
    22. Appendix G Error Messages
      1. G.1 X Errors
      2. G.2 UNIX Errors
      3. G.3 Compilation Errors
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