X question

[Chakravarthi]

Hi all,

can some explain me, what is X, if this is used to Xwindows then what are KDE and GNOME. how they are corelated. How they work, and when machine ( X ) hangs, what all should i check,

regards
chakri

[Michael Steele_2]

The command set in Linux changes so much with every new release that it???s really important to have your release and version information. For example, the differences between Red Hat 6.1 and 8.0.

What I think you are referring to is XML, (* Extensive Markup Language *) which is used with LINUX, GNOME, KDE (* K desktop environment *).

So this is mostly GNU shareware while X-windows and CDE are proprietary. Since they are proprietary they don't 'really' qualify for LINUX.

Here are two links about XML the later discusses it's interactions with GNOME, et al:

[Kjartan Maraas]

From 'man X':

The X Window System is a network transparent window system which runs on a wide range of computing and graphics machines.

GNOME and KDE are desktop environments running on top of X Windows providing functionality similar to a bare-bones Windows install. KDE has it's own window manager, and GNOME is more agnostic in this area.

http://www.gnome.org/start/2.2/ and
http://www.kde.org/

has more information.

If you experience hangs in X you could try disabling DRI in /etc/X11/XF86Config and see if that helps. Other than that check the logs in /var/log/messages and /var/log/XFree86.0.log maybe.

[Chakravarthi]

what is this DRI, i cant find it in my XF86config file


regards
chakri

[James Roper]

I'm not a unix guru, so someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought I'd have a go at explaining it.

X is a windowing system primarily for unix. It is what controls the windows and allows them to be moved, resized, overlap etc. It is an easy (depending on how you look at it) interface to writing graphical programs and interacting with the user via the mouse and keyboard. The other real advantage of X is transparent networking. This means the program can be running on a different machine but displayed on the machine that you are using, just like any other program that you run locally. For more detailed information, in a shell type "man X". This will bring up the X manual page. An online version can be found here:

http://www.xfree86.org/4.2.1/X.7.html

KDE and gnome are window/desktop managers. There are others too, like CDE and I don't know the names of any others, but I know they're out there. Basically they provide an easy interface to launching programs, via a panel and menus, and also add title bars and borders to the windows. They often allow multiple desktops, and the look and feel of the environment can be changed by the user.

If X hangs, it can be restarted by pressing ctrl-alt-bkspc. Alternatively, on a dumb terminal (press ctrl-alt-F1 to switch to one) type kill-all X. Usually X will be automatically restarted after that. If neither of those work, then your operating system has crashed, and you need to restart your computer.

I hope this helps, and I also hope it's correct.

James

[Bruce Copeland]

DRI is the digital rendering interface. Several settings influence whether it is turned "on". First you have to have a line for Load "dri" in the Modules section of your XF86Config file. If you don't have such a line, then DRI should be off. You can also 'effectively' turn off DRI by having a line Option "noaccel" in your Device section.

Bruce

[Alex Glennie]

there's basically X, window managers and desktops .... the best explanation for all of them can be found here :
http://www.plig.org/xwinman/intro.html(short)

[Jarle_1]

If only X hangs , you can try to hit Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to kill the X-server, just to get out and get text based login.

That is if you started X with startx or xinit. If you have default runlevel=5 , the X-server will restart itself infinately, and you will not get in touch with your system.

In this case you need to boot in single user mode, or from a recovery cd, and edit your /etc/inittab file. Change the line id:5:initdefault: to
id:3:initdefault: , and restart.

Then you will boot only in text mode, and you can run startx to test your X-config file, if it doesn't work you can kill the X-server (like mentioned) edit your config and try again.

Rgds Jarle

[Chakravarthi]

i dont want to kill X always,, so give me some better solution,, is there any log file, which can give me some more information,,,