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<!> In order for the X client to connect to the X server, the {{{$HOME/.Xauthority}}} of the old user needs to be readable by the new user. In order for the X client to connect to the X server,
 * the old user's environment variables contents of "{{{$XAUTHORITY}}}" and "{{{$DISPLAY}}}" must be copied to new user's ones, and
 * The file pointed by "{{{$XAUTHORITY}}}" must be readable by the new user.

Do not use Edit(GUI) button.

?TableOfContents(4)

Copyright 2007, 2008 Osamu Aoki GPL, (Please agree to GPL, GPL2, and any version of GPL which is compatible with DSFG if you update any part of wiki page)

Generated HTML is at "[http://people.debian.org/~osamu/pub/getwiki/html/ch08.en.html Debian Reference: Chapter 8. The X window system]".

I welcome your contributions to update this wiki page. You must follow these rules:

  • Do not use Edit(GUI) button of MoinMoin.

  • You can update anytime for:
    • grammar errors
    • spelling errors
    • moved URL location
    • package name transition adjustment (emacs23 etc.)
    • clearly broken script.
  • Before updating this wiki content:

The X window system

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System X window system] on the Debian system is based on the source from [http://www.x.org/ X.Org]. As of January 2009, they are ?X11R7.1(etch), ?X11R7.3(lenny) and ?X11R7.3(sid).

Key packages

There are a few (meta)packages provided to ease installation.

List of key (meta)packages for X window.

1

2

3

(meta)package

popcon

size

description

xorg

-

-

This metapackage provides the X libraries, an X server, a set of fonts, and a group of basic X clients and utilities.

xserver-xorg

-

-

This package provides the full suits of the X server and its configuration.

xbase-clients

-

-

This package provides a miscellaneous assortment of the X clients.

x11-common

-

-

This package contains the filesystem infrastructure for the X window system.

xorg-docs

-

-

This package contains miscellaneous documentation for the X.Org software suite.

xspecs

-

-

This package contains X protocol, extension, and library technical specifications.

menu

-

-

This package generates the Debian menu for all menu-aware applications.

menu-xdg

-

-

This package converts the Debian menu structure to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedesktop.org freedesktop.org] xdg menu structure.

xdg-utils

-

-

This package provides utilities to integrate desktop environment provided by the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedesktop.org freedesktop.org].

gnome-desktop-environment

-

-

metapackage for the stadard [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME GNOME] desktop environment.

kde-core

-

-

metapackage for the core [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE KDE] desktop environment.

xfce4

-

-

metapackage for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce Xfce] lightweight desktop environment.

lxde-core

-

-

metapackage for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXDE LXDE] lightweight desktop environment.

fluxbox

-

-

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxbox Fluxbox]: package for highly configurable and low resource [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_manager X window manager].

For the basics of X, refer to X(7), [http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/XWindow-User-HOWTO.html the LDP XWindow-User-HOWTO].

Setting up desktop environment

A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment desktop environment] is usually a combination of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_manager X window manager], a file manager, and a suite of compatible utility programs.

You can setup a full [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_environment desktop environment] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNOME GNOME], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE KDE], [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xfce Xfce], or [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LXDE LXDE], from the aptitude under the task menu.

{i} Task menu may be out of sync with the latest package transition state under Debian unstable/testing environment. In such situation, you need to deselect some (meta)packages listed under aptitude(8) task menu to avoid package conflicts. When deselecting (meta)packages, you must select certain packages providing their dependencies if you need to keep them.

You may alternatively setup a simple environment manually just with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_window_manager X window manager] such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluxbox Fluxbox].

See [http://www.xwinman.org Window Managers for X] for the guide to the X window manager and the desktop environment.

Debian menu

[http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu.html/ Debian menu system] provides a general interface for both text- and X-oriented programs with the update-menus(1) command from the menu package. Each package installs its menu data in the /usr/share/menu/ directory. See /usr/share/menu/README.

Freedesktop.org menu

Each package which is compliant to Freedesktop.org's xdg menu system installs its menu data provided by "*.desktop" under the /usr/share/applications/ directory. Modern desktop environments which are compliant to Freedesktop.org standard use these data to generate their menu using the xdg-utils package. See /usr/share/doc/xdg-utils/README.

Debian menu under GNOME desktop environment

In order to obtain access to the traditional Debian menu under GNOME desktop environment, you must install the menu-xdg package, click "System" -> "Preference" -> "Main Menu", and check the box for "Debian".

{i} You may need to do the similar for other modern desktop environments which are compliant to Freedesktop.org standard.

The server/client relationship

The X window system is activated as a combination of the server and client programs. The meaning for the words server and client with respect to the words local and remote requires attention here:

List of server/client terminology.

type

description

X server

a program run on a local host connected to the user's display and input devices.

X client

a program run on a remote host that processes data and talks to the X server.

application server

a program run on a remote host that processes data and talks to the clients.

application client

a program run on a local host connected to the user's display and input devices.

The X server

See xorg(1) for X server information.

The (re)configuration of the X server

To (re)configure an X server,

# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low x11-common
# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low xserver-xorg

will generate a new /etc/X11/xorg.conf file using dexconf(1).

If you have manually edited this /etc/X11/xorg.conf file but would like it to be automatically updated again, run the following command:

# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg                               

Please check your X configuration with respect to the specification of your monitor carefully. For the large high resolution CRT monitor, it is a good idea to set the refresh rate as high as your monitor can handle (85 Hz is great, 75 Hz is OK) to reduce flicker. For the LCD monitor, slower standard refresh rate (60Hz) is usually fine due to its slow response.

(!) Be careful not to use too high refresh rate which may cause fatal hardware failure of your monitor system.

The connection methods to the X server

There are several ways of getting the "X server" (display side) to accept connections from an "X client" (application side):

List of connection methods to the X server.

2

3

4

method

package

popcon

size

user

encryption

pertinent use

xhost command

xbase-clients

25829

-

unchecked

no

deprecated

xauth command

xbase-clients

25829

-

checked

no

for local connection via pipe

ssh -X command

openssh-client

29037

-

checked

yes

for remote network connection

Gnome display manager

gdm

17331

-

checked

no(XDMCP)

for local connection via pipe

KDE display manager

kdm

5781

-

checked

no(XDMCP)

for local connection via pipe

X display manager

xdm

645

-

checked

no(XDMCP)

for local connection via pipe

?WindowMaker display manager

wdm

253

-

checked

no(XDMCP)

for local connection via pipe

Secure display manager

sdm

25

-

checked

yes

for remote SSH network connection (thin client)

Linux Terminal Server Project display manager

ldm

3

-

checked

yes

for remote SSH network connection (thin client)

/!\ Do not use remote TCP/IP connection over unsecured network unless you have very good reason. A remote TCP/IP socket connection without encryption is prone to the eavesdropping attack and is disabled by default on the Debian system. Use ssh -X.

{i} You can dare to enable remote TCP/IP connection by setting DisallowTCP=false in /etc/gdm/gdm.conf and by removing -nolisten from lines found by "find /etc/X11 -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep nolisten", if you are in the fully secured environment.

/!\ Do not use [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_display_manager XDMCP connection over unsecured network] either. It sends data via UDP without encryption and prone to the eavesdropping attack.

Starting the X window system

The X Window system is usually started as an X session which is the combination of an X server and connecting X clients. For normal desktop system, both of them are executed on the workstation.

To start the X Window system,

  • startx command started from the command line, or

  • one of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_display_manager X display manager] daemon programs *dm started from the end of the start up script in /etc/rc?.d/ directory (? corresponding to the runlevel)

are used to start the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_session_manager X session]. (The start up script for the display manager daemons checks the content of the /etc/X11/default-display-manager file before actually executing themselves.)

{i} See @{@specificlocaleonlyunderxwindow@}@ for initial environment variables of the X display manager.

Essentially, all these programs execute the /etc/X11/Xsession script. Then the /etc/X11/Xsession script performs run-parts like action to execute scripts in the /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ directory. This is essentially an execution of a program which was first found in the following order with the exec command:

  1. The script specified as the argument of /etc/X11/Xsession by the X display manager, if it is defined.

  2. The ~/.xsession or ~/.Xsession script, if it is defined.

  3. The /usr/bin/x-session-manager command, if it is defined.

  4. The /usr/bin/x-window-manager command, if it is defined.

  5. The /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator command, if it is defined.

This process is affected by the content of the /etc/X11/Xsession.options file. The exact programs to which these usr/bin/x-* commands point, are determined by the Debian alternative system and changed by update-alternatives --config x-session-manager etc.

Starting X session with gdm

The gdm program lets you select the session type (or desktop environment: @{@settingupdesktopenvironment@}@), and language (or locale: @{@thelocale@}@) of the X session from its menu. It keeps the selected default value in ~/.dmrc as, e.g.:

[Desktop]
Session=default
Language=ja_JP.UTF-8

Customizing the X session (classic method)

On a system where /etc/X11/Xsession.options contains a line allow-user-xsession without preceding # characters, any user who defines ~/.xsession or ~/.Xsession will be able to customize the action of /etc/X11/Xsession by completely overiding the system code. The last command in the ~/.xsession file should use form of exec some-window/session-manager to start your favorite X window/session managers.

Customizing the X session (new method)

Here are new methods to customize the X session without completely overiding the system code as above.

  • The display manager gdm can select a specific session and set it as the argument of /etc/X11/Xsession.

  • The ~/.xsessionrc file is executed as a part of start up process (desktop independent.)

  • The ~/.gnomerc file is executed as a part of start up process. (Gnome desktop only)

  • The GUI program based session management software can use the ~/.gnome2/session file etc..

Connecting a remote X client via SSH

The use of ssh -X enables a secure connection from a local X server to a remote application server.

  • Set X11Forwarding entries to yes in /etc/ssh/sshd_config of the remote host, if you want to avoid -X command-line option.

  • Start the X server on the local host.
  • Open an xterm in the local host.

  • Run ssh to establish a connection with the remote site.

    localname @ localhost $ ssh -q -X loginname@remotehost.domain
    Password:
    .....
  • Run an X application command, e.g. gimp, on the remote site.

    loginname @ remotehost $ gimp &

This method allows the display of the remote X client output as if it were locally connected through a local UNIX domain socket.

Secure X terminal via Internet

Secure X terminal via Internet, which displays remotely run entire X desktop environment, can easily achieved by using specialized package such as sdm and ldm. Your local machine becomes a secure thin client to the remote application server connected via SSH.

If you want to add similar feature to your normal display manager gdm, create executable shell script at /usr/local/bin/ssh-session as:

# Based on gdm-ssh-session in gdm source (GPL)
ZENITY=$(type -p zenity)
TARGETHOST=$($ZENITY --width=600 \
--title "Host to connect to" --entry \
--text "Enter the name of the host you want to log in to as user@host.dom:")
TARGETSESSION=$($ZENITY --width=600 --height=400 \
--title "Remote session name" --list --radiolist --text "Select one" \
--column " " --column "Session" --column "description" --print-column 2 \
TRUE "/etc/X11/Xsession" "Debian" \
FALSE "/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients" "RH variants" \
FALSE "gnome-session" "Gnome session" \
FALSE "xterm" "Safe choice" \
FALSE "rxvt" "Safe choice" \
FALSE "gnome-terminal" "Safe choice")
echo "Connecting to "$TARGETHOST" with $TARGETSESSION"
/usr/bin/ssh -A -X -T -n "$TARGETHOST" "$TARGETSESSION"
#SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/bin/ssh-askpass /usr/bin/ssh -A -X -T -n "$TARGETHOST" "$TARGETSESSION"

Then add followings to /etc/dm/Sessions/ssh.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=SSH
Comment=This session logs you into a remote host using ssh
Exec=/usr/local/bin/ssh-session
Type=Application

Fonts in the X window

X window on the Debian system support two mechanisms for font management:

The core X11 font system provides backward compatibility with older applications such as Xterm with bitmap fonts. It is supported by installing pertinent font packages which trigger defoma scripts to generate required files such as "fonts.dir".

The Xft2 font system is used by all modern applications such as ones from GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, etc.. It supports all fonts listed below (@{@basicfonts@}@, @{@additionalfonts@}@, and @{@cjkfonts@}@) with advanced features such as anti-aliasing. It has no configuration mechanism itself, rather it relies upon the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontconfig fontconfig library] to configure and customize fonts as described in fonts.conf(5). Actual rasterization is supported by the ?FreeType 2 font engine. These new X clients using Xft2 font system can talk to modern X server via [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XRender the X Rendering Extension].

Table of packages to support X window font systems.

1

2

3

package

popcon

size

description

xfonts-utils

X Window System font utility programs

libxft2

Xft: ?FreeType-based font drawing library for X

libfreetype6

[http://freetype.sourceforge.net/index.html ?FreeType] 2 font engine, shared library files

fontconfig

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontconfig generic font configuration library] - support binaries

fontconfig-config

generic font configuration library - configuration

defoma

Debian Font Manager -- automatic font configuration framework

x-ttcidfont-conf

TrueType configuration for X (for CJK support)

You can check actual font path for:

  • core X11 font path with "xset q"

  • fontconfig font default: "fc-match"

{i} "[http://unifont.org/iuc27/html/ICUPresentation.html The Penguin and Unicode]" is a good overview of modern X Window system. Other documentations at [http://unifont.org/] should provide good information on Unicode fonts, Unicode-enabled software, internationalization, and Unicode usability issues on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software free/libre/open source (FLOSS)] operating systems.

{i} You should rely on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fontconfig fontconfig] infrastructure to configure fonts on the Debian system. Debian Font Manager (defoma) is only useful as font installation such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_logical_font_description X logical font description (XLFD)] data.

Basic fonts

There are 2 major types of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_font computer fonts]:

  • bitmap fonts (good for low resolution rasterization)
  • outline/stroke fonts (good for high resolution rasterization)

While scaling of bitmap fonts causes jugged image, scaling of outline/stroke fonts produces smooth image.

Bitmap fonts on the Debian system are provided by compressed [http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/pcf-format.html X11 pcf bitmap font files] having their file extension ".pcf.gz".

Outline fonts on the Debian system are provided by:

Table of corresponding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript ?PostScript] Type 1 fonts.

1

2

3

font package

popcon

size

sans-serif font

serif font

monospace font

source of font

(?PostScript)

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helvetica Helvetica]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Roman Times]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_(typeface) Courier]

Adobe

gsfonts

Nimbus Sans L

Nimbus Roman No9 L

Nimbus Mono L

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URW URW] (Adobe compatible size)

gsfonts-x11

Nimbus Sans L

Nimbus Roman No9 L

Nimbus Mono L

X font support with ?PostScript Type 1 fonts.

t1-cyrillic

Free Helvetian

Free Times

Free Courier

URW extended (Adobe compatible size)

lmodern

LMSans*

LMRoman*

LMTypewriter*

scalable ?PostScript and ?OpenType fonts based on Computer Modern (from TeX)

Table of corresponding [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType TrueType] fonts.

1

2

3

font package

popcon

size

sans-serif font

serif font

monospace font

source of font

ttf-mscorefonts-installer

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial Arial]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Times_Roman Times New Roman]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courier_(typeface) Courier New]

Microsoft (Adobe compatible size) (This installs non-free data)

ttf-liberation

Liberation Sans

Liberation Serif

Liberation Mono

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts Liberation Fonts project] (Microsoft compatible size)

ttf-freefont

?FreeSans

?FreeSerif

?FreeMono

[http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/freefont/ GNU freefont] (Microsoft compatible size)

ttf-bitstream-vera

Bitstream Vera Sans

Bitstream Vera Serif

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono

[http://www.gnome.org/fonts/ Bitstream, Inc.]

ttf-dejavu

?DejaVu Sans

?DejaVu Serif

?DejaVu Sans Mono

[http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/], Bitstream with extended character code support

ttf-dejavu-core

?DejaVu Sans

?DejaVu Serif

?DejaVu Sans Mono

[http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/] basic font style variants

ttf-dejavu-extra

?DejaVu Sans

?DejaVu Serif

?DejaVu Sans Mono

[http://dejavu.sourceforge.net/] extra font style variants

ttf-unifont

N/A

N/A

unifont

[http://Unifoundry.com], GNU Unifont, with all printable character code in Unicode 5.1 Basic Multilingual Plane (BMP)

Additional fonts

The aptitude will help you find additional fonts easily:

  • by the short package list under "Packages which depend on defoma" under the defoma package list,

  • by the short package list under "Tasks" -> "Localization",

  • by the filtered flat package list of font data with regex on debtag: "~Gmade-of::data:font",

  • by the filtered flat package list of the BDF (bitmap) font packages with regex on package name: "~nxfonts-", or

  • by the filtered flat package list of the TrueType (outline) font packages with regex on package name: "~nttf-".

Since Free fonts are sometimes limited, installing or sharing some commercial TrueType fonts is an option for a Debian users. In order to make this process easy for the user, some convenience packages have been created:

  • ttf-mathematica4.1

  • ttf-mscorefonts-installer

You'll have a really good selection of TrueType fonts at the expense of contaminating your Free system with non-Free fonts.

CJK fonts

Here are some key points focused on CJK issues.

Table of key words used in CJK font names to indicate font types.

font type

Japanese font name

Chinese font name

Korean font name

sans-serif

gothic, ゴチック

hei, gothic

dodum, gulim, gothic

serif

mincho, 明朝

song, ming

batang

Font name such as "VL PGothic" with "P" is a proportional font which corresponds to the fixed width "VL Gothic" font.

For example, Shift_JIS code table comprises 7070 characters. They can be grouped into:

  • JIS X 0201 single-byte characters (191 characters),
  • JIS X 0208 double-byte characters (6879 characters).

Double-byte characters occupy double width on console terminals which uses CJK fixed width fonts. In order to cope with such situation, [http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/packages/ccic/software/info/HBF-1.1/ Hanzi Bitmap Font (HBF) File] with file extension ".hbf" may be deployed for fonts containing single-byte and double-byte characters.

In order to save space for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType TrueType] font files, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueType TrueType] font collection file with file extension ".ttc" may be used.

I order to cover complicated code space of characters, CID keyed Type 1 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript ?PostScript] font is used with CMap files starting themselves with "%!PS-Adobe-3.0 Resource-CMap". This is rarely used for normal X display but used for PDF rendering etc. (see @{@xutilityapplications@}@).

{i} The multiple [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph glyphs] are expected for some [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicode Unicode] code points due to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_unification Han unification]. One of the most annoying ones are "U+3001 IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA" and "U+3002 IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP" whose character positions differ among CJK countries. Configuring priority of Japanese centric fonts over Chinese ones using "~/.fonts.conf" should give peace of minds to Japanese.

X applications

X office applications

Here is a list of basic office applications (OO is OpenOffice.org):

List of basic X office applications

1

2

3

package

popcon

package size

description

type

openoffice.org-writer

-

-

word processor

OO

openoffice.org-calc

-

-

spreadsheet

OO

openoffice.org-impress

-

-

presentation

OO

openoffice.org-base

-

-

database management

OO

openoffice.org-draw

-

-

vector graphics editor (draw)

OO

openoffice.org-math

-

-

mathematical equation/formula editor

OO

abiword

-

-

word processor

GNOME

gnumeric

-

-

spreadsheet

GNOME

gimp

-

-

bitmap graphics editor (paint)

GTK

inkscape

-

-

vector graphics editor (draw)

GNOME

dia-gnome

-

-

flowchart and diagram editor

GNOME

mergeant

-

-

database management

GNOME

planner

-

-

project management

GNOME

kword

-

-

word processor

KDE

kspread

-

-

spreadsheet

KDE

kpresenter

-

-

presentation

KDE

kexi

-

-

database management

KDE

kivio

-

-

flowchart and diagram editor

KDE

karbon

-

-

vector graphics editor (draw)

KDE

krita

-

-

bitmap graphics editor (paint)

KDE

kplato

-

-

project management

KDE

kchart

-

-

graph and chart drawing program

KDE

kformula

-

-

mathematical equation/formula editor

KDE

kugar

-

-

business quality report generator

KDE

X utility applications

Here is a list of basic utility applications which caught my eyes:

List of basic X utility applications

1

2

3

package

popcon

package size

description

type

evince

-

-

document(pdf) viewer

GNOME

kpdf

-

-

document(pdf) viewer

KDE

okular

-

-

document(pdf) viewer

KDE4

evolution

-

-

Personal information Management (groupware and email)

GNOME

kontact

-

-

Personal information Management (groupware and email)

KDE

scribus

-

-

desktop page layout editor

KDE

glabels

-

-

label editor

GNOME

kbarcode

-

-

barcode and label printing application

KDE

gnucash

-

-

personal accounting

GNOME

homebank

-

-

personal accounting

GTK

kmymoney2

-

-

personal accounting

KDE

xsane

-

-

scanner frontend

GTK

kooka

-

-

scanner frontend

KDE

<!> The poppler-data package (non-free, see @{@theghostscript@}@) needs to be installed for evince and okular to display CJK PDF documents using Cmap data (@{@cjkfonts@}@).

(!) Installing softwares such as scribus (KDE) on GNOME desktop environment are quite acceptable since corresponding functionality is not available under GNOME desktop environment. But installing too many packages with duplicated functionalities will clutter your menu.

The X trivia

Keymaps and pointer button mappings in X

The xmodmap(1) program is a utility for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings in the X window system. To get the keycode, run the xev program in the X and press keys. To get the meaning of keysym, look into the MACRO definition in /usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h file. All #define statements in this file are named as XK_ prepended to keysym names.

The classic X clients

Most traditional X client programs, such as xterm, can be started with a set of standard command line options to specify geometry, font, and display.

They also use the X resource database to configure their appearance. The system-wide defaults of X resources are stored in /etc/X11/Xresources/* and application defaults of them are stored in /etc/X11/app-defaults/*. Use these settings as the starting points.

The file ~/.Xresources is used to store user resource specifications. This file is automatically merged into the default X resources upon login. To make changes to these settings and make them effective immediately, merge them into the database using the command:

$ xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

See x(7) and xrdb(1).

The X terminal emulator -- xterm

Learn everything about xterm at [http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.faq.html].

Getting root in X

Never attempt to start an X server directly from the root account in order to avoid possible security risks.

The easiest way to run the X client with the root account is to use sudo, e.g. for xterm:

$ sudo xterm &

or

$ sudo -s
# xterm &

In order for the X client to connect to the X server,

  • the old user's environment variables contents of "$XAUTHORITY" and "$DISPLAY" must be copied to new user's ones, and

  • The file pointed by "$XAUTHORITY" must be readable by the new user.

The gksu package (popcon: @@@pop-gksu@@@) is a specialized GUI package for gaining the root privileges.