The X Window System - Post 1

X window System components

1. X Server
2. Window Manager
3. Desktop Environment

X Server

The x server is responsible for Raw display, Character Placement, Pixel Placement etc.

Window Manager

The window manager is responsible for placing a border around raw graphic output and providing some basic controls on that border to control the graphical output from X Server. You can say that window manager provides the look and feel of your linux operating system.

There are different window managers, a few among them are KWM, Rawfish, Ice window manager etc.


Desktop Environment

The Graphical utilities, Configuration programs etc fall under the desktop environments. Desktop environments provide these tools so that you can control your linux operating system using your mouse. A few examples of most used desktop environments are KDE, Gnome, CDE, etc


Installing and Configuring X Server

You can install or upgrade your own, from ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/Xfree86-*

If you need to manually configure the X server, there are several
possible methods:

1. Try to use the XF86Setup program, which can help identify the correct X server and monitor timings for the video hardware.
2. Make sure that the X server has the correct options. If you log in as the superuser, you should be able to use X --probeonly to get a listing of the video card chipset, memory, and any special graphics features. Also, refer to the manual page for the X server. (E.g.; man X), and try running the X server and redirecting the standard error output to a file so you can determine, after you can view text on the screen again, what error messages the server is generating; e.g., X 2>x.error.
3. With that information, you should be able to safely refer to one of the references provided by the Linux Documentation Project. ("Where can I get the HOWTO's and other documentation? ") There are several HOWTO's on the subject, including a HOWTO to calculate video timings manually if necessary. Also, the Installation and Getting Started guide has a chapter with a step-by-step guide to writing a XF86Config file.

Resources

These are some good resources for X window system

1. http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/08/25/whatisXwindow.html?page=1

The X window system video lectures on http://www.youtube.com/

An X Window System Tutorial (Part 01)



An X Window System Tutorial (Part 02)



An X Window System Tutorial (Part 03)



An X Window System Tutorial (Part 04)



An X Window System Tutorial (Part 05)



An X Window System Tutorial (Part 06)

Getting Started

LPIC certifications are divided into three levels

1. LPIC 1
2. LPIC 2
3. LPIC 3

The detailed objectives covered on these certifications are listed on the following link on the official LPIC website.

http://www.lpi.org/en/lpi/english/certification/the_lpic_program

LPIC 1

LPIC 1 is further divided into two papers. Exam 101 and Exam 102


Fees

LPIC 1 Exam 101 costs 155 USD and you can register for it through http://www.prometric.com/default.htm using your credit card.

LPIC 1 Exam 102 also costs 155 USD and you can follow the same procedure for its registration.

Resources

Some of very good resources for LPIC 1 certification are as follows


http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/lpi/101.html [Free Resource]

There are also some video trainings available for LPIC 1 certification. They are from

1. VTC - http://www.vtc.com/
2. CBT Nuggest - http://www.cbtnuggets.com/

These video lectures are not free. But they can be downloaded using P2P networks.

There is also some exam engines available to simulate the LPIC exam tests. One beautiful exam engine is this

1. Visual CertExam suite, you can find this at http://www.visualcertexam.com/

I myself is in the process of learning Linux and going to get LPIC certification in a short time. I will blog about my experience of that too. Anyone who wants to share his experience of LPIC certifications should comment on this blog, it will be helpful for anyone viewing this blog. Thanks