Additional Resources; Installed Documentation; Useful Websites - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 5 - DEPLOYMENT Deployment Manual

Users can specify which desktop environment they want to utilize when they authenticate using the
GNOME or KDE display managers by selecting it from the Sessions menu item (accessed by selecting
System (on the panel) > Preferences > More Preferences > Sessions). If the desktop environment
is not specified in the display manager, the /etc/X11/xdm/Xsession script checks the .xsession
and .Xclients files in the user's home directory to decide which desktop environment to load. As a
last resort, the /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients file is used to select a desktop environment or window
manager to use in the same way as runlevel 3.
When the user finishes an X session on the default display (:0) and logs out, the /etc/X11/xdm/
TakeConsole script runs and reassigns ownership of the console to the root user. The original
display manager, which continues running after the user logged in, takes control by spawning a new
display manager. This restarts the X server, displays a new login window, and starts the entire process
over again.
The user is returned to the display manager after logging out of X from runlevel 5.
For more information on how display managers control user authentication, refer to the /usr/share/
doc/gdm-<version-number>/README (where <version-number> is the version number for the
gdm package installed) and the xdm man page.

31.6. Additional Resources

There is a large amount of detailed information available about the X server, the clients that connect to
it, and the assorted desktop environments and window managers.

31.6.1. Installed Documentation

• /usr/share/X11/doc/ — contains detailed documentation on the X Window System
architecture, as well as how to get additional information about the Xorg project as a new user.
• man xorg.conf — Contains information about the xorg.conf configuration files, including the
meaning and syntax for the different sections within the files.
• man Xorg — Describes the Xorg display server.

31.6.2. Useful Websites

http://www.X.org/
• — Home page of the X.Org Foundation, which produces the X11R7.1 release of
the X Window System. The X11R7.1 release is bundled with Red Hat Enterprise Linux to control the
necessary hardware and provide a GUI environment.
http://dri.sourceforge.net/
•
DRI is the core hardware 3D acceleration component of X.
http://www.gnome.org/
•
2
http://www.kde.org/
•
— Home page of the DRI (Direct Rendering Infrastructure) project. The
1
— Home of the GNOME project.
— Home of the KDE desktop environment.
Additional Resources
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