X Power Tools (Paperback)

by Chris Tyler (Author)
Key Phrases: default layout, key changes group, keyboard configuration file, Window System, Remote Access, Utility Programs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This book puts you in charge of the most flexible and adaptable graphical interface in the computer industry. The X Window System underlies graphical desktops on Linux and Unix systems, and supports advanced features of modern graphics cards. More people use the X Window System than ever before, but there are few books about X in print. X Power Tools fills that hole with the most practical and up-to-date information available. Written in O'Reilly's popular Power Tools format, X Power Tools offers dozens of standalone articles, thoroughly cross-referenced, on useful tools and techniques for using X. This unique inside look at X gives Unix/Linux system administrators, owners of self-administered systems, and power users a lot of useful ways to harness the power of this system effectively. This book: Offers a thorough grounding in X configuration and how the system works Provides the complete ins and outs of changing a desktop's behavior, such as fonts, keyboard settings, and remote security Includes articles on how to take advantage of X's "network transparency" -- its ability to display graphical applications on a remote machine Explores intriguing areas such as using multiple monitors, building kiosks, and accessibility Features discussions on X Window innovations and the future of the system X Power Tools covers configuration and use of X, focusing on Linux but also including notes on other operating systems such as Solaris and FreeBSD. Each article in the book gives you insight into X; the entire book gives you a real grasp on this system and what you can do with it.

About the Author
Chris Tyler is a programmer and Linux network administrator with a focus on the X Window System and LAMP. He has programmed in two dozen different languages over the past 20 years, and now teaches at Seneca College, Toronto.

Product Details

• Paperback: 270 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; 1 edition (January 11, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596101953
• ISBN-13: 978-0596101954
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,375 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #42 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Hardware > Design & Architecture
  #65 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > Linux
  #96 in	Books > Computers & Internet > Operating Systems > Unix

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unfortunate title, excellent book, January 14, 2008

By	Anthony Lawrence "Unix, Linux and Mac OS X" (Middleboro, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book exceeded my expectations logarithmically. The title should be something like "X Expertise" or "Everything you will ever need to know about X". Even the back cover text makes this sound rather uninteresting and dull, but trust me: it's not. This is well written and completely stuffed with information and tips. I thought I knew a bit about this subject - hah! I knew very little..


I loved the whole book, but I particularly loved the little asides the author threw in now and then, like "The memory and raw processing power of many modern optical mice exceeds that of the first computer to run Unix".

Chris Taylor explains things very well.. no, he does it better than that. So many things that I was a little vague on are now crystal clear - great job!

If you are using X at all, you want this. I had the big multi-volume "X Windows User's Guide" years ago (probably still have it kicking around here somewhere) - amazingly enough, Chris seems to have packed more truly useful information into 200+ pages than that did in several larger books.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally X explained, May 14, 2008

By	Christopher Wrather (Los Alamos, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ever since making Linux my primary OS of choice, I have found it impossible to find a cogent explanation of the different pieces of software that result in the graphical desktop. There are X, session managers, window managers, compositing managers, and desktop environments. Happily, this book explains these pieces of software, their purpose and the way they interact, and does it in a way that is accesible to the intermediate *nix user while still providing a satisfying amount of technical detail. It also provides tools for managing the software and tweaking it to make it do what you want.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great book except for modelines coverage, February 13, 2008

By	David Feustel (Fort Wayne, IN USA) - See all my reviews

I have been using X11 with OpenBSD for at least 5 years now. I have
become knowledgeable about using KDE, less so about using X by itself.

This book filled in quite a few gaps in my knowledge of X, but it did not
provide me with the information I need to solve a problem making a new
monitor run at its rated maximum resolution.

I had been running with a 21" crt at 2048x1546, but the 9-year-old crt
was wearing out. So I bought a 19" ACER lcd display with maximum
resolution of 1440x900. The new display would not work at all with the
default xorg.conf generated by "X -configure". The problem turned out to
be the driver, which was specified as "ati". When I changed the driver
spec to "vesa", X came up at 1280x1024 and worked well. But I have so
far not been able to get the monitor to run in 1440x900.

The book does a pretty good job of explaining the xorg.conf file.
Modelines are mentioned briefly in the text, but not in the index. There
are no formulas given for computing modeline data to be included in the
xorg.conf file. No mention is made of the various values (eg ati, vesa)
that can be specified for X drivers. There is no list of validated modes
in the Xorg.0.log file. So after reading the book I still have not
figured out how to make my monitor run in 1440x900.

The book describes how to support keyboards for multiple countries, but
it was not clear to me after reading it how to display the corresponding
characters for (eg French,German,Russian) characters in addition to
English.

That said, I give the book a 4-star rating. There seems to be no other
current, up-to-date book on X. I'm glad I have a copy to study and write
notes in.