Xserver
(1)
Name
Xserver - X Window System display server
Synopsis
/usr/bin/X [option ...]
/usr/bin/Xserver [-c class] :displaynumber [X server argu-
ments]
Description
User Commands XSERVER(1)
NAME
Xserver - X Window System display server
SYNOPSIS
/usr/bin/X [option ...]
/usr/bin/Xserver [-c class] :displaynumber [X server argu-
ments]
DESCRIPTION
X is the generic name for the X Window System display
server. It is frequently a link or a copy of the appropri-
ate server binary for driving the most frequently used
server on a given machine. In this release of Oracle
Solaris, /usr/bin/X is a link to the Xserver program which
starts the appropriate X server based on properties set for
the service management facility, under the service identi-
fier svc:/application/x11/x11-server. The properties are
described in the SMF PROPERTIES section below.
STARTING THE SERVER
On Oracle Solaris, the X server is usually started from the
GNOME Display Manager program gdm(1m). This role may also
be performed by the X Display Manager program xdm(1), or
another display manager. This utility is run from the sys-
tem boot files and takes care of keeping the server running,
prompting for usernames and passwords, and starting up the
user sessions.
Installations that run more than one window system may need
to use the xinit(1) utility instead of a display manager.
However, xinit is to be considered a tool for building
startup scripts and is not intended for use by end users.
Site administrators are strongly urged to use a display man-
ager, or build other interfaces for novice users.
The X server may also be started directly by the user,
though this method is usually reserved for testing and is
not recommended for normal operation. On some platforms,
the user must have special permission to start the X server,
often because access to certain devices (e.g. /dev/mouse) is
restricted.
When the X server starts up, it typically takes over the
display. If you are running on a workstation whose console
is the display, you may not be able to log into the console
while the server is running.
OPTIONS
Many X servers have device-specific command line options.
See the manual pages for the individual servers for more
details; a list of server-specific manual pages is provided
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in the SEE ALSO section below.
All of the X servers accept the command line options
described below. Some X servers may have alternative ways
of providing the parameters described here, but the values
provided via the command line options should override values
specified via other mechanisms.
:displaynumber
The X server runs as the given displaynumber, which
by default is 0. If multiple X servers are to run
simultaneously on a host, each must have a unique
display number. See the DISPLAY NAMES section of
the X(5) manual page to learn how to specify which
display number clients should try to use.
-a number
sets pointer acceleration (i.e. the ratio of how
much is reported to how much the user actually moved
the pointer).
-ac disables host-based access control mechanisms.
Enables access by any host, and permits any host to
modify the access control list. Use with extreme
caution. This option exists primarily for running
test suites remotely.
-audit level
sets the audit trail level. The default level is 1,
meaning only connection rejections are reported.
Level 2 additionally reports all successful connec-
tions and disconnects. Level 4 enables messages
from the SECURITY extension, if present, including
generation and revocation of authorizations and vio-
lations of the security policy. Level 0 turns off
the audit trail. Audit lines are sent as standard
error output.
-auth authorization-file
specifies a file which contains a collection of
authorization records used to authenticate access.
See also the xdm(1) and Xsecurity(5) manual pages.
-background none
Asks the driver not to clear the background on
startup, if the driver supports that. May be useful
for smooth transition with eg. fbdev driver. For
security reasons this is not the default as the
screen contents might show a previous user session.
-br sets the default root window to solid black instead
of the standard root weave pattern. This is the
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User Commands XSERVER(1)
default unless -retro or -wr is specified.
-bs disables backing store support on all screens.
-c turns off key-click.
c volume
sets key-click volume (allowable range: 0-100).
-cc class
sets the visual class for the root window of color
screens. The class numbers are as specified in the
X protocol. Not obeyed by all servers.
-core causes the server to generate a core dump on fatal
errors.
-displayfd fd
specifies a file descriptor in the launching
process. Rather than specify a display number, the
X server will attempt to listen on successively
higher display numbers, and upon finding a free one,
will write the display number back on this file
descriptor as a newline-terminated string. The -pn
option is ignored when using -displayfd.
-deferglyphs whichfonts
specifies the types of fonts for which the server
should attempt to use deferred glyph loading.
whichfonts can be all (all fonts), none (no fonts),
or 16 (16 bit fonts only).
-dpi resolution
sets the resolution for all screens, in dots per
inch. To be used when the server cannot determine
the screen size(s) from the hardware.
dpms enables DPMS (display power management services),
where supported. The default state is platform and
configuration specific.
-dpms disables DPMS (display power management services).
The default state is platform and configuration spe-
cific.
-extensionextensionName
disables named extension. If an unknown extension
name is specified, a list of accepted extension
names is printed.
+extensionextensionName
enables named extension. If an unknown extension
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User Commands XSERVER(1)
name is specified, a list of accepted extension
names is printed.
-f volume
sets beep (bell) volume (allowable range: 0-100).
-fc cursorFont
sets default cursor font.
-fn font
sets the default font.
-fp fontPath
sets the search path for fonts. This path is a
comma separated list of directories which the X
server searches for font databases. See the FONTS
section of this manual page for more information and
the default list.
-help prints a usage message.
-I causes all remaining command line arguments to be
ignored.
-maxbigreqsize size
sets the maximum big request to size MB.
-nocursor
disable the display of the pointer cursor.
-nolisten trans-type
disables a transport type. For example, TCP/IP con-
nections can be disabled with -nolisten tcp. This
option may be issued multiple times to disable lis-
tening to different transport types. The current
transport names supported on Oracle Solaris are as
follows:
tcp TCP over IPv4 or IPv6
unix UNIX Domain Sockets (/tmp/.X11-unix/Xn)
pipe Named pipes (/tmp/.X11-pipe/Xn)
-noreset
prevents a server reset when the last client connec-
tion is closed. This overrides a previous -termi-
nate command line option.
-p minutes
sets screen-saver pattern cycle time in minutes.
-pn permits the server to continue running if it fails
to establish all of its well-known sockets
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(connection points for clients), but establishes at
least one. This option is set by default.
-nopn causes the server to exit if it fails to establish
all of its well-known sockets (connection points for
clients).
-r turns off auto-repeat.
r turns on auto-repeat.
-retro starts the stipple with the classic stipple and cur-
sor visible. The default is to start with a black
root window, and to suppress display of the cursor
until the first time an application calls XDe-
fineCursor(). For the Xorg server, this also sets
the default for the DontZap option to FALSE. For
kdrive servers, this implies -zap.
-s minutes
sets screen-saver timeout time in minutes.
-su disables save under support on all screens.
-seat seat
seat to run on. Takes a string identifying a seat in
a platform specific syntax. On platforms which sup-
port this feature this may be used to limit the
server to expose only a specific subset of devices
connected to the system.
-t number
sets pointer acceleration threshold in pixels (i.e.
after how many pixels pointer acceleration should
take effect).
-terminate
causes the server to terminate at server reset,
instead of continuing to run. This overrides a pre-
vious -noreset command line option.
-to seconds
sets default connection timeout in seconds.
-tst disables all testing extensions (e.g., XTEST, XTrap,
XTestExtension1, RECORD).
ttyxx ignored, for servers started the ancient way (from
init).
v sets video-off screen-saver preference.
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-v sets video-on screen-saver preference.
-wm forces the default backing-store of all windows to
be WhenMapped. This is a backdoor way of getting
backing-store to apply to all windows. Although all
mapped windows will have backing store, the backing
store attribute value reported by the server for a
window will be the last value established by a
client. If it has never been set by a client, the
server will report the default value, NotUseful.
This behavior is required by the X protocol, which
allows the server to exceed the client's backing
store expectations but does not provide a way to
tell the client that it is doing so.
-wr sets the default root window to solid white instead
of the standard root weave pattern.
-x extension
loads the specified extension at init. This is a
no-op for most implementations.
[+-]xinerama
enables(+) or disables(-) the XINERAMA extension.
The default state is platform and configuration spe-
cific.
SERVER DEPENDENT OPTIONS
Some X servers accept the following options:
-ld kilobytes
sets the data space limit of the server to the spec-
ified number of kilobytes. A value of zero makes
the data size as large as possible. The default
value of -1 leaves the data space limit unchanged.
-lf files
sets the number-of-open-files limit of the server to
the specified number. A value of zero makes the
limit as large as possible. The default value of -1
leaves the limit unchanged.
-ls kilobytes
sets the stack space limit of the server to the
specified number of kilobytes. A value of zero
makes the stack size as large as possible. The
default value of -1 leaves the stack space limit
unchanged.
-render default|mono|gray| sets the color allocation policy
that will be used by the render extension.
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default selects the default policy defined for the
display depth of the X server.
mono don't use any color cell.
gray use a gray map of 13 color cells for the X
render extension.
color use a color cube of at most 4*4*4 colors
(that is 64 color cells).
-dumbSched
disables smart scheduling on platforms that support
the smart scheduler.
-schedInterval interval
sets the smart scheduler's scheduling interval to
interval milliseconds.
XDMCP OPTIONS
X servers that support XDMCP have the following options.
See the X Display Manager Control Protocol specification for
more information.
-query hostname
enables XDMCP and sends Query packets to the speci-
fied hostname.
-broadcast
enable XDMCP and broadcasts BroadcastQuery packets
to the network. The first responding display man-
ager will be chosen for the session.
-multicast [address [hop count]]
Enable XDMCP and multicast BroadcastQuery packets to
the network. The first responding display manager
is chosen for the session. If an address is speci-
fied, the multicast is sent to that address. If no
address is specified, the multicast is sent to the
default XDMCP IPv6 multicast group. If a hop count
is specified, it is used as the maximum hop count
for the multicast. If no hop count is specified,
the multicast is set to a maximum of 1 hop, to pre-
vent the multicast from being routed beyond the
local network.
-indirect hostname
enables XDMCP and send IndirectQuery packets to the
specified hostname.
-port port-number
uses the specified port-number for XDMCP packets,
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instead of the default. This option must be speci-
fied before any -query, -broadcast, -multicast, or
-indirect options.
-from local-address
specifies the local address to connect from (useful
if the connecting host has multiple network inter-
faces). The local-address may be expressed in any
form acceptable to the host platform's gethostby-
name(3) implementation.
-once causes the server to terminate (rather than reset)
when the XDMCP session ends.
-class display-class
XDMCP has an additional display qualifier used in
resource lookup for display-specific options. This
option sets that value, by default it is "MIT-
Unspecified" (not a very useful value).
-cookie xdm-auth-bits
When testing XDM-AUTHENTICATION-1, a private key is
shared between the server and the manager. This
option sets the value of that private data (not that
it is very private, being on the command line!).
-displayID display-id
Yet another XDMCP specific value, this one allows
the display manager to identify each display so that
it can locate the shared key.
XKEYBOARD OPTIONS
X servers that support the XKEYBOARD (a.k.a. "XKB") exten-
sion accept the following options. All layout files speci-
fied on the command line must be located in the XKB base
directory or a subdirectory, and specified as the relative
path from the XKB base directory. The default XKB base
directory is /usr/lib/X11/xkb.
[+-]accessx [timeout[timeout_mask[feedback[options_mask]]]]
enables(+) or disables(-) AccessX key sequences.
-xkbdir directory
base directory for keyboard layout files. This
option is not available for setuid X servers (i.e.,
when the X server's real and effective uids are dif-
ferent).
-ardelay milliseconds
sets the autorepeat delay (length of time in mil-
liseconds that a key must be depressed before
autorepeat starts).
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-arinterval milliseconds
sets the autorepeat interval (length of time in mil-
liseconds that should elapse between autorepeat-gen-
erated keystrokes).
-xkbmap filename
loads keyboard description in filename on server
startup.
NETWORK CONNECTIONS
The X server supports client connections via a platform-
dependent subset of the following transport types: TCPIP,
Unix Domain sockets, DECnet, and several varieties of SVR4
local connections. See the DISPLAY NAMES section of the
X(5) manual page to learn how to specify which transport
type clients should try to use.
GRANTING ACCESS
The X server implements a platform-dependent subset of the
following authorization protocols: MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1, XDM-
AUTHORIZATION-1, XDM-AUTHORIZATION-2, SUN-DES-1, and MIT-
KERBEROS-5. See the Xsecurity(5) manual page for informa-
tion on the operation of these protocols.
Authorization data required by the above protocols is passed
to the server in a private file named with the -auth command
line option. Each time the server is about to accept the
first connection after a reset (or when the server is start-
ing), it reads this file. If this file contains any autho-
rization records, the local host is not automatically
allowed access to the server, and only clients which send
one of the authorization records contained in the file in
the connection setup information will be allowed access.
See the Xau manual page for a description of the binary for-
mat of this file. See xauth(1) for maintenance of this
file, and distribution of its contents to remote hosts.
The X server also uses a host-based access control list for
deciding whether or not to accept connections from clients
on a particular machine. If no other authorization mecha-
nism is being used, this list initially consists of the host
on which the server is running as well as any machines
listed in the file /etc/Xn.hosts, where n is the display
number of the server. Each line of the file should contain
either an Internet hostname (e.g. expo.lcs.mit.edu) or a
DECnet hostname in double colon format (e.g. hydra::) or a
complete name in the format family:name as described in the
xhost(1) manual page. There should be no leading or trail-
ing spaces on any lines. For example:
joesworkstation
corporate.company.com
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star::
inet:bigcpu
local:
Users can add or remove hosts from this list and enable or
disable access control using the xhost command from the same
machine as the server.
If the X FireWall Proxy (xfwp) is being used without a
sitepolicy, host-based authorization must be turned on for
clients to be able to connect to the X server via the xfwp.
If xfwp is run without a configuration file and thus no
sitepolicy is defined, if xfwp is using an X server where
xhost + has been run to turn off host-based authorization
checks, when a client tries to connect to this X server via
xfwp, the X server will deny the connection. See xfwp(1)
for more information about this proxy.
The X protocol intrinsically does not have any notion of
window operation permissions or place any restrictions on
what a client can do; if a program can connect to a display,
it has full run of the screen. X servers that support the
SECURITY extension fare better because clients can be desig-
nated untrusted via the authorization they use to connect;
see the xauth(1) manual page for details. Restrictions are
imposed on untrusted clients that curtail the mischief they
can do. See the SECURITY extension specification for a com-
plete list of these restrictions.
Sites that have better authentication and authorization sys-
tems might wish to make use of the hooks in the libraries
and the server to provide additional security models.
SIGNALS
The X server attaches special meaning to the following sig-
nals:
SIGHUP This signal causes the server to close all existing
connections, free all resources, and restore all
defaults. It is sent by the display manager when-
ever the main user's main application (usually an
xterm or window manager) exits to force the server
to clean up and prepare for the next user.
SIGTERM This signal causes the server to exit cleanly.
SIGUSR1 This signal is used quite differently from either of
the above. When the server starts, it checks to see
if it has inherited SIGUSR1 as SIG_IGN instead of
the usual SIG_DFL. In this case, the server sends a
SIGUSR1 to its parent process after it has set up
the various connection schemes. Xdm uses this
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User Commands XSERVER(1)
feature to recognize when connecting to the server
is possible.
FONTS
The X server can obtain fonts from directories and/or from
font servers. The list of directories and font servers the
X server uses when trying to open a font is controlled by
the font path.
The default font path is catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d .
A special kind of directory can be specified using the cata-
logue: prefix. Directories specified this way can contain
symlinks pointing to the real font directories. See the
FONTPATH.D section for details.
The font path can be set with the -fp option or by xset(1)
after the server has started.
FONTPATH.D
You can specify a special kind of font path in the form cat-
alogue:<dir>. The directory specified after the catalogue:
prefix will be scanned for symlinks and each symlink desti-
nation will be added as a local fontfile FPE.
The symlink can be suffixed by attributes such as
'unscaled', which will be passed through to the underlying
fontfile FPE. The only exception is the newly introduced
'pri' attribute, which will be used for ordering the font
paths specified by the symlinks.
An example configuration:
75dpi:unscaled:pri=20 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi
ghostscript:pri=60 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
misc:unscaled:pri=10 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc
type1:pri=40 -> /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1
type1:pri=50 -> /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1
This will add /usr/share/X11/fonts/misc as the first FPE
with the attribute 'unscaled', second FPE will be
/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi, also with the attribute
'unscaled' etc. This is functionally equivalent to setting
the following font path:
/usr/share/X11/fonts/misc:unscaled,
/usr/share/X11/fonts/75dpi:unscaled,
/usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1,
/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript
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SMF PROPERTIES
Configuration properties for the /usr/bin/Xserver program
are managed by the service management facility, smf(5),
under the service identifier:
svc:/application/x11/x11-server
Use svccfg(1M) to make configuration changes and to view
configuration information for this service.
/usr/bin/Xserver will look for configuration options in the
instances in this order, stopping at the first match for the
given property:
1. :displayN (where N is the display number of the X
server, i.e. :display0 for :0)
2. Any class names provided via the -c options to
/usr/bin/Xserver. Multiple -c options may be provided,
if so, they are searched in the order found on the com-
mand line.
3. If any XDMCP options are provided to open a remote dis-
play connection, :remote, otherwise :local
4. The default properties for the service
Class names may be any valid FMRI instance name. Sun
reserves all class names beginning with lowercase letters
for its own use - customers wishing to create their own
class names may use names beginning with an uppercase let-
ter.
These properties may be set in any instance of x11-server or
for the service itself:
options/server
(Type astring) The absolute path to the X server binary
to run, currently must be one of:
/usr/bin/Xorg
/usr/bin/Xdmx
/usr/bin/Xvfb
/usr/bin/Xvnc
options/config_file
(Type string) Setting this to a filename causes this
file to be used as the configuration file for the X
server. Currently this property is only available
when used with the Xorg server. The value of this
property must be a relative path from one of the direc-
tories in the Xorg config file search path, and not an
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absolute path.
options/tcp_listen
(Type boolean) Setting this to false disables listening
for incoming TCP/IP connections (see -nolisten tcp
option above).
options/default_depth
(Type int) Sets the depth of the default visual of the
X server started.
options/server_args
(Type astring) Sets additional arguments to pass to the
X server started. Care must be used when using options
specific to a particular X server as then it may cause
failure to start the X server if the server to be
started is later changed to one that does not support
those options.
options/display_0_on_console
(Type boolean) Setting this to true starts the X server
with a DISPLAY ":0.0" on "/dev/console" rather than the
first available "/dev/vt/#", see vt(7i), this preserves
backward compatibility with programs such as "xterm -C"
that expect have access to "/dev/console". X servers
with any other DISPLAY are not affected. The default is
false.
Example: Allow remote access
The following command allows access from remote clients.
svccfg -s svc:/application/x11/x11-server setprop options/tcp_listen = true
Restart the Xserver by either logging out and logging back
in, or manually if the Xserver was started from the command
line.
Example: Use of VESA driver
The following command overrides the default Xorg driver
selection to use the /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.vesa configura-
tion file to select the "vesa" driver.
svccfg -s svc:/application/x11/x11-server setprop options/config_file=xorg.conf.vesa
Example: Enabling the XINERAMA extension
The following command enables the XINERAMA extension.
svccfg -s svc:/application/x11/x11-server setprop options/server_args=+xinerama
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FILES
/etc/Xn.hosts Initial access control list
for display number n
/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc,/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi,/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi
Bitmap font directories
/usr/share/fonts/X11/TTF,/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1
Outline font directories
/tmp/.X11-unix/Xn Unix domain socket for display
number n
/tmp/.X11-pipe/Xn Named pipe (FIFO) for display
number n
/var/log/gdm/:n.log Default error log file for
display number n if the server
is run from gdm(1m)
/usr/lib/X11/xdm/xdm-errors Default error log file if the
server is run from xdm(1)
SEE ALSO
General information: X(5)
Protocols: X Window System Protocol, The X Font Service Pro-
tocol, X Display Manager Control Protocol
Fonts: bdftopcf(1), mkfontdir(1), mkfontscale(1), xfs(1),
xlsfonts(1), xfontsel(1), xfd(1), X Logical Font Description
Conventions
Keyboards: xkeyboard-config(5)
Security: Xsecurity(5), xauth(1), Xau(1), xdm(1), xhost(1),
xfwp(1), Security Extension Specification
Starting the server: gdm(1m), startx(1), xdm(1), xinit(1)
Controlling the server once started: xset(1), xsetroot(1),
xhost(1), xinput(1), xrandr(1)
Server-specific man pages: Xorg(1), Xdmx(1), Xephyr(1),
Xvfb(1), Xvnc(1), Xnewt(1M).
Service management framework: smf(5), svcadm(1M), svccfg(1M)
Dtrace probes: /usr/share/doc/Xserver/Xserver-DTrace.html,
/usr/share/doc/Xserver/Xserver-DTrace.txt
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User Commands XSERVER(1)
Server internal documentation: Definition of the Porting
Layer for the X v11 Sample Server
AUTHORS
The sample server was originally written by Susan Angebran-
ndt, Raymond Drewry, Philip Karlton, and Todd Newman, from
Digital Equipment Corporation, with support from a large
cast. It has since been extensively rewritten by Keith
Packard and Bob Scheifler, from MIT. Dave Wiggins took over
post-R5 and made substantial improvements.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following
attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |x11/server/xserver-common |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Volatile |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
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