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Setting up Your X window system


So you just finished installing your brand new Linux machine with X and all the other fittings, but what now? Well if you are migrating from most other systems to linux you'll have used a window system of sort. Be it MacOS, OS/2, Windows 95/98/NT or any of the numorous other window systems out there. So you would like the same on a linux system would you not ?

Linux mostly uses the Xfree86 window system based, a freely redistributable implementation of the X Window System.

This system is very flexable in that appart from providing you with a Graphical User interface on your Computer it can also act as a Server for other machines, so more then one person can run a GUI ( graphical User Interface ) from one machine ( it is a bit technical to explain right now but we will cover it in one of our next articles )

One of the most recurring quastions I've seen regarding switching to X on linux appart from applications is "how do I add more fonts?". Now most would be used to using true type fonts, so here I'll give you a quick way of adding True Type fonts to your X system.

First you'll require a Font server for X you can find a list here. For the demonstration I'm using Xfstt True Font Server.

The reaons I'm using Xfstt is easy installation and easy management. First lets look at installing the font server. Once you have downloaded the tar.gz file move it to a directory where you can uncompress and compile it ( I personally use /usr/devel/ for it but you can use whatever suits your needs ) In the directory use tar to uncompress the file eg. "tar -zxvf Xfstt-0.9.10.tgz" Change directory to the newly formed Xfstt.


To install

  1. Type in
    • make && make install
      (use gmake instead of the standard make on FreeBSD)

  2. Create a writeable directory /usr/ttfonts, copy some truetype *.ttf files or create soflinks to truetype directories in there, then run
    • xfstt --sync

  3. Start xfstt in the background
    • xfstt &

  4. Tell your X11 server about the new font service
    • xset fp+ unix/:7100

  5. Or add the new fontpath to the X11 config file
    • FontPath "unix/:7100"


Ok .. now you should have a True Type Font server running for X. Start up a program that uses font's eg. The Gimp and have a look and you should be able to access all those fonts.
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