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Intro to Unix for Smart People Part II. Joe Morrison, Lab49. Unix graphics architecture. The X Window System Or simply X But not “X Windows”. X Window System Architecture. Cut and paste in X. Open protocol (ICCCM) When user does a CUT - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
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Intro to Unix for Smart People Part II
Joe Morrison, Lab49
Unix graphics architecture
The X Window System Or simply X But not “X Windows”
X Window System Architecture
Cut and paste in X Open protocol (ICCCM) When user does a CUT
App sends a message to X: My Window now owns selection PRIMARY When user does a PASTE
App sends a message to X: Please paste selection PRIMARY into my attribute foo
X sends owning app a SelectionRequest event Owning app sends a ChangeProperty request to X to push data Owning app sends a SelectNotify request to X to forward to requestor Requestor can now read the data by sending X a GetProperty request
Benefits Works cleanly with apps and X server on different network nodes Allows format negotiation Works even if apps cannot communicate with each other directly Allows interesting enhancements (xclipboard app can watch for events
and take long-term ownership of selected items)
Display manager – simple scenario
Simple scenario – one computer with graphics capability Display manager runs first Starts X server Runs a graphical “login” program Graphical equivalent of “getty”
Display manager – simple scenario
init (pid = 1)
/etc/inittab
xdm
xlogin
User-specified X apps to start (xterm, etc.)
fork/exec(respawn)
wait for X server to start
exec
Start other required processes
startxfork/exec
display login /password prompt
Pretend this is an X terminal
xdm plays same role as getty (but graphical)
Display manager – complex scenario
More complex scenario – multiple X terminals, one host X terminal broadcasts “manage me!” Display manager responds by forking a
process to run graphical “login” over the network
Graphical equivalent of telnet daemon Support hordes of developers with dumb
terminals and one giant server
Display manager – complex scenario
xdm listenerBroadcast:Can someonemanage me?
for each request,fork/exec xlogin
display login /password prompt
xlogin
User-specified X apps to start (xterm, etc.)
exec
xdm plays same role as telnetd (but graphical)
Other scenarios Multiple hosts, each running xdm
Poor man’s load balancing Large group of X terminals serviced by a small
number of hosts Each X terminal is managed by whichever xdm
answers first (usually the least loaded) INDIRECT mode
X terminals do not broadcast Instead they contact a primary xdm Primary xdm delegates to secondary xdm
according to desired configuration
Window managers Ordinary processes running in background Register with X server to receive notifications when
applications start, open windows, etc. Get to meddle
Relocate new application windows Draw ornamentation around windows (resize grips,
title bar) Handle visual interaction for resizing, moving,
minimizing, maximizing windows, etc. Send application resize/move instructions
Get to decide Start menu? Icons? Docks? Button bars?
Can be changed on the fly! You can write one!
twm window manager (the original!)
IceWM (themeable)
Metacity desktop (Ubuntu)
Session managers
Responsible for saving/restoring application state
Standard protocol for communication between window manager and session manager
Enables window manager to offer services like “logout and save session”
Unix desktop =
Display manager + Window manager + Session manager
SSH (poor man’s VPN)
Secure replacement for telnet Also – port forwarding
ssh -l 1234:10.0.0.7:80 rasputin.lab49.com
RASPUTINEncrypted communication (compressed too!)
ssh client – in addition totelnet session – acceptsconnections on port 1234
ssh server – in additionto telnet daemon – relaysclient port 1234 toport 80 on 10.0.0.7
10.0.0.7
ssh provides a secure, encrypted TCP/IP proxyto any computer reachable from the ssh server
X over SSH If you can SSH to a Unix machine, you can run
any X application on that machine and have it display on yours (regardless of firewalls)
ssh -X rasputin.lab49.com
RASPUTINEncrypted communication (compressed too!)
ssh client – in addition totelnet session – acts as aproxy X client for all appsstarted on Rasputin
ssh server – in additionto telnet daemon – createsa fake local X server andsets it to be the default;requests are encrypted,compressed, and tunnelledback to the client
Package management with RPM(Redhat Package Manager) Both a Unix app (manages all installed packages) and a file format Maintains a database of installed apps
Knows which RPM each file belongs to Knows what the md5sum of each file should be
To install an application rpm –ivh myapp-1.3.2.i386.rpm Checks dependencies, installs all files, runs postinstall scripts, etc.
To remove rpm –e myapp The RPM system remembers which files belong to myapp – always removes cleanly Application does not need to cooperate (badly written app cannot screw up RPM) Removing an application never results in a different application being uninstallable
To list files in an RPM rpm –ql myapp
To get general info about an RPM rpm –qi myapp
To find out which RPM owns a particular file rpm –qf /usr/bin/emacs
To check whether an application has been damaged rpm –qV myapp
Package management with APT (Advanced Package Tool) Rather than operating on individual files,
APT is based on repositories so it knows about all packages and their dependencies
Like RPM but more holistic view of your system
If you install an RPM and don’t include all necessary dependencies, it will refuse to install
But if you install using APT, it will quietly install everything needed
Package management with YUM (Yellowdog Updater Modified)
Provides an APT-like experience on top of RPM
About /proc The /proc pseudo filesystem is a real time, memory resident
file system that tracks the processes running on your machine and the state of your system
The contents of the /proc filesystem areused by many utilities which grab the data from the particular /proc directory and display it
You can also write to the /proc filesystem, e.g. writing to the /proc/sys directory enables you to change kernel parameters echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward
Examples cat /proc/vmstat cat /proc/1234/cmdline cat /proc/meminfo
The contents of /proc need to be standardized – too many utilities count on the format of /proc files
/proc/vmstat
nr_dirty 8nr_writeback 0nr_unstable 0nr_page_table_pages 1040nr_mapped 53684nr_slab 11199pgpgin 1436240pgpgout 29582742pswpin 23pswpout 40pgalloc_high 2789161pgalloc_normal 53175006pgalloc_dma 11pgfree 56056660…
The comforts of home Xscreensaver XMMS (like Winamp) Xine / MPlayer (play videos) GRIP (rip CDs) Mozilla/Firefox/Opera Emacs Eclipse VNC (remote desktop)
Closing thoughts In general Unix desktops are primitive compared to
other popular operating systems (NeXT and Mac being notable exceptions)
But it’s not just about features, ease of use, and stability (This better be good)
It’s also about internal interfaces Make OS reusable in more contexts Create a breeding ground for improvements
For example Accessibility (rewrite the window manager) Embedded systems (replace /etc/inittab)
Unix versus Windows
Windows: Best platform for creating end-user applications
Unix: Best set of building blocks for general purpose, secure, multi-user, multi-process computing
Final closing thoughts (really)
Windows Intelligent design
Unix Mutation and natural selection
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