[Gllug] services

[Richard Cohen]

On Fri, 23 Nov 2001, will wrote:

> John Edwards wrote:
>
> > For gdm, edit /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf and change:
> > [xdmcp]
> > Enable=true
> >
> > to:
> > [xdmcp]
> > Enable=false
>
>
> I have looked in the file and the line exists, but it was already set to
> false.
>
>
> > and then restart gdm using "killall -HUP gdm" if it's started by init
> > (RedHat and similar boxes), Debian has a /etc/init.d/gdm init script
> > that allows you to stop/start it easier.
> >
> > I can't remember the xdm one.
>
>
> Darn, I get the feeling this the one I need.  I will have another root
> around.

Was the X11 port around 6000?

If so, this is nothing to do with ?dm - it's just plain X.  xdmcp is
(according to /etc/services on my machine) on port 177.  X, by its very
nature, listens on a port as long as it's running, unless you specifically
disable it.  All connections between an X client (say xterm or netscape) and
an X server (normally XFree86 on Linux) are network connections, but if the
two programs are on the same machine, it uses a local connection which is a
lot lighter weight than a TCP/IP connection.  You can, however, connect to
an X server over the Internet or similar - I find that I can, for example,
run X programs on my machine at work and tunnel the X connection over the
company VPN to have then display at home.  My ADSL isn't *really* quick
enough for X, which pretty much assumes Ethernet bandwidth, but shoving a
bit of compression in there works wonders.

Anyway, as long as you're not doing anything stupid with your X (like 'xhost
+' - I still cannot believe that we have software at work which suggests
doing this to avoid authenication problems!), it should be okay.  You can
probably shut down the TCP/IP port relatively easily (-nolisten tcp seems to
be the option according to man Xserver) if you want to, but you'll end up
kicking yourself when something doesn't work because of it.

Any or all of the above may be nonsense.  :-)

> Will.

Cheers
Richard


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