El sistema de menu de Debian provee una interfaz general tanto para programas en modo texto como con interfaz gráfica mediante el comando update-menus(1) del paquete menu. Cada paquete instala la información del menu en el directorio /usr/share/menu. Véase "/usr/share/menu/README"

Cada paquete que se encuentre conforme al sistema de menú de Freedesktop.org instala la información de sus menus con base en los archivos "*.desktop" bajo el directorio "/usr/share/applications". Los entornos de escritorio modernos que cumplen el estándar de Freedesktop.org toman esta información para generar sus menus usando el paquete xdg-utils. Véase "/usr/share/doc/xdg-utils/README"

Para obtener acceso al menú tradicional de Debian bajo el entorno de escritorio GNOME, debe instalar el paquete menu-xdg, y hacer click en "Sistema" -> "Preferencias" -> "Menu principal" y revisar la sección para "Debian"

	Sugerencia
	Es posible que deba seguir el mismo procedimiento para otros escritorio modernos que cumplen el estándar de Freedesktop.org

	Nota
	El servidor X (después de lenny) es reescrito para usar más información proveniente de servicios estándar del sistema operativo tales como HAL y D-bus, para su configuración a cambio de la proveniente de "/etc/X11/xorg.conf". Así que la información contenida en "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" es cada vez menos. Puede que sea necesario resolver algunos problemas en la transición de servidor X.

Los siguientes comandos (re)configuran un servidor X generando un nuevo archivo "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" usando dexconf(1).

# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low x11-common
# dpkg-reconfigure --priority=low xserver-xorg

Si tiene que editar manualmente el archivo "/etc/X11/xorg.conf" pero quisiera que este fuera actualizado automáticamente de nuevo, ejecute el siguiente comando:

# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Por favor revise cuidadosamente su configuración de servidor X con respecto a las especificaciones de su monitor. Para la más alta resolución en un monitor CRT, es una buena idea configurar la taza de refresco tan alta siempre y cuando su monitor pueda manejarla (85 Hz es lo ideal, 75 Hz está bien) con el objetivo de reducir el parpadeo. Para un monitor LCD, la taza de refresco estándar más baja (60 Hz) es usualmente la adecuada dada su baja respuesta.

	Nota
	Sea cuidadoso en no usar tazas de refresco demasiado altas que puedan causar fallas graves a nivel del hardware de su monitor

Hay muchas maneras de obtener una instancia del "Servidor X" (lado de visualización) para aceptar conexiones de un "cliente de X" (lado aplicación).

	Aviso
	No use conexiones TCP/IP remotas bajo redes inseguras para conexiones con un servidor X a menos que tenga una muy buena razón tal como uso de cifrado. Un socket TCP/IP remoto sin encriptar es propenso a un ataque de tipo eavesdropping y se encuentra deshabilitado por defecto en el sistema Debian. Use "ssh -X".

	Aviso
	No use conexiones XDMCP sobre una red insegura. Estas envían los datos vía UDP/IP sin cifrar, siendo propenso a un ataque de tipo eavesdropping.

	Sugerencia
	Puede arriesgarse y habilitar las conexiones TCP/IP remotas configurando la opción "DisallowTCP=false" en el archivo "/etc/gdm/gdm.conf" para sobreescribir la configuración de "/usr/share/gdm/defauls.conf" y para remover la opción "-nolisten" de las líneas encontradas mediante "find /etc/X11 -type f -print0 | xargs -0 grep nolisten", si está en un entorno completamente seguro.

	Sugerencia
	LTSP significa Linux Terminal Server Project

gdm(1) lets you select the session type (or desktop environment: Sección 7.2, “Configurando el entorno de escritorio”), and language (or locale: Sección 8.3, “The locale”) of the X session from its menu. It keeps the selected default value in "~/.dmrc" as the following.

[Desktop]
Session=default
Language=ja_JP.UTF-8

On a system where "/etc/X11/Xsession.options" contains a line "allow-user-xsession" without preceding "#" characters, any user who defines "~/.xsession" or "~/.Xsession" is able to customize the action of "/etc/X11/Xsession" by completely overriding the system code. The last command in the "~/.xsession" file should use form of "exec some-window/session-manager" to start your favorite X window/session managers.

Here are new methods to customize the X session without completely overriding the system code as above.

The use of "ssh -X" enables a secure connection from a local X server to a remote application server.

Set "X11Forwarding" entries to "yes" in "/etc/ssh/sshd_config" of the remote host, if you want to avoid "-X" command-line option.

Start the X server on the local host.

Open an xterm in the local host.

Run ssh(1) to establish a connection with the remote site as the following.

localname @ localhost $ ssh -q -X loginname@remotehost.domain
Password:

Run an X application command, e.g. "gimp", on the remote site as the following.

loginname @ remotehost $ gimp &

This method can display the output from a remote X client as if it were locally connected through a local UNIX domain socket.

Secure X terminal via the Internet, which displays remotely run entire X desktop environment, can easily achieved by using specialized package such as ldm. Your local machine becomes a secure thin client to the remote application server connected via SSH.

If you want to add similar feature to your normal display manager gdm, create executable shell script at "/usr/local/bin/ssh-session" as the following.

#!/bin/sh -e
# Based on gdm-ssh-session in gdm source (GPL)
ZENITY=$(type -p zenity)
TARGETHOST=$($ZENITY --width=600 \
--title "Host to connect to" --entry \
--text "Enter the name of the host you want to log in to as user@host.dom:")
TARGETSESSION=$($ZENITY --width=600 --height=400 \
--title "Remote session name" --list --radiolist --text "Select one" \
--column " " --column "Session" --column "description" --print-column 2 \
TRUE "/etc/X11/Xsession" "Debian" \
FALSE "/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients" "RH variants" \
FALSE "gnome-session" "GNOME session" \
FALSE "xterm" "Safe choice" \
FALSE "rxvt" "Safe choice" \
FALSE "gnome-terminal" "Safe choice")
echo "Connecting to "$TARGETHOST" with $TARGETSESSION"
/usr/bin/ssh -A -X -T -n "$TARGETHOST" "$TARGETSESSION"
#SSH_ASKPASS=/usr/bin/ssh-askpass /usr/bin/ssh -A -X -T -n "$TARGETHOST" "$TARGETSESSION"

Add followings to "/etc/dm/Sessions/ssh.desktop".

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=SSH
Comment=This session logs you into a remote host using ssh
Exec=/usr/local/bin/ssh-session
Type=Application

There are 2 major types of computer fonts.

While scaling of bitmap fonts causes jugged image, scaling of outline/stroke fonts produces smooth image.

Bitmap fonts on the Debian system are usually provided by compressed X11 pcf bitmap font files having their file extension ".pcf.gz".

Outline fonts on the Debian system are provided by the following.

	Sugerencia
	OpenType is intended to supersede both TrueType and PostScript Type 1.

	Sugerencia
	DejaVu fonts are based on and superset of Bitstream Vera fonts.

aptitude(8) helps you find additional fonts easily.

Since Free fonts are sometimes limited, installing or sharing some commercial TrueType fonts is an option for a Debian users. In order to make this process easy for the user, some convenience packages have been created.

You'll have a really good selection of TrueType fonts at the expense of contaminating your Free system with non-Free fonts.

Here are some key points focused on fonts of CJK characters.

Font name such as "VL PGothic" with "P" is a proportional font which corresponds to the fixed width "VL Gothic" font.

For example, Shift_JIS code table comprises 7070 characters. They can be grouped as the following.

Double-byte characters occupy double width on console terminals which uses CJK fixed width fonts. In order to cope with such situation, Hanzi Bitmap Font (HBF) File with file extension ".hbf" may be deployed for fonts containing single-byte and double-byte characters.

In order to save space for TrueType font files, TrueType font collection file with file extension ".ttc" may be used.

In order to cover complicated code space of characters, CID keyed PostScript Type 1 font is used with CMap files starting themselves with "%!PS-Adobe-3.0 Resource-CMap". This is rarely used for normal X display but used for PDF rendering etc. (see Sección 7.7.2, “X utility applications”).

	Sugerencia
	The multiple glyphs are expected for some Unicode code points due to Han unification. One of the most annoying ones are "U+3001 IDEOGRAPHIC COMMA" and "U+3002 IDEOGRAPHIC FULL STOP" whose character positions differ among CJK countries. Configuring priority of Japanese centric fonts over Chinese ones using "~/.fonts.conf" should give peace of minds to Japanese.

Here is a list of basic office applications (OO is OpenOffice.org).

Here is a list of basic utility applications which caught my eyes.

	Atención
	The poppler-data package (previously non-free, see Sección 11.3.1, “Ghostscript”) needs to be installed for evince and okular to display CJK PDF documents using Cmap data (Sección 7.6.3, “CJK fonts”).

	Nota
	Installing softwares such as scribus (KDE) on GNOME desktop environment are quite acceptable since corresponding functionality is not available under GNOME desktop environment. But installing too many packages with duplicated functionalities clutter your menu.

xmodmap(1) is a utility for modifying keymaps and pointer button mappings in the X Window System. To get the keycode, run xev(1) in the X and press keys. To get the meaning of keysym, look into the MACRO definition in "/usr/include/X11/keysymdef.h" file (x11proto-core-dev package). All "#define" statements in this file are named as "XK_" prepended to keysym names.

Most traditional X client programs, such as xterm(1), can be started with a set of standard command line options to specify geometry, font, and display.

They also use the X resource database to configure their appearance. The system-wide defaults of X resources are stored in "/etc/X11/Xresources/*" and application defaults of them are stored in "/etc/X11/app-defaults/*". Use these settings as the starting points.

The "~/.Xresources" file is used to store user resource specifications. This file is automatically merged into the default X resources upon login. To make changes to these settings and make them effective immediately, merge them into the database using the following command.

$ xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

See x(7) and xrdb(1).

Learn everything about xterm(1) at http://dickey.his.com/xterm/xterm.faq.html.

	Aviso
	Never start the X display/session manager under the root account by typing in root to the prompt of the display manager such as gdm because it is considered unsafe (insecure), even when you plan to perform administrative activities. The entire X architecture is considered insecure if run as root. You must always use the lowest privilege level possible, like a regular user account.

Easy ways to run a particular X client, e.g. "foo" as root is to use sudo(8) etc. as the following.

$ sudo foo &

$ sudo -s
# foo &

$ gksu foo &

$ ssh -X root@localhost
# foo &

	Atención
	Use of ssh(1) just for this purpose as above is waste of resource.

In order for the X client to connect to the X server, please note the following.

The gksu package (popcon: V:26, I:51) is a specialized GTK+ GUI package for gaining the root privileges. It can be configured to use su(1) or sudo(8) as its backend depending on the "/apps/gksu/sudo-mode" gconf key. You can edit gconf key using gconf-editor(1) (menu: "Applications" → "System Tools" → "Configuration Editor").