[olug] to X or not to X (on a server)?

[David Walker]

Since I don't like recompiling a kernel without "make xconfig",
I like to put just enough X on the server to redirect a display to another 
machine, either through ssh or just setting "DISPLAY=192.168.217.4:0"

On Monday 12 May 2003 01:49 am, Brian Wiese wrote:
> On Fri, 9 May 2003 05:15:41 -0500
>
> Kenton Brede <xyf at nixnotes.org> wrote:
> |On Fri, May 09, 2003 at 06:05:37AM -0500, Brian Wiese wrote:
> |> So, my friend and I where having this little discussion about setting
> |> up a debian stable server for basically samba file and print serving.
> |> He says X should not ever be installed and I say it should.  What do
> |> the fellow gnu/linux admins on the list recommend from experience...
> |> which has more benefit, to install X on a server or to not?  hard drive
> |> space is not a concern.
> |>
> |> reasons for X:
> |> - provides productive usable environment for local system
> |> administration(I like to have a couple of terminal windows open and
> |> other GUI tools at hand (a webbrowser perhaps) when administrating a
> |> system versus straight CLI)- will not be used/running normally,
> |> standard runlevel = 2- could easily be uninstalled with 'apt-get remove
> |> --purge xserver-common...'- security updates go along with 'apt-get
> |> upgrade' so not much of a concern (and there are no remote shell
> |> logins, just IT staff)
> |>
> |> reasons against X:
> |> - another piece of software installed that could be a security
> |> vulnerability- added difficulty for system backups?
> |> - performance benefit by not being installed?
> |>
> |> so, to have the option of X or to not on a server, what's best?
> |
> |I can't say absolutely X should never be installed on a server but I
> |haven't seen a reason to do so yet.  A few reasons why I wouldn't:
> |
> |* Possible security vulnerability that must be dealt with.
> |
> |* Don't have to track and install security updates for X and all the
> |  stuff installed with it.
> |
> |* During your career you will more than likely find yourself in an
> |  environment mostly without a graphical interface.  Relying on X doesn't
> |  prepare you for that.
> |
> |* Most of the crashes / freezes I have personally seen on linux systems
> |  have happened while running X.
> |
> |* Running a graphical browser on a server isn't a good idea due to
> |  the inevitable runaway processes that occur while surfing.
> |
> |kent
>
> Yeah, this is kind of the same mentality I've had all along.  My own
> webserver has been up for more than 2 separate ocassions of 210+ days of
> uptime over the past 1 1/2 years (recently had to replace UPS for last
> downtime)... and since it's all remotely managed/old slow system, I've
> never installed X on it, just ssh.  If I have a local server though, and
> therefore almost always hooked into a kvm somewhere, I go ahead and
> install X though and just run it when I need it.  I personally find that
> the functionality benefit of admin' a box from an X environment far
> outways any other valid/potential concerns. (to copy and paste, have
> multiple xterms/konsoles/... of an extremely large/custom screen size and
> run a browser on localhost for testing etc, it's what graphic environments
> are for - do interact with the system more usefully...)  It's another one
> of those personal admin choices I assume, but it is nice to not 'have to'
> run it all the time (like in Windoze) and have the option to unistall it
> or turn it off at will without loosing major functionality on the system.
>
> peace
>
>   Brian Wiese | bwiese at cotse.com | aim: unolinuxguru
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