Can somebody give me a brief explanation on how this works. When i start linux up, do i connect to a physical server that i can run the GUI on. Thats what im assuming happens im just a little unsure, so any help would be good. also because everybody running linux is connected to the X server, is my computer vulnerable to hackers with good knowledge. I mean im running 3 distros right now pclos, slackware and sabayon 3.1. one of the things i notice is when i edit my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for slackware so i have the scroll wheel i get a message saying that my connection to the X server was reset my peer. What does that mean did somebody reset my connection. aslo im having some problems when i change my /etc/inittrid to runlevel 4 so i can a GUI login and the ability to changed to different desktop environment. when i change to runlevel 4 in slackware and try to login i loose my mouse. what can i do to fix this issue.

i think you're really getting the wrong end of the stick here... do you think that the X server is a big box on the internet somewhere that all X users connect to? not the case whatsoever. lots and lots of unix software uses a client / sever based architecture, where you run a process in the background which does the boring complicated stuff (the server) and then connect to it using a seperate program, a gui or something, which is the client. they both run on the same machine, but allow for vastly greater flexibility in the main. the X server is notably different in actual fact as the client and server roles are reversed. the server is always local and the client is "remote" either logically or physically. by this i mean that the thing that actually show you a screen is the X server, and the clients, programs / window managers etc... under X, can actually be running anywhere in the world and draw to the server in front of you. by default an X server only allows connections from the same user on the same machine. there are many freaky things you can do with an X server but by default it's perfectly save, and only you and your programs can use it.

The X-server is software running right on your machine...

I'm not an expert, but the basic idea is that the server code handles the general-purpose duties of generating the graphical screen and all the device interfaces (monitor, mice, etc.) When you log in to the GUI, you are likely using a display manager--although this is not strictly required. Regardless, when you login and go to GUI mode, an X-session is created in your name, with a virtual terminal generated.

If another user then logs in, they get their own session, virtual terminal, etc. Each user can be using different settings, different desktops (eg KDE vs Gnome), etc.

hey thx for the reply guys, they helped a lot. I had a question, i wanted to get remote access to my computer from my friends house i just needed to know how to open the ports for text and graphical. i think the graphical access ports is 5800 and 5900, how do i open them.

those ports are for the VNC application, which you need to run yourself. Indeed you need to run a vnc *server* on your box. Xorg does actually include a buil4 int vnc server if you wish to see the single running screen. try this http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Use_VNC...ing_X_Sessions and ignore the fact that it's for gentoo, it's pretty generic. once don you'd need to portforward or something, but that's another story altogether.

I'd suggest opening a new topic for your new question.