I remember that some time ago it was recommended to explicitly add "-nolisten tcp" parameter for XServer, so that it doesn't listen for incoming connections on port 6000 by default. I checked my Slackware-14.2 system with nmap, and it doesn't listen on TCP port 6000. I never added "-nolisten tcp" myself. Does it mean that the defaults for XServer somehow changed, and that advice is out of date?

The second question is, how do I add parameters for XServer (e.g. DPI settings) in an elegant way? All the articles I could find suggest editing /usr/bin/startx, and adding parameters to the defaultserverargs variable. But wouldn't that modification be overwritten when Xorg package is updated or reinstalled? Is there a way to set defaultserverargs persistently somewhere in /etc/, or in user's $HOME?

I saw some mentions of /etc/X11/xserverrc and ~/.xserverrc files, but these don't exist in my system, and I have no idea how to create them, so I would have to find some information about what their contents should be. Is this the correct path forward anyway?

I put a .xserverrc file in my home directory ($HOME) which contains the following:

I use it precisely to ensure the "-nolisten tcp" and set the DPI.

Hope this helps,

Phil

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Thanks, that was helpful.

Additionally, I found that in XFCE the DPI value can be set either from Settings -> Appearance -> Font, or by using Settings Editor. So I probably don't need the .xserverrc after all. But this is still good to know, because not every window manager allows setting DPI from the GUI.

Now I would only like to understand why my XServer doesn't listen on port 6000. Is it because of some Slackware defaults? Or should I set "-nolisten tcp" just in case?

I don't think X11 listens by default anymore, it's something you'd have to enable. First of all, if you're using a login manager to start, it would probably pass -nolisten tcp. I don't, I just use startx, and while it's not using --nolisten-tcp, it's not listening on the port (from netstat -a)

I think you'd have to tell it to "-listen tcp" now if you want that.

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no, it's because is the default for X.org since some time.

https://cgit.freedesktop.org/xorg/xs...2994c73ee0b3e9

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If I remember rightly, the default changed a few years ago.

edit: nm, ponce beat me to it. Oh! 2014, didn't think it was that long ago. Where did the time go?

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Ah, I see. So I was right to suspect this advice is outdated.

Thanks for all your replies. You've been very helpful.