Subject: FVWM: oh that wacky xterm

From: "Klaus" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 19 Feb 1999 15:04:19 -0500 (EST)

Hi,

I just installed BSDi on a machine as of a few days ago, and compiled
fvwm2 for it last night, and it works fine... sorta.

I'm not sure if this is an X problem, or an fvwm problem, so please bear
with me...

Anyway... if I run xinit or startx or xdm, the window manager will spawn
items, and start to run, BUT, it's impossible to start an xterm window; my
xinits don't get run, and my menu won't execute them from fvwm2 itself.

(I think I have the syntax correct, too)

--- .xinitrc ---
dclock &
xload &
xterm &
xterm &
exec fvwm2
---- .xinitrc ---

As for starting apps from fvwm2, I can run
xman/xmag/xv/xpaint/xsnow/netscape/xyadda/xyadda/xyadda properly, but
trying to invoke an xterm fails silently. Initially, I had the line
written incorrectly, like so:  xterm "`hostname -s`", which would spit out
an error message from xterm itself about an unknown option  and then the
contents of `hostname -s` (as expected). But.... after fixing that syntax
error, restarting, and trying again, it spits out... nothing. No message,
no window, nada. 

So the question I have is just what the hell *is* happening? Even xinit
without running a window manager refuses to spawn one measly xterm,
leaving me stuck looking at the desktop until i hit Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, or
being forced to hit 'reset' if I start xdm. (no networking configured yet)

My choice of X servers doesn't seem to alter anything, either, both
XFree86 and Xmetro produce the same baffling results.

So has anyone ever seen this behaviour before, or can anyone direct me to
the proper place to find out exactly what the hell is going on?

thanks,
Klaus

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---

From: [email-masked] (Paul D. Smith)
Date: 19 Feb 1999 15:20:10 -0500

%% "Klaus" <[email-masked]> writes:

  k> I'm not sure if this is an X problem, or an fvwm problem, so please
  k> bear with me...

  k> Anyway... if I run xinit or startx or xdm, the window manager will
  k> spawn items, and start to run, BUT, it's impossible to start an
  k> xterm window; my xinits don't get run, and my menu won't execute
  k> them from fvwm2 itself.

  k> So the question I have is just what the hell *is* happening? Even
  k> xinit without running a window manager refuses to spawn one measly
  k> xterm

Then this doesn't sound like a window manager issue.

First, I assume you've checked the obvious: xterm exists on your path,
if you use "ldd /path/to/xterm" it doesn't print any errors about shared
libs, etc.

Some other things:

 1) try running xterm with a full path and -display explicitly:

        /path/to/xterm -display :0.0

 2) try running it without X running; does it do anything odd before the
    expected "can't connect" error?

 3) Clean out your .Xdefaults file of any xterm stuff; better yet,
    rename it completely.  Ditto for any XUSERFILESEARCHPATH stuff you
    may have, if you use it.  Does this help?

 4) Run startx with redirection to a log:

        startx >.Xerrorlog 2>&1

    (sh syntax)  Does anything show up in there?

 5) Can you get a copy of rxvt or some other terminal emulator?  If you
    can start _some_ kind of shell when X is running, invoke xterm from
    there in the foreground and see if it prints anything, or returns,
    or what.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Paul D. Smith <[email-masked]>         Network Management Development
 "Please remain calm...I may be mad, but I am a professional." --Mad Scientist
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   These are my opinions---Nortel Networks takes no responsibility for them.
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