From: Michael Riepe (riepe@ifwsn4.ifw.uni-hannover.de)
Date: 01/02/93


From: riepe@ifwsn4.ifw.uni-hannover.de (Michael Riepe)
Subject: Re: 2 X problems (.xinitrc and Xview)
Date: Sun, 3 Jan 1993 00:23:07 GMT

In article 725908629@bluese2, lmfken@lmf.ericsson.se (Kenneth Osterberg) writes:
|>STDN%MARIST.bitnet@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (Dan Newcombe) writes:
|>>HI all... I am having two problems with X. The first is that
|>>X will not come up if I have a .xinitrc. Without it, I have no
|>>problems, but as soon as I create one I get the following error.
|>
|>>xinit: Interrupted system call (errno 4): Client error.
|>
|>>But this happens even if I comment out all of the lines in
|>>.xinitrc My .xinitrc looks like...
|>>OPENWINHOME=/usr/openwin; export OPENWINHOME
|>>PATH=$PATH:$OPENWINHOME/bin
|>>HELPPATH=$OPENWINHOME/help; export HELPPATH
|>>if -z "$MANPATH" |; then
|>>MANPATH=/usr/local/man:/usr/man; export MANPATH
|>>fi
|>>MANPATH=$MANPATH:$OPENWINHOME/man
|>>twm &
|>
|>>I don't understand as all except for the last line was taken
|>>straight from the README for XView, which is my next problem.
|>
|>The README also states that you probably lose if you use Xview apps
|>without running an OpenLook compliant WM. Use olwm or olvwm.
|>The OPENWINHOME stuff in your .xinitrc is needed for Xview apps, if
|>you use twm you won't need any of the above. Xview apps won't work,
|>of course.
[other stuff deleted]

The solution seems to be much simpler - the last command in .xinitrc
should ALWAYS be a foreground task. Removing the '&' after twm should
keep your session alive. Anyway, olwm (or olvwm) might be a better
choice (IMHO, it is).

Besides that, $HOME/.xinitrc is a *replacement* for
/usr/X386/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc (right path?) and should have the same
functionality - e.g. load $HOME/.Xdefaults, start the window manager
and/or an xterm etc.; just copy the system xinitrc to $HOME and modify
it but don't create your own one from scratch if you don't know
*exactly* what you're doing. Doing so should also solve your font
problems, I think.

BTW IMHO these questions definitely belong to comp.windows.x.i386unix
(not a flame, just a hint).

Michael.

-- 
 Michael Riepe               <riepe@ifwsn4.ifw.uni-hannover.de>
 Universit"at Hannover
 Institut f"ur Fertigungstechnik und Spanende Werkzeugmaschinen
 Schlosswender Str. 5               W-3000 Hannover 1 (Germany)
 ...life is a sexually transmitted desease !