Jon, thanks for your /usr/bin/startx patch. (repeated as text below since the cygwin mailing list bounces attachments, so probably didn't make it to the list.) Applying your patch allows startx to run and launch X - but in full desktop mode, rather than the multiwindow mode that startx did for me previously.
Trying: startx -multiwindow leads to: xterm: bad command line option "xterm". Interesting. startx -- -multiwindow works as xinit does, but is non-obvious to the user. I'd expect startx to default to multiwindow mode. So, your patch is a step in the right direction, at least, handles spaces correctly, and should certainly be committed to the codebase. I'm using SaVi and Geomview under Cygwin/X and WinXP SP2 (a 2MB Thinkpad T43). See: <https://outlook2003.surrey.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://savi.sf.net/>http://savi.sf.net/ The new X server has a nasty habit of dying horribly when I begin using SaVi and Geomview - there's your test case. I can live without the hardware acceleration - it's a good way of tightening SaVi's geomview commands to remove redundant drawing and group drawing commands together to remove unnecessary geomview updates - but other geomview users will have a different view. And only getting thirty seconds or so of use before the X server dies and takes everything else with it is a showstopper for all of us. Geomview now seems to be easier to build under the new Xserver regime - ./configure and make just work and do the right thing without command-line nudges - but it's far less robust and reliable in use under the new X server. (I'm not getting cut/paste between Windows and xterms in multiwindow mode, either. Entirely separate clipboards.) thanks, L. <<https://outlook2003.surrey.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/>http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/L.Wood/><l.w...@surrey.ac.uk> --- /usr/bin/startx 2009-01-19 06:43:41.001000000 +0000 +++ startx 2009-02-16 20:30:15.062500000 +0000 @@ -159,9 +159,9 @@ add :$dummy . $mcookie EOF + serverargs=${serverargs}" -auth '"${xserverauthfile}"'" - serverargs=${serverargs}" -auth "${xserverauthfile} # now add the same credentials to the client authority file @@ -193,9 +193,9 @@ +eval xinit \"$client\" $clientargs -- \"$server\" $display $serverargs -xinit "$client" $clientargs -- "$server" $display $serverargs -----Original Message----- From: Jon TURNEY [<mailto:jon.tur...@dronecode.org.uk>mailto:jon.tur...@dronecode.org.uk] Sent: Wed 2009-02-18 16:23 To: cc Cc: Wood L Dr (Electronic Eng) Subject: Re: /usr/bin/startx fails on new x.org install? Lloyd Wood wrote: >> Lloyd Wood wrote: >>> XWin was started with the following command line: >>> >>> /usr/bin/X :0 -auth /cygdrive/c/Documents and >>> Settings/lwood/.serverauth.3000 >>> >>> ddxProcessArgument - Initializing default screens >>> winInitializeDefaultScreens - w 1400 h 1050 >>> winInitializeDefaultScreens - returning >>> Unrecognized option: and >>> [..] >> This isn't X-specific; spaces and *NIX paths don't mix. > > Tell that to any Mac OS X user. > >> Please use a >> sane home directory, like /home/lwood. > > startx used to work. Now, it doesn't. Ergo, like lack of opengl hardware > acceleration, it can be argued that it's a regression in functionality. (I > have to keep files under Documents\ and\ Settings. That has worked fine for > for startx the last eight years. Now, it's broken.) > > handling of paths has been broken, due to lame programming practices. it > needs to be fixed. Thanks for identifying this as a regression. I wasn't sure if this used to work or not. I think that the attached patch for startx should fix this problem, if you wouldn't mind testing it. >>> 4. Hogging and not freeing menu/window resources in X, as my Insight Tcl >>> program failing with 'unable to register Tk TopLevel class' or failing to >>> draw a window properly indicates: >>> <https://outlook2003.surrey.ac.uk/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Tcl/comp.lang.tcl/2008-04/msg00769.html>http://coding.derkeiler.com/Archive/Tcl/comp.lang.tcl/2008-04/msg00769.html >>> yes, Insight Tcl programs can be run without X being launched. But I have to >>> quit X (desktop or multiwindow mode) to pull down and draw a menu in >>>> e.g. the mail program where I'm writing this. >> Cygwin's Tcl/Tk is currently Windows based, and this message is clearly >> talking about a Windows version of Tcl/Tk. I don't see what that has to >> do with X11? > > I'm walking you through visible symptoms, diagnosis, and explanation. the new > Xserver is demonstrably a resource hog, in that it interferes with normal > Windows operation. Too bad you're not providing us with the solution as well :-) I tried some brief experiments with the Dheapmon tool, but I didn't see any obvious leaking and wasn't able to hit this Windows resource limit - the desktop heap was only 50% full with 50 xterms, and then I hit some other limit in cygwin.... ('open ttydev: No such file or directory'), so a few more details about how to reproduce this problem would be very helpful. It might be also helpful if you mentioned which particular version of windows you are using, as I would guess they don't all behave the same in this regard. -- Unsubscribe info: http://cygwin.com/ml/#unsubscribe-simple Problem reports: http://cygwin.com/problems.html Documentation: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/ FAQ: http://x.cygwin.com/docs/faq/