Hi group. This is a reply to a direct message I got from David Lowe. I don't have David's permission to quote the original message, but I thought my reply would be generally of interest. In essence, David points out that one must look for /etc/X11/xinit/.xinitrc and edit it in a command line interface since one won't see it in Finder. This is my reply:
i have some command-line Unix/Linux ability, and I can assure you on Leopard /etc/X11/xinit/.xinitrc is not there. The configuration of X11 on Leopard is actually a whole different ball of wax. I have subscribed to the Apple X11 users' list, and one can indeed suppress xterm at start-up delivering a "defaults write" command that rewrites the org.x.X11_launcher.plist file to start up something else that is neutral and doesn't display and xterm window. The problem is that with this change OOo won't start at all. Apparently, problems with with launching some X11 programs under certain conditions are plaguing X11--the X11 list is full of stories regarding Matlab and other X11 apps. Ben Byer, Apple's X11 developer, is an active participant in that group and I am sure he will ferret out the bugs in time. It is actually a big issue. It seems that that X11 interface under Leopard is almost a completely different program. I will tolerate the xterm launch for now. It is an aesthetic eyesore, but if I leave it alone OOo starts fine. I continue to advocate adding /Applications/Utilities/X11.app to one's Login Items in System Preferences > Accounts, and the paths for the various OOo constituents to the X11 Applications menu. I think it is pretty cool. Thanks, David, for your reply, and I hope this helps other interested parties too. Les
