Xdefaults and Xresources not working

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Level 1

25 points

Xdefaults and Xresources not working

i installed apple's X11, and then fink to get octave. now i'm trying to customize my xterm window by adding stuff to .Xdefaults and .Xresources and it's not working. for some reason when i start X11 it's not reading these files. i know the files work by themselves, b/c i can do a "xrdb -merge .Xresources" manually on the command line and get the desired results. the default xinitrc file in /etc/X11/xinit supposedly does just that, as there is an identical line in there, but for some reason it just doesn't happen. any ideas as to why the default xinitrc file wouldn't execute?

imac g5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Posted on Mar 30, 2006 6:47 AM

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Answer 1

Jun T.

Level 4

2,191 points

Mar 30, 2006 7:54 AM in response to ben arthur

Hi ben,

Don't you have your own ~/.xinitrc?

PowerMac G4 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

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Answer 2

ben arthur Author

Level 1

25 points

Mar 30, 2006 8:13 AM in response to ben arthur

actually, things have changed now. a manual xrdb on the command line no longer works, and i've found out that the default xinitrc is actually executing. so the question then becomes, why doesn't xrdb merge my .Xresources file properly, either from within the default xinitrc or from the command line? here's the contents:

xterm*saveLines: 500

emac 800

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Answer 3

Mar 30, 2006 4:50 PM in response to ben arthur

I futzed around with editres, and came up with the following.

.xterm*saveLines: 500

give it a shot.

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Answer 4

ben arthur Author

Level 1

25 points

Mar 30, 2006 6:57 PM in response to ben arthur

well, hmmm, more things are changing... xrdb actually does merge properly, both manually on the command line and automatically within xinitrc. i've verified this with "xrdb -query". however, even though the query shows a "xterm*saveLines:500" as the only entry, new xterms do not actually save lines. even if i quit and restart X. this is all with the default apple X11 SDK installed straight from the OS X 10.4 DVD that came with the computer. i've tried it on one computer with fink, and another without, and both don't work. i've tried deleting X11.app, /etc/X11, and /usr/X11 and re-installing, still no go. this is a default stock system, with only a ~/.Xresources file added that has a single line as above. how could it possibly not work for me and yet work for everyone else!? i've changed nothing concerning X11 except adding ~/.Xresources!!

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Answer 5

Mar 30, 2006 9:13 PM in response to ben arthur

So xrdb -query indicates that the value is set, but starting a new xterm after that doesn't get its effect? How exactly are you starting this xterm? Try 'xterm&' after verifying xrdb. Do you have shell aliases or other menu preferences that might be passing some command-line option to override xrdb or cause use of a different class than 'xterm'? Are there any other savelines or xterm tokens (or Xterm or XTerm or any other case of them) in xrdb that might override the one you want?

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Answer 6

Mar 31, 2006 4:11 AM in response to ben arthur

When you start xterm. does it have a scroll bar?
if not how are you starting it. I'm not near my mac
right now. but I believe that the option is '-sb'.
sift the manpage for the corresponding value to stuff
into the ~/.Xresources file.
there's also an option for it. it's not turned on
by default.

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Answer 7

tong

Level 1

10 points

Mar 31, 2006 3:59 PM in response to ben arthur

Hi Ben,

I did experience a similar problem, until I have discovered that my /etc/X11 directory is in fact called "/etc/X11_AppleBackup", this was the reason for things not to work...

Check whether that is also the case for your X11 installation, if it is the case, then just put a X11 symbolic link to that directory will solve the problem.

Lianheng

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