3 This file describes various problems that have been encountered
4 in compiling, installing and running XEmacs. It has been updated for
7 This file is rather large, but we have tried to sort the entries by
8 their respective relevance for XEmacs, but may have not succeeded
9 completely in that task. The file is divided into four parts:
11 - Problems with building XEmacs
12 - Problems with running XEmacs
13 - Compatibility problems
16 Use `C-c C-f' to move to the next equal level of outline, and
17 `C-c C-b' to move to previous equal level. `C-h m' will give more
18 info about the Outline mode.
20 Also, Try finding the things you need using one of the search commands
21 XEmacs provides (e.g. `C-s').
24 WATCH OUT for .emacs file! ~/.emacs is your Emacs init file. If
25 you observe strange problems, invoke XEmacs with the `-q' option
26 and see if you can repeat the problem.
29 * Problems with building XEmacs
30 ===============================
32 ** Don't use -O2 with gcc 2.7.2 under Intel/XXX without also using
33 `-fno-strength-reduce'.
35 gcc will generate incorrect code otherwise. This bug is present in at
36 least 2.6.x and 2.7.[0-2]. This bug has been fixed in GCC 2.7.2.1 and
37 later. This bug is O/S independent, but is limited to x86 architectures.
39 This problem is known to be fixed in egcs (or pgcc) 1.0 or later.
41 ** Don't use -O2 with gcc 2.7.2 under Intel architectures without also
42 using `-fno-caller-saves'.
44 gcc will generate incorrect code otherwise. This bug is still
45 present in gcc 2.7.2.3. There have been no reports to indicate the
46 bug is present in egcs 1.0 (or pgcc 1.0) or later. This bug is O/S
47 independent, but limited to x86 architectures.
49 This problem is known to be fixed in egcs (or pgcc) 1.0 or later.
51 ** Excessive optimization with pgcc can break XEmacs
53 It has been reported on some systems that compiling with -O6 can lead
54 to XEmacs failures. The workaround is to use a lower optimization
55 level. -O2 and -O4 have been tested extensively.
57 All of this depends heavily on the version of pgcc and the version
58 of libc. Snapshots near the release of pgcc-1.0 have been tested
59 extensively and no sign of breakage has been seen on systems using
62 ** `compress' and `uncompress' not found and XFree86
64 XFree86 installs a very old version of libz.a by default ahead of where
65 more modern version of libz might be installed. This will cause problems
66 when attempting to link against libMagick. The fix is to remove the old
67 libz.a in the X11 binary directory.
69 ** Excessive optimization on AIX 4.2 can lead to compiler failure.
71 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu writes:
72 At least at the b34 level, and the latest-and-greatest IBM xlc
73 (3.1.4.4), there are problems with -O3. I haven't investigated
76 ** Sed problems on Solaris 2.5
78 There have been reports of Sun sed truncating very lines in the
79 Makefile during configuration. The workaround is to use GNU sed or,
80 even better, think of a better way to generate Makefile, and send us a
83 ** test-distrib says that the distribution has been clobbered
84 or, temacs prints "Command key out of range 0-127"
85 or, temacs runs and dumps xemacs, but xemacs totally fails to work.
86 or, temacs gets errors dumping xemacs
88 This can be because the .elc files have been garbled. Do not be
89 fooled by the fact that most of a .elc file is text: these are binary
90 files and can contain all 256 byte values.
92 In particular `shar' cannot be used for transmitting GNU Emacs. It
93 typically truncates "lines". (this does not apply to GNU shar, which
94 uses uuencode to encode binary files.)
96 If you have a copy of Emacs that has been damaged in its nonprinting
97 characters, you can fix them by running:
101 This will rebuild all the needed .elc files.
103 ** `Error: No ExtNode to pop!' on Linux systems with Lesstif.
105 This error message has been observed with lesstif-0.75a. It does not
106 appear to cause any harm.
108 ** Linking with -rpath on IRIX.
110 Darrell Kindred <dkindred@cmu.edu> writes:
111 There are a couple of problems [with use of -rpath with Irix ld], though:
113 1. The ld in IRIX 5.3 ignores all but the last -rpath
114 spec, so the patched configure spits out a warning
115 if --x-libraries or --site-runtime-libraries are
116 specified under irix 5.x, and it only adds -rpath
117 entries for the --site-runtime-libraries. This bug was
118 fixed sometime between 5.3 and 6.2.
120 2. IRIX gcc 2.7.2 doesn't accept -rpath directly, so
121 it would have to be prefixed by -Xlinker or "-Wl,".
122 This would be fine, except that configure compiles with
123 ${CC-cc} $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS ...
124 rather than quoting $LDFLAGS with prefix-args, like
125 src/Makefile does. So if you specify --x-libraries
126 or --site-runtime-libraries, you must use --use-gcc=no,
127 or configure will fail.
129 ** On Irix 6.3, the SGI ld quits with segmentation fault when linking temacs
131 This occurs if you use the SGI linker version 7.1. Installing the
132 patch SG0001872 fixes this problem.
134 ** xemacs: can't resolve symbol '__malloc_hook'
136 This is a Linux problem where you've compiled the XEmacs binary on a libc
137 5.4 with version higher than 5.4.19 and attempted to run the binary against
138 an earlier version. The solution is to upgrade your old library.
140 ** Compilation errors on VMS.
142 Sorry, XEmacs does not work under VMS. You might consider working on
143 the port if you really want to have XEmacs work under VMS.
145 ** On Solaris 2 I get undefined symbols from libcurses.a.
147 You probably have /usr/ucblib/ on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Do the link with
148 LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset. Generally, avoid using any ucb* stuff when
151 ** On Solaris 2 I cannot make alloc.o, glyphs.o or process.o.
153 The SparcWorks C compiler may have difficulty building those modules
154 with optimization level -xO4. Try using only "-fast" optimization
155 for just those modules. (Or use gcc).
157 ** On Digital UNIX, the DEC C compiler might have a problem compiling
160 In particular, src/extents.c and src/faces.c might cause the DEC C
161 compiler to abort. When this happens: cd src, compile the files by
162 hand, cd .., and redo the "make" command. When recompiling the files by
163 hand, use the old C compiler for the following versions of Digital UNIX:
164 - V3.n: Remove "-migrate" from the compile command.
165 - V4.n: Add "-oldc" to the compile command.
167 A related compiler bug has been fixed by the DEC compiler team. The
168 new versions of the compiler should run fine.
170 ** On HPUX, the HP C compiler might have a problem compiling some files
173 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
175 Had to drop once again to level 2 optimization, at least to
176 compile lstream.c. Otherwise, I get a "variable is void: \if"
177 problem while dumping (this is a problem I already reported
178 with vanilla hpux 10.01 and 9.07, which went away after
179 applying patches for the C compiler). Trouble is I still
180 haven't found the same patch for hpux 10.10, and I don't
181 remember the patch numbers. I think potential XEmacs builders
182 on HP should be warned about this.
184 ** I don't have `xmkmf' and `imake' on my HP.
186 You can get these standard X tools by anonymous FTP to
187 hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com. Essentially all X programs need these.
189 ** On HP-UX, problems with make
191 Marcus Thiessel <marcus_thiessel@hp.com>
193 Some releases of XEmacs (e.g. 20.4) require GNU make to build
194 successfully. You don't need GNU make when building 21.x.
196 ** On HP-UX 9.05 XEmacs won't compile or coredump during the build.
198 Marcus Thiessel <marcus_thiessel@hp.com>
200 This might be a sed problem. For your own safety make sure to use
201 GNU sed while dumping XEmacs.
203 ** On HP-UX 11.0 XEmacs causes excessive X11 errors when running.
205 Marcus Thiessel <marcus_thiessel@hp.com>
207 Unfortunately, XEmacs releases don't work with Motif2.1. It
208 will compile but you will get excessive X11 errors like
210 xemacs: X Error of failed request: BadGC (invalid GC parameter)
212 and finally XEmacs gets killed. A workaround is to use the
213 Motif1.2_R6 libraries. You can the following line to your call to
216 --x-libraries="/usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6 -L/usr/lib/X11R6"
218 Make sure /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.sl is a link to
219 /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.3.
221 ** Solaris 2.3 /bin/sh coredumps during configuration.
223 This only occurs if you have LANG != C. This is a known bug with
224 /bin/sh fixed by installing Patch-ID# 101613-01. Or, you can use
225 bash, as a workaround.
227 ** On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi
229 A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o"
230 in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run,
231 find that string, and take out the spaces.
233 Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem.
235 ** Coredumping in Irix 6.2
237 Pete Forman <gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com> writes:
238 A problem noted by myself and others (I've lost the references) was
239 that XEmacs coredumped when the cut or copy toolbar buttons were
240 pressed. This has been fixed by loading the SGI patchset (Feb 98)
241 without having to recompile XEmacs.
243 My versions are XEmacs 20.3 (problem first noted in 19.15) and IRIX
244 6.2, compiled using -n32. I'd guess that the relevant individual
245 patch was "SG0002580: multiple fixes for X libraries". SGI recommends
246 that the complete patch set be installed rather than parts of it.
248 ** Native cc on SCO OpenServer 5 is now OK. Icc may still throw you
249 a curve. Here is what Robert Lipe <robertl@arnet.com> says:
251 Unlike XEmacs 19.13, building with the native cc on SCO OpenServer 5
252 now produces a functional binary. I will typically build this
253 configuration for COFF with:
255 /path_to_xemacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
256 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
257 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas
259 This version now supports ELF builds. I highly recommend this to
260 reduce the in-core footprint of XEmacs. This is now how I compile
261 all my test releases. Build it like this:
263 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
264 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
265 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic
267 The compiler known as icc [ supplied with the OpenServer 5 Development
268 System ] generates a working binary, but it takes forever to generate
269 XEmacs. ICC also whines more about the code than /bin/cc does. I do
270 believe all its whining is legitimate, however. Note that you do
271 have to 'cd src ; make LD=icc' to avoid linker errors.
273 The way I handle the build procedure is:
275 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
276 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
277 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic --compiler="icc"
279 NOTE I have the xpm, xface, and audio libraries and includes in
280 /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include. If you don't have these,
281 don't include the "--with-*" arguments in any of my examples.
283 In previous versions of XEmacs, you had to override the defaults while
284 compiling font-lock.o and extents.o when building with icc. This seems
285 to no longer be true, but I'm including this old information in case it
286 resurfaces. The process I used was:
289 [ procure pizza, beer, repeat ]
291 make CC="icc -W0,-mP1COPT_max_tree_size=3000" font-lock.o extents.o
294 If you want sound support, get the tls566 supplement from
295 ftp.sco.com:/TLS or any of its mirrors. It works just groovy
298 The M-x manual-entry is known not to work. If you know Lisp and would
299 like help in making it work, e-mail me at <robertl@dgii.com>.
300 (UNCHECKED for 19.15 -- it might work).
302 In earlier releases, gnuserv/gnuclient/gnudoit would open a frame
303 just fine, but the client would lock up and the server would
304 terminate when you used C-x # to close the frame. This is now
307 In etc/ there are two files of note. emacskeys.sco and emacsstrs.sco.
308 The comments at the top of emacskeys.sco describe its function, and
309 the emacstrs.sco is a suitable candidate for /usr/lib/keyboard/strings
310 to take advantage of the keyboard map in emacskeys.sco.
312 Note: Much of the above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.2
315 ** Under some versions of OSF XEmacs runs fine if built without
316 optimization but will crash randomly if built with optimization.
318 Using 'cc -g' is not sufficient to eliminate all optimization. Try
321 ** On SunOS, you get linker errors
323 _get_wmShellWidgetClass
324 _get_applicationShellWidgetClass
326 The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0
327 or link libXmu statically.
329 ** On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version.
331 This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant
332 for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete
333 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory.
335 ** On AIX 4.1.2, linker error messages such as
336 ld: 0711-212 SEVERE ERROR: Symbol .__quous, found in the global symbol table
337 of archive /usr/lib/libIM.a, was not defined in archive member shr.o.
339 This is a problem in libIM.a. You can work around it by executing
340 these shell commands in the src subdirectory of the directory where
343 cp /usr/lib/libIM.a .
347 Then change -lIM to ./libIM.a in the command to link temacs (in
350 ** On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h.
352 The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the
353 Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset
354 compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy
355 workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of
358 ** Link failure when using acc on a Sun.
360 To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as
362 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1
364 and you need to add -lansi just before -lc.
366 The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we
367 cannot easily arrange to supply them.
369 ** Link failure on IBM AIX 1.3 ptf 0013.
371 There is a real duplicate definition of the function `_slibc_free' in
372 the library /lib/libc_s.a (just do nm on it to verify). The
376 ar xv libc_s.a NLtmtime.o
377 ar dv libc_s.a NLtmtime.o
379 ** Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1.
381 If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace,
382 _iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after
383 -lXaw in the command that links temacs.
385 This problem seems to arise only when the international language
386 extensions to X11R5 are installed.
388 ** src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile are truncated--most of the file missing.
390 This can happen if configure uses GNU sed version 2.03. That version
391 had a bug. GNU sed version 2.05 works properly.
393 ** On AIX, you get this compiler error message:
395 Processing include file ./XMenuInt.h
396 1501-106: (S) Include file X11/Xlib.h not found.
398 This means your system was installed with only the X11 runtime i.d
399 libraries. You have to find your sipo (bootable tape) and install
402 ** C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs.
404 You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even
405 though the system itself is capable of it. Try using a different
408 ** On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld:
410 /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment
412 The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld.
414 The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun.
416 ** SunOS 4.1.2: undefined symbol _get_wmShellWidgetClass
418 Apparently the version of libXmu.so.a that Sun ships is hosed: it's missing
419 some stuff that is in libXmu.a (the static version). Sun has a patch for
420 this, but a workaround is to use the static version of libXmu, by changing
421 the link command from "-lXmu" to "-Bstatic -lXmu -Bdynamic". If you have
422 OpenWindows 3.0, ask Sun for these patches:
423 100512-02 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 libXt Jumbo patch
424 100573-03 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 undefined symbols with shared libXmu
426 ** Random other SunOS 4.1.[12] link errors.
428 The X headers and libraries that Sun ships in /usr/{include,lib}/X11 are
429 broken. Use the ones in /usr/openwin/{include,lib} instead.
431 ** When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __fixunsdfsi".
432 When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __main".
434 This means that you need to link with the gcc library. It may be called
435 "gcc-gnulib" or "libgcc.a"; figure out where it is, and define LIB_GCC in
436 config.h to point to it.
438 It may also work to use the GCC version of `ld' instead of the standard one.
440 ** When compiling with X11, you get "undefined symbol _XtStrings".
442 This means that you are trying to link emacs against the X11r4 version of
443 libXt.a, but you have compiled either Emacs or the code in the lwlib
444 subdirectory with the X11r5 header files. That doesn't work.
446 Remember, you can't compile lwlib for r4 and emacs for r5, or vice versa.
447 They must be in sync.
449 ** Problems finding X11 libraries on Solaris with Openwindows
451 Some users have reported problems in this area. The reported solution
452 is to define the environment variable OPENWINHOME, even if you must set
453 it to `/usr/openwin'.
455 ** Under Linux, you get "too many arguments to function `getpgrp'".
457 You have probably installed LessTiff under `/usr/local' and `libXm.so'
458 could not be found when linking `getpgrp()' test program, making XEmacs
459 think that `getpgrp()' takes an argument. Try adding `/usr/local/lib'
460 in `/etc/ld.so.conf' and run `ldconfig'. Then run XEmacs's `configure'
461 again. As with all problems of this type, reading the config.log file
462 generated from configure and seeing the log of how the test failed can
466 * Problems with running XEmacs
467 ==============================
468 ** On Solaris 2.6, XEmacs dumps core when exiting.
470 This happens if you're XEmacs is running on the same machine as the X
471 server, and the optimized memory transport has been turned on by
472 setting the environment variable XSUNTRANSPORT. The crash occurs
473 during the call to XCloseDisplay.
475 If this describes your situation, you need to undefine the
476 XSUNTRANSPORT environment variable.
478 ** `C-z', or `M-x suspend-emacs' hangs instead of suspending.
480 If you build with `gpm' support on Linux, you cannot suspend XEmacs
481 because gpm installs a buggy SIGTSTP handler. Either compile with
482 `--with-gpm=no', or don't suspend XEmacs on the Linux console until
485 ** You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters.
487 Emacs has traditionally used Control-H for help; unfortunately this
488 interferes with its use as Backspace on TTY's. One way to solve this
489 problem is to put this in your .emacs:
491 (when (eq tty-erase-char ?\C-h)
492 (keyboard-translate ?\C-h ?\C-?)
493 (global-set-key "\M-?" 'help-command))
495 This checks whether the TTY erase char is C-h, and if it is, makes
496 Control-H (Backspace) work sensibly, and moves help to Meta-? (ESC ?).
498 Note that you can probably also access help using F1.
500 ** Mail agents (VM, Gnus, rmail) cannot get new mail
502 rmail and VM get new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program
503 called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using the
504 protocol defined by /bin/mail.
506 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses
507 the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
508 `movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do
509 this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, the
510 macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. IF
511 YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR SYSTEM,
514 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
515 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail,
516 you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as
517 `mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing
523 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
524 installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The
525 installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory
526 /usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and
527 mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
528 directory copy is ineffective.
530 ** XEmacs crashes on Digital Unix within font-lock, or when dealing
531 with large compilation buffers.
533 The default stack size under Digital Unix is rather small (2M as
534 opposed to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
535 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
538 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
541 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
543 ** On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console.
545 This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r
546 C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs.
548 ** VM appears to hang in large folders.
550 This is normal (trust us) when upgrading to VM-6.22 from earlier
551 versions. Let VM finish what it is doing and all will be well.
553 ** Changes made to .el files do not take effect.
555 You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. Then the
556 old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes will not be seen. To
557 fix this, do `M-x byte-recompile-directory' and specify the directory
558 that contains the Lisp files.
560 Note that you will get a warning when loading a .elc file that is
561 older than the corresponding .el file.
563 ** Things which should be bold or italic (such as the initial
564 copyright notice) are not.
566 The fonts of the "bold" and "italic" faces are generated from the font
567 of the "default" face; in this way, your bold and italic fonts will
568 have the appropriate size and family. However, emacs can only be
569 clever in this way if you have specified the default font using the
570 XLFD (X Logical Font Description) format, which looks like
572 *-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*
574 if you use any of the other, less strict font name formats, some of
577 lucidasanstypewriter-12
581 then emacs won't be able to guess the names of the "bold" and "italic"
582 versions. All X fonts can be referred to via XLFD-style names, so you
583 should use those forms. See the man pages for X(1), xlsfonts(1), and
586 ** The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data.
588 Two causes have been seen for such problems.
590 1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined
591 as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong,
592 it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct
593 value in the man page for a.out (5).
595 2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the
596 initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most
597 of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and
598 not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you
599 may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file.
601 ** Reading and writing files is very very slow.
603 Try evaluating the form (setq lock-directory nil) and see if that helps.
604 There is a problem with file-locking on some systems (possibly related
605 to NFS) that I don't understand. Please send mail to the address
606 xemacs@xemacs.org if you figure this one out.
608 ** The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q.
610 Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit
611 command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use
612 Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window
613 manager to use some other command. You can disable the
614 shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults:
616 OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False
618 ** The `Alt' key doesn't behave as `Meta' when running DECwindows.
620 The default DEC keyboard mapping has the Alt keys set up to generate the
621 keysym `Multi_key', which has a meaning to xemacs which is distinct from that
622 of the `Meta_L' and `Meta-R' keysyms. A second problem is that certain keys
623 have the Mod2 modifier attached to them for no adequately explored reason.
624 The correct fix is to pass this file to xmodmap upon starting X:
627 keysym Multi_key = Alt_L
631 ** The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key.
633 This shell command should fix it:
635 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L'
637 ** When emacs starts up, I get lots of warnings about unknown keysyms.
639 If you are running the prebuilt binaries, the Motif library expects to find
640 certain thing in the XKeysymDB file. This file is normally in /usr/lib/X11/
641 or in /usr/openwin/lib/. If you keep yours in a different place, set the
642 environment variable $XKEYSYMDB to point to it before starting emacs. If
643 you still have the problem after doing that, perhaps your version of X is
644 too old. There is a copy of the MIT X11R5 XKeysymDB file in the emacs `etc'
645 directory. Try using that one.
647 ** My X resources used to work, and now some of them are being ignored.
649 Check the resources in .../etc/Emacs.ad (which is the same as the file
650 sample.Xdefaults). Perhaps some of the default resources built in to
651 emacs are now overriding your existing resources. Copy and edit the
652 resources in Emacs.ad as necessary.
654 ** I get complaints about the mapping of my HP keyboard at startup,
655 but I haven't changed anything.
657 The default HP keymap is set up to have Mod1 assigned to two different keys:
658 Meta_L and Mode_switch (even though there is not actually a Mode_switch key on
659 the keyboard -- it uses an "imaginary" keycode.) There actually is a reason
660 for this, but it's not a good one. The correct fix is to execute this command
663 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
665 ** I have focus problems when I use `M-o' to switch to another screen
666 without using the mouse.
668 The focus issues with a program like XEmacs, which has multiple
669 homogeneous top-level windows, are very complicated, and as a result,
670 most window managers don't implement them correctly.
672 The R4/R5 version of twm (and all of its descendants) had buggy focus
673 handling. Sufficiently recent versions of tvtwm have been fixed. In
674 addition, if you're using twm, make sure you have not specified
675 "NoTitleFocus" in your .tvtwmrc file. The very nature of this option
676 makes twm do some illegal focus tricks, even with the patch.
678 It is known that olwm and olvwm are buggy, and in different ways. If
679 you're using click-to-type mode, try using point-to-type, or vice
682 In older versions of NCDwm, one could not even type at XEmacs windows.
683 This has been fixed in newer versions (2.4.3, and possibly earlier).
685 (Many people suggest that XEmacs should warp the mouse when focusing
686 on another screen in point-to-type mode. This is not ICCCM-compliant
687 behavior. Implementing such policy is the responsibility of the
688 window manager itself, it is not legal for a client to do this.)
690 ** Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen.
692 This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being
693 used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes
694 away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long
695 streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a
696 user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a
697 properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible
698 input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is
699 easy, for a person with at least half a brain.
701 There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place:
703 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control
704 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use
705 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible
707 First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether
708 they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to
709 "no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an
710 escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off
711 and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow
712 control off, and the `te' string should turn it on.
714 Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it
715 needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled
716 by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud
717 rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print
718 your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if
719 it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If
720 the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a
721 problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard
722 to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type.
724 For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just
725 giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control
726 codes. You might as well try it.
728 If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer
729 through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the
730 computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how
731 much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow
732 control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard),
733 you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator
734 replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic
735 measures can make Emacs semi-work.
737 You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system
738 handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x
739 enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are
740 now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x
741 enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow
744 If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them
745 is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose
746 other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement
747 and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all
748 other control characters are already used by emacs.
750 IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled,
751 Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in
754 If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a
755 certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function
756 `enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme
757 automatically. Here is an example:
759 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
761 If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled
762 and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control
765 I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the
766 assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow
767 control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad
768 merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming
769 widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some
770 use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I
771 will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake
774 ** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely.
776 For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow
777 control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your
778 terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator
779 that wants to use flow control.
781 You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control.
782 If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without
783 flow control, as described in the preceding section.
785 If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters
786 into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above
787 shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\.
789 ** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net
792 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
793 control characters to the remote system to which they connect.
794 On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
795 control on the local system.
797 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
798 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
799 stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
800 `stty start u stop u' will do this.
802 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
803 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and
804 issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
806 If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type
807 `M-x enable-flow-control' at the beginning of your emacs session, or
808 if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the
809 following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind):
811 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
813 See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more
816 ** TTY redisplay is slow.
818 XEmacs has fairly new TTY redisplay support (beginning from 19.12),
819 which doesn't include some basic TTY optimizations -- like using
820 scrolling regions to move around blocks of text. This is why
821 redisplay on the traditional terminals, or over slow lines can be very
824 If you are interested in fixing this, please let us know at
827 ** Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal.
829 This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that terminal
830 is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing the
831 combination of features specified for that terminal.
833 The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters
834 Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression
835 (open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all terminal
836 output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do what makes the
837 screen update wrong, and look at the file and decode the characters
838 using the manual for the terminal. There are several possibilities:
840 1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual.
842 In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you
843 need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong.
845 2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect of the
846 terminal behavior not described in an obvious way by termcap.
848 This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for Emacs
849 to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior and other
850 terminals that behave subtly differently but are classified the same
851 by termcap; or else find an algorithm for Emacs to use that avoids the
852 difference. Such changes must be tested on many kinds of terminals.
854 3) The termcap entry is wrong.
856 See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes that are known to be
857 needed in commonly used termcap entries for certain terminals.
859 4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be right for
860 any terminal with the termcap entry you were using.
862 This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed in
863 termcap.c, terminfo.c, tparam.c, cm.c, redisplay-tty.c,
864 redisplay-output.c, or redisplay.c.
866 ** Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm.
868 The solution is to include in your .Xdefaults the lines:
870 *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f)
871 aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^?
873 This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127).
875 ** With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the
876 character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead.
878 One user on a Linux system reported that this problem went away with
879 installation of a new X server. The failing server was XFree86 3.1.1.
882 ** On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft.
884 This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4'
885 on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise
886 version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which
887 it can do perfectly well for SunOS).
889 ** On Irix, I don't see the toolbar icons and I'm getting lots of
890 entries in the warnings buffer.
892 SGI ships a really old Xpm library in /usr/lib which does not work at
893 all well with XEmacs. The solution is to install your own copy of the
894 latest version of Xpm somewhere and then use the --site-includes and
895 --site-libraries flags to tell configure where to find it.
897 ** On HPUX, you get "poll: Interrupted system call" message in the
898 window where XEmacs was launched.
900 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
902 I get a very strange problem when linking libc.a dynamically: every
903 event (mouse, keyboard, expose...) results in a "poll: Interrupted
904 system call" message in the window where XEmacs was
905 launched. Forcing a static link of libc.a alone by adding
906 /usr/lib/libc.a at the end of the link line solves this. Note that
907 my 9.07 build of 19.14b17 and my (old) build of 19.13 both exhibit
908 the same behaviour. I've tried various hpux patches to no avail. If
909 this problem cannot be solved before the release date, binary kits
910 for HP *must* be linked statically against libc, otherwise this
911 problem will show up. (This is directed at whoever will volunteer
912 for this kit, as I won't be available to do it, unless 19.14 gets
913 delayed until mid-june ;-). I think this problem will be an FAQ soon
914 after the release otherwise.
916 Note: The above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.2 and
919 ** When Emacs tries to ring the bell, you get an error like
921 audio: sst_open: SETQSIZE" Invalid argument
922 audio: sst_close: SETREG MMR2, Invalid argument
924 you have probably compiled using an ANSI C compiler, but with non-ANSI
925 include files. In particular, on Suns, the file
926 /usr/include/sun/audioio.h uses the _IOW macro to define the constant
927 AUDIOSETQSIZE. _IOW in turn uses a K&R preprocessor feature that is
928 now explicitly forbidden in ANSI preprocessors, namely substitution
929 inside character constants. All ANSI C compilers must provide a
930 workaround for this problem. Lucid's C compiler is shipped with a new
931 set of system include files. If you are using GCC, there is a script
932 called fixincludes that creates new versions of some system include
933 files that use this obsolete feature.
935 ** My buffers are full of \000 characters or otherwise corrupt.
937 Some compilers have trouble with gmalloc.c and ralloc.c; try recompiling
938 without optimization. If that doesn't work, try recompiling with
939 SYSTEM_MALLOC defined, and/or with REL_ALLOC undefined.
941 ** On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer
942 with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown".
944 On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default.
945 `unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal
946 Definitions" to make them defined.
948 ** Emacs exits with "X protocol error" when run with an X server for
951 A certain X server for Windows had a bug which caused this.
952 Supposedly the newer 32-bit version of this server doesn't have the
955 ** A position you specified in .Xdefaults is ignored, using twm.
957 twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions.
958 You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file:
960 UsePPosition "on" #allow clents to request a position
962 ** The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps
963 other non-English HP keyboards too).
965 This is because HPUX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a
966 shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE
967 configures the X server.
969 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
970 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
971 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
976 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
978 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
979 add mod2 = Mode_switch
982 ** Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys.
984 The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to
985 be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able
986 to allocate ptys reliably.
988 ** Motif dialog boxes lose on Irix.
990 Larry Auton <lda@control.att.com> writes:
991 Beware of not specifying
993 --with-dialogs=athena
995 if it builds with the motif dialogs [boom!] you're a dead man.
997 ** Beware of the default image & graphics library on Irix
999 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1000 You *have* to compile your own jpeg lib. The one delivered with SGI
1001 systems is a C++ lib, which apparently XEmacs cannot cope with.
1003 ** Slow startup on Linux.
1005 People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that
1006 startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'.
1008 This is because Emacs looks up the host name when it starts.
1009 Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due to
1010 improper system configuration. This problem can occur for both
1011 networked and non-networked machines.
1013 Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root.
1017 First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both
1018 exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this
1019 (replace HOSTNAME with your host name):
1021 127.0.0.1 localhost HOSTNAME
1023 Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following
1029 Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be
1030 indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local
1031 database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections
1032 dynamically allocate ip addresses).
1034 *** Non-Networked Case
1036 The solution described in the networked case applies here as well.
1037 However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a
1038 simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command
1039 `touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts'
1040 file is not necessary with this approach.
1042 ** On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs
1043 forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie.
1045 casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so
1046 after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines
1049 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1054 #if OSMinorVersion < 4
1056 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1060 Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4
1061 (as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for
1062 OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under
1063 Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the
1064 definition for your type of machine and system.
1066 Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild
1067 the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on
1068 Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3.
1070 For multithreaded X to work it necessary to install patch
1071 101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need
1072 to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that
1075 However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution:
1077 #define ThreadedX YES
1079 #define ThreadedX NO
1080 in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all
1081 `-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and
1082 typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work.
1084 ** With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice to do
1085 incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response.
1087 This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit,
1088 with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use
1089 another escape character in kermit. One user did
1091 set escape-character 17
1093 in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character.
1095 ** The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color.
1097 This has been observed to result from the following X resource:
1099 Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
1101 That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we
1102 do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can
1103 explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing
1104 the resource prevents the problem.
1106 ** Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems.
1108 On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled
1109 with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C
1110 version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick
1111 C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with
1114 ** In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line.
1116 This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too
1117 smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns
1118 on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the
1119 problem by adding this to your .cshrc file:
1122 if ($EMACS == "t") then
1124 stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
1128 ** An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid
1129 parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'.
1131 This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as
1133 (which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something
1134 that isn't a color.)
1136 The fix is to correct your X resources.
1138 ** Mail is lost when sent to local aliases.
1140 Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the
1141 sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be
1142 delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually)
1143 program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which
1144 means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the
1145 command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to
1146 obtain the destination address.
1148 There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail.
1149 In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize
1150 non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris
1151 2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS
1152 4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which
1153 have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time
1154 of this writing, these official versions are available:
1156 Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail:
1157 sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation)
1158 sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files)
1159 sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs)
1160 sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript)
1162 IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub:
1163 sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz
1165 ** On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs:
1167 Could not load program emacs
1168 Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined
1169 Error was: Exec format error
1173 Could not load program .emacs
1174 Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined
1175 Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined
1176 Error was: Exec format error
1178 These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was
1179 compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile.
1181 ** After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash.
1183 Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the
1184 mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly
1185 the first time, and then crash when run a second time.
1187 Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time,
1188 you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your
1189 operating system description file (whose name is reported by the
1190 configure script) that reads:
1191 #define SYSTEM_MALLOC
1192 This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around
1195 ** Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating
1196 directly with an X server.
1198 If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it
1199 does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is
1200 whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c
1201 followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event
1202 it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you
1203 have made the key binding correctly.
1205 If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may
1206 be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X
1207 server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by
1210 If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows:
1212 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L'
1213 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R'
1215 If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those
1216 commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you
1217 are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any
1218 modifier bit not otherwise used.
1220 If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other
1221 keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or
1222 some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the
1223 commands show above to make them modifier keys.
1225 Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt
1226 into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs.
1228 ** `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error'
1230 On HP/UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS
1231 file system. HP/UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and
1232 does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default
1233 value is just ten seconds.
1235 If this happens to you, extend the timeout period.
1237 ** `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped
1240 On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information
1241 in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using
1242 expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work
1243 in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on.
1245 The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in
1246 anything it loads. Yuck - some solution.
1248 I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is
1249 going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know.
1250 Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included
1251 in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host.
1253 ** Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though
1254 the names work properly with other programs on the same system.
1255 Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0.
1256 Gnus can't make contact with the specified host for nntp.
1258 This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared
1259 libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the
1260 shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a
1261 similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses.
1263 The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with
1264 the nameserver, but Emacs does not.
1266 The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you
1267 installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs.
1269 On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT.
1271 If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a,
1272 then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to
1273 do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE
1274 or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro
1275 that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries,
1276 be careful not to lose the others.
1278 Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h:
1280 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1282 Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that
1283 the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h
1286 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar
1288 ** Trouble using ptys on AIX.
1290 People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly.
1291 Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly.
1293 ** Shell mode on HP/UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous".
1295 christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says:
1297 The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to
1298 execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then tty
1299 will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, but tty
1300 is giving it back 3.
1302 The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a
1305 if (`tty` == "/dev/console")
1307 should be changed to:
1309 if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console")
1311 Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc
1314 ** With process-connection-type set to t, each line of subprocess
1315 output is terminated with a ^M, making ange-ftp and GNUS not work.
1317 On SunOS systems, this problem has been seen to be a result of an
1318 incomplete installation of gcc 2.2 which allowed some non-ANSI
1319 compatible include files into the compilation. In particular this
1320 affected virtually all ioctl() calls.
1322 ** Once you pull down a menu from the menubar, it won't go away.
1324 It has been claimed that this is caused by a bug in certain very old
1325 (1990?) versions of the twm window manager. It doesn't happen with
1326 recent vintages, or with other window managers.
1328 ** Emacs ignores the "help" key when running OLWM.
1330 OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client
1331 using XSendEvent. Allowing emacs to react to synthetic events is a
1332 security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by
1333 setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix
1334 this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding
1335 "OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:".
1337 ** Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs'
1340 The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP
1341 environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to
1342 provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs
1345 Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP
1346 in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets
1347 it only if it is undefined.
1349 if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file
1351 Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not
1352 happen in a non-login shell.
1355 * Compatibility problems (with Emacs 18, GNU Emacs, or previous XEmacs/lemacs)
1356 ==============================================================================
1358 ** "Symbol's value as variable is void: unread-command-char".
1359 "Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<keymap 143 entries>"
1360 "Wrong type argument: stringp, [#<keypress-event return>]"
1362 There are a few incompatible changes in XEmacs, and these are the
1363 symptoms. Some of the emacs-lisp code you are running needs to be
1364 updated to be compatible with XEmacs.
1366 The code should not treat keymaps as arrays (use `define-key', etc.),
1367 should not use obsolete variables like `unread-command-char' (use
1368 `unread-command-events'). Many (most) of the new ways of doing things
1369 are compatible in GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
1371 Modern Emacs packages (Gnus, VM, W3, efs, etc) are written to support
1372 GNU Emacs and XEmacs. We have provided modified versions of several
1373 popular emacs packages (dired, etc) which are compatible with this
1374 version of emacs. Check to make sure you have not set your load-path
1375 so that your private copies of these packages are being found before
1376 the versions in the lisp directory.
1378 Make sure that your load-path and your $EMACSLOADPATH environment
1379 variable are not pointing at an Emacs18 lisp directory. This will
1382 ** Some packages that worked before now cause the error
1383 Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<face ... >
1385 Code which uses the `face' accessor functions must be recompiled with
1386 xemacs 19.9 or later. The functions whose callers must be recompiled
1387 are: face-font, face-foreground, face-background,
1388 face-background-pixmap, and face-underline-p. The .elc files
1389 generated by version 19.9 will work in 19.6 and 19.8, but older .elc
1390 files which contain calls to these functions will not work in 19.9.
1392 ** Signaling: (error "Byte code stack underflow (byte compiler bug), pc 38")
1394 This error is given when XEmacs 20 is compiled without MULE support
1395 but is attempting to load a .elc which requires MULE support. The fix
1396 is to rebytecompile the offending file.
1398 ** Signaling: (wrong-type-argument ...) when loading mail-abbrevs
1400 The is seen when installing the Insidious Big Brother Data Base (bbdb)
1401 which includes an outdated copy of mail-abbrevs.el. Remove the copy
1402 that comes with bbdb and use the one that comes with XEmacs.
1408 ** A reminder: XEmacs/Mule work does not currently receive *any*
1409 funding, and all work is done by volunteers. If you think you can
1410 help, please contact the XEmacs maintainers.
1412 ** XEmacs/Mule doesn't support TTY's satisfactorily.
1414 This is a major problem, which we plan to address in a future release
1415 of XEmacs. Basically, XEmacs should have primitives to be told
1416 whether the terminal can handle international output, and which
1417 locale. Also, it should be able to do approximations of characters to
1418 the nearest supported by the locale.
1420 ** Internationalized (Asian) Isearch doesn't work.
1422 Currently, Isearch doesn't directly support any of the input methods
1423 that are not XIM based (like egg, canna and quail) (and there are
1424 potential problems with XIM version too...). If you're using egg
1425 there is a workaround. Hitting <RET> right after C-s to invoke
1426 Isearch will put Isearch in string mode, where a complete string can
1427 be typed into the minibuffer and then processed by Isearch afterwards.
1428 Since egg is now supported in the minibuffer using string mode you can
1429 now use egg to input your Japanese, Korean or Chinese string, then hit
1430 return to send that to Isearch and then use standard Isearch commands
1433 ** Using egg and mousing around while in 'fence' mode screws up my
1436 Don't do this. The fence modes of egg and canna are currently very
1437 modal, and messing with where they expect point to be and what they
1438 think is the current buffer is just asking for trouble. If you're
1439 lucky they will realize that something is awry, and simply delete the
1440 fence, but worst case can trash other buffers too. We've tried to
1441 protect against this where we can, but there still are many ways to
1442 shoot yourself in the foot. So just finish what you are typing into
1443 the fence before reaching for the mouse.
1445 ** Not all languages in Quail are supported like Devanagari and Indian
1446 languages, Lao and Tibetan.
1448 Quail requires more work and testing. Although it has been ported to
1449 XEmacs, it works really well for Japanese and for the European
1452 ** Right-to-left mode is not yet implemented, so languages like
1453 Arabic, Hebrew and Thai don't work.
1455 Getting this right requires more work. It may be implemented in a
1456 future XEmacs version, but don't hold your breath. If you know
1457 someone who is ready to implement this, please let us know.
1459 ** We need more developers and native language testers. It's extremely
1460 difficult (and not particularly productive) to address languages that
1461 nobody is using and testing.
1463 ** The kWnn and cWnn support for Chinese and Korean needs developers
1464 and testers. It probably doesn't work.
1466 ** There are no `native XEmacs' TUTORIALs for any Asian languages,
1467 including Japanese. FSF Emacs and XEmacs tutorials are quite similar,
1468 so it should be sufficient to skim through the differences and apply
1469 them to the Japanese version.
1471 ** We only have localized menus translated for Japanese, and the
1472 Japanese menus are developing bitrot (the Mule menu appears in
1475 ** XIM is untested for any language other than Japanese.