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 your init file! (~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs) If
25 you observe strange problems, invoke XEmacs with the `-vanilla'
26 option and see if you can repeat the problem.
29 * Problems with building XEmacs
30 ===============================
33 *** Don't use -O2 with gcc 2.8.1 and egcs 1.0 under SPARC architectures
34 without also using `-fno-schedule-insns'.
36 gcc will generate incorrect code otherwise, typically resulting in
37 crashes in the function skip-syntax-backward.
41 There have been reports of egcs-1.1 not compiling XEmacs correctly on
42 Alpha Linux. There have also been reports that egcs-1.0.3a is O.K.
44 *** Don't use -O2 or -O3 with Cygwin 1.0, CodeFusion-99070 or gcc 2.7.2 on x86
45 without also using `-fno-strength-reduce'.
47 gcc will generate incorrect code otherwise. This bug is present in at
48 least 2.6.x and 2.7.[0-2]. This bug has been fixed in GCC 2.7.2.1 and
49 later. This bug is O/S independent, but is limited to x86 architectures.
51 This problem is known to be fixed in egcs (or pgcc) 1.0 or later.
53 Unfortunately, later releases of Cygnus-released compilers (not the
54 Net-released ones) have a bug with the same `problem signature'.
56 If you're lucky, you'll get an error while compiling that looks like:
58 event-stream.c:3189: internal error--unrecognizable insn:
59 (insn 256 14 15 (set (reg/v:SI 24)
60 (minus:SI (reg/v:SI 25)
61 (const_int 2))) -1 (insn_list 11 (nil))
65 If you're unlucky, your code will simply execute incorrectly.
67 *** Don't use gcc-2.95.2 with -mcpu=ultrasparc on Solaris 2.6.
69 gcc will assume a 64-bit operating system, even though you've
70 merely told it to assume a 64-bit instruction set.
72 *** Don't use -O2 with gcc 2.7.2 under Intel architectures without also
73 using `-fno-caller-saves'.
75 gcc will generate incorrect code otherwise. This bug is still
76 present in gcc 2.7.2.3. There have been no reports to indicate the
77 bug is present in egcs 1.0 (or pgcc 1.0) or later. This bug is O/S
78 independent, but limited to x86 architectures.
80 This problem is known to be fixed in egcs (or pgcc) 1.0 or later.
82 *** When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __fixunsdfsi".
83 When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __main".
85 This means that you need to link with the gcc library. It may be called
86 "gcc-gnulib" or "libgcc.a"; figure out where it is, and define LIB_GCC in
87 config.h to point to it.
89 It may also work to use the GCC version of `ld' instead of the standard one.
91 *** Excessive optimization with pgcc can break XEmacs
93 It has been reported on some systems that compiling with -O6 can lead
94 to XEmacs failures. The workaround is to use a lower optimization
95 level. -O2 and -O4 have been tested extensively.
97 All of this depends heavily on the version of pgcc and the version
98 of libc. Snapshots near the release of pgcc-1.0 have been tested
99 extensively and no sign of breakage has been seen on systems using
102 *** src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile are truncated--most of the file missing.
104 This can happen if configure uses GNU sed version 2.03. That version
105 had a bug. GNU sed version 2.05 works properly.
107 *** When compiling with X11, you get "undefined symbol _XtStrings".
109 This means that you are trying to link emacs against the X11r4 version of
110 libXt.a, but you have compiled either Emacs or the code in the lwlib
111 subdirectory with the X11r5 header files. That doesn't work.
113 Remember, you can't compile lwlib for r4 and emacs for r5, or vice versa.
114 They must be in sync.
116 *** test-distrib says that the distribution has been clobbered
117 or, temacs prints "Command key out of range 0-127"
118 or, temacs runs and dumps xemacs, but xemacs totally fails to work.
119 or, temacs gets errors dumping xemacs
121 This can be because the .elc files have been garbled. Do not be
122 fooled by the fact that most of a .elc file is text: these are binary
123 files and can contain all 256 byte values.
125 In particular `shar' cannot be used for transmitting GNU Emacs. It
126 typically truncates "lines". (this does not apply to GNU shar, which
127 uses uuencode to encode binary files.)
129 If you have a copy of Emacs that has been damaged in its nonprinting
130 characters, you can fix them by running:
134 This will rebuild all the needed .elc files.
136 *** `compress' and `uncompress' not found and XFree86
138 XFree86 installs a very old version of libz.a by default ahead of where
139 more modern version of libz might be installed. This will cause problems
140 when attempting to link against libMagick. The fix is to remove the old
141 libz.a in the X11 binary directory.
145 *** On AIX 4.3, you must specify --with-dialogs=athena with configure
147 *** The libXt shipped with AIX 4.3 up to 4.3.2 is broken. This causes
148 xemacs -nw to fail in various ways. The official APAR is this:
150 APAR NUMBER: <IX89470> RESOLVED AS: PROGRAM ERROR
153 <IX89470>: LIBXT.A INCORRECT HANDLING OF EXCEPTIONS IN XTAPPADDINPUT
155 The solution is to install X11.base.lib at version >=4.3.2.5.
157 *** On AIX, you get this compiler error message:
159 Processing include file ./XMenuInt.h
160 1501-106: (S) Include file X11/Xlib.h not found.
162 This means your system was installed with only the X11 runtime i.d
163 libraries. You have to find your sipo (bootable tape) and install
166 *** On AIX 4.1.2, linker error messages such as
167 ld: 0711-212 SEVERE ERROR: Symbol .__quous, found in the global symbol table
168 of archive /usr/lib/libIM.a, was not defined in archive member shr.o.
170 This is a problem in libIM.a. You can work around it by executing
171 these shell commands in the src subdirectory of the directory where
174 cp /usr/lib/libIM.a .
178 Then change -lIM to ./libIM.a in the command to link temacs (in
181 *** Excessive optimization on AIX 4.2 can lead to compiler failure.
183 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu writes:
184 At least at the b34 level, and the latest-and-greatest IBM xlc
185 (3.1.4.4), there are problems with -O3. I haven't investigated
190 *** Crashes when using Motif libraries, especially with multiple frames.
192 Crashes that produce C-backtraces like this:
194 #0 0xfec9a118 in _libc_kill () from /usr/lib/libc.so.1
195 #1 0x77f48 in fatal_error_signal (sig=11)
196 at /codes/rpluim/xemacs-21.4/src/emacs.c:539
197 #2 <signal handler called>
198 #3 0xfee929f4 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
199 #4 0xfee92930 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
200 #5 0xff297e54 in DisplayDestroy () from /usr/dt/lib/libXm.so.4
201 #6 0xfefbece0 in XtCallCallbackList () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
202 #7 0xfefc486c in XtPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
203 #8 0xfefc45d0 in _XtDoPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
204 #9 0xfefc43b4 in XtDestroyWidget () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
205 #10 0x15cf9c in x_delete_device (d=0x523f00)
207 are caused by buggy Motif libraries. Installing the following patches
208 has been reported to solve the problem on Solaris 2.7:
212 For information (although they have not been confirmed to work), the
213 equivalent patches for Solaris 2.8 are:
217 *** Dumping error when using GNU binutils / GNU ld on a Sun.
219 Errors similar to the following:
221 Dumping under the name xemacs unexec():
222 dldump(/space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs): ld.so.1: ./temacs:
223 fatal: /space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs: unknown dynamic entry:
226 are caused by using GNU ld. There are several workarounds available:
228 In XEmacs 21.2 or later, configure using the new portable dumper
231 Alternatively, you can link using the Sun version of ld, which is
232 normally held in /usr/ccs/bin. This can be done by one of:
234 - building gcc with these configure flags:
235 configure --with-ld=/usr/ccs/bin/ld --with-as=/usr/ccs/bin/as
237 - adding -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to CFLAGS used to configure XEmacs
238 (Note: The trailing '/' there is significant.)
240 - uninstalling GNU ld.
242 - configuring XEmacs with these environment settings (suggested by
243 Goran Koruga <goran.koruga@hermes.si>):
244 LD=/usr/ccs/bin/ld AS=/usr/ccs/bin/as configure
246 The Solaris2 FAQ claims:
248 When you install gcc, don't make the mistake of installing
249 GNU binutils or GNU libc, they are not as capable as their
250 counterparts you get with Solaris 2.x.
252 *** Link failure when using acc on a Sun.
254 To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as
256 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1
258 and you need to add -lansi just before -lc.
260 The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we
261 cannot easily arrange to supply them.
263 *** Problems finding X11 libraries on Solaris with Openwindows
265 Some users have reported problems in this area. The reported solution
266 is to define the environment variable OPENWINHOME, even if you must set
267 it to `/usr/openwin'.
269 *** Sed problems on Solaris 2.5
271 There have been reports of Sun sed truncating very lines in the
272 Makefile during configuration. The workaround is to use GNU sed or,
273 even better, think of a better way to generate Makefile, and send us a
276 *** On Solaris 2 I get undefined symbols from libcurses.a.
278 You probably have /usr/ucblib/ on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Do the link with
279 LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset. Generally, avoid using any ucb* stuff when
282 *** On Solaris 2 I cannot make alloc.o, glyphs.o or process.o.
284 The SparcWorks C compiler may have difficulty building those modules
285 with optimization level -xO4. Try using only "-fast" optimization
286 for just those modules. (Or use gcc).
288 *** Solaris 2.3 /bin/sh coredumps during configuration.
290 This only occurs if you have LANG != C. This is a known bug with
291 /bin/sh fixed by installing Patch-ID# 101613-01. Or, you can use
292 bash, as a workaround.
294 *** On SunOS, you get linker errors
296 _get_wmShellWidgetClass
297 _get_applicationShellWidgetClass
299 The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0
300 or link libXmu statically.
302 *** On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version.
304 This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant
305 for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete
306 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory.
308 *** Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1.
310 If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace,
311 _iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after
312 -lXaw in the command that links temacs.
314 This problem seems to arise only when the international language
315 extensions to X11R5 are installed.
317 *** On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld:
319 /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment
321 The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld.
323 The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun.
325 *** SunOS 4.1.2: undefined symbol _get_wmShellWidgetClass
327 Apparently the version of libXmu.so.a that Sun ships is hosed: it's missing
328 some stuff that is in libXmu.a (the static version). Sun has a patch for
329 this, but a workaround is to use the static version of libXmu, by changing
330 the link command from "-lXmu" to "-Bstatic -lXmu -Bdynamic". If you have
331 OpenWindows 3.0, ask Sun for these patches:
332 100512-02 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 libXt Jumbo patch
333 100573-03 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 undefined symbols with shared libXmu
335 *** Random other SunOS 4.1.[12] link errors.
337 The X headers and libraries that Sun ships in /usr/{include,lib}/X11 are
338 broken. Use the ones in /usr/openwin/{include,lib} instead.
341 *** Under Linux, you get "too many arguments to function `getpgrp'".
343 You have probably installed LessTiff under `/usr/local' and `libXm.so'
344 could not be found when linking `getpgrp()' test program, making XEmacs
345 think that `getpgrp()' takes an argument. Try adding `/usr/local/lib'
346 in `/etc/ld.so.conf' and run `ldconfig'. Then run XEmacs's `configure'
347 again. As with all problems of this type, reading the config.log file
348 generated from configure and seeing the log of how the test failed can
351 *** `Error: No ExtNode to pop!' on Linux systems with Lesstif.
353 This error message has been observed with lesstif-0.75a. It does not
354 appear to cause any harm.
356 *** xemacs: can't resolve symbol '__malloc_hook'
358 This is a Linux problem where you've compiled the XEmacs binary on a libc
359 5.4 with version higher than 5.4.19 and attempted to run the binary against
360 an earlier version. The solution is to upgrade your old library.
364 *** On Irix 6.5, the MIPSpro compiler gets an internal compiler error
366 The MIPSpro Compiler (at least version 7.2.1) can't seem to handle the
367 union type properly, and fails to compile src/glyphs.c. To avoid this
368 problem, always build ---use-union-type=no (but that's the default, so
369 you should only see this problem if you're an XEmacs maintainer).
371 *** Linking with -rpath on IRIX.
373 Darrell Kindred <dkindred@cmu.edu> writes:
374 There are a couple of problems [with use of -rpath with Irix ld], though:
376 1. The ld in IRIX 5.3 ignores all but the last -rpath
377 spec, so the patched configure spits out a warning
378 if --x-libraries or --site-runtime-libraries are
379 specified under irix 5.x, and it only adds -rpath
380 entries for the --site-runtime-libraries. This bug was
381 fixed sometime between 5.3 and 6.2.
383 2. IRIX gcc 2.7.2 doesn't accept -rpath directly, so
384 it would have to be prefixed by -Xlinker or "-Wl,".
385 This would be fine, except that configure compiles with
386 ${CC-cc} $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS ...
387 rather than quoting $LDFLAGS with prefix-args, like
388 src/Makefile does. So if you specify --x-libraries
389 or --site-runtime-libraries, you must use --use-gcc=no,
390 or configure will fail.
392 *** On Irix 6.3, the SGI ld quits with segmentation fault when linking temacs
394 This occurs if you use the SGI linker version 7.1. Installing the
395 patch SG0001872 fixes this problem.
397 *** On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi
399 A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o"
400 in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run,
401 find that string, and take out the spaces.
403 Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem.
405 *** On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h.
407 The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the
408 Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset
409 compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy
410 workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of
413 *** Coredumping in Irix 6.2
415 Pete Forman <gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com> writes:
416 A problem noted by myself and others (I've lost the references) was
417 that XEmacs coredumped when the cut or copy toolbar buttons were
418 pressed. This has been fixed by loading the SGI patchset (Feb 98)
419 without having to recompile XEmacs.
421 My versions are XEmacs 20.3 (problem first noted in 19.15) and IRIX
422 6.2, compiled using -n32. I'd guess that the relevant individual
423 patch was "SG0002580: multiple fixes for X libraries". SGI recommends
424 that the complete patch set be installed rather than parts of it.
426 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS
427 *** On Digital UNIX, the DEC C compiler might have a problem compiling
430 In particular, src/extents.c and src/faces.c might cause the DEC C
431 compiler to abort. When this happens: cd src, compile the files by
432 hand, cd .., and redo the "make" command. When recompiling the files by
433 hand, use the old C compiler for the following versions of Digital UNIX:
434 - V3.n: Remove "-migrate" from the compile command.
435 - V4.n: Add "-oldc" to the compile command.
437 A related compiler bug has been fixed by the DEC compiler team. The
438 new versions of the compiler should run fine.
440 *** Under some versions of OSF XEmacs runs fine if built without
441 optimization but will crash randomly if built with optimization.
443 Using 'cc -g' is not sufficient to eliminate all optimization. Try
446 *** Compilation errors on VMS.
448 Sorry, XEmacs does not work under VMS. You might consider working on
449 the port if you really want to have XEmacs work under VMS.
452 *** On HPUX, the HP C compiler might have a problem compiling some files
455 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
457 Had to drop once again to level 2 optimization, at least to
458 compile lstream.c. Otherwise, I get a "variable is void: \if"
459 problem while dumping (this is a problem I already reported
460 with vanilla hpux 10.01 and 9.07, which went away after
461 applying patches for the C compiler). Trouble is I still
462 haven't found the same patch for hpux 10.10, and I don't
463 remember the patch numbers. I think potential XEmacs builders
464 on HP should be warned about this.
466 *** I don't have `xmkmf' and `imake' on my HP.
468 You can get these standard X tools by anonymous FTP to
469 hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com. Essentially all X programs need these.
471 *** On HP-UX, problems with make
473 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
475 Some releases of XEmacs (e.g. 20.4) require GNU make to build
476 successfully. You don't need GNU make when building 21.x.
478 *** On HP-UX 9.05 XEmacs won't compile or coredump during the build.
480 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
482 This might be a sed problem. For your own safety make sure to use
483 GNU sed while dumping XEmacs.
485 *** On HP-UX 11.0 XEmacs causes excessive X11 errors when running.
486 (also appears on AIX as reported in comp.emacs.xemacs)
488 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
490 Unfortunately, XEmacs releases prior to 21.0 don't work with
491 Motif2.1. It will compile but you will get excessive X11 errors like
493 xemacs: X Error of failed request: BadGC (invalid GC parameter)
495 and finally XEmacs gets killed. A workaround is to use the
496 Motif1.2_R6 libraries. You can the following line to your call to
499 --x-libraries="/usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6 -L/usr/lib/X11R6"
501 Make sure /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.sl is a link to
502 /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.3.
504 *** On HP-UX 11.0: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor
506 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
508 XEmacs dies without core file and reports:
510 Error: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor.
512 This is a bug. Please apply the patch PHSS_19964 (check if
513 superseded). The other alternative is to link with Motif1.2_R6 (see
518 *** Native cc on SCO OpenServer 5 is now OK. Icc may still throw you
519 a curve. Here is what Robert Lipe <robertl@arnet.com> says:
521 Unlike XEmacs 19.13, building with the native cc on SCO OpenServer 5
522 now produces a functional binary. I will typically build this
523 configuration for COFF with:
525 /path_to_xemacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
526 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
527 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas
529 This version now supports ELF builds. I highly recommend this to
530 reduce the in-core footprint of XEmacs. This is now how I compile
531 all my test releases. Build it like this:
533 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
534 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
535 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic
537 The compiler known as icc [ supplied with the OpenServer 5 Development
538 System ] generates a working binary, but it takes forever to generate
539 XEmacs. ICC also whines more about the code than /bin/cc does. I do
540 believe all its whining is legitimate, however. Note that you do
541 have to 'cd src ; make LD=icc' to avoid linker errors.
543 The way I handle the build procedure is:
545 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
546 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
547 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic --compiler="icc"
549 NOTE I have the xpm, xface, and audio libraries and includes in
550 /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include. If you don't have these,
551 don't include the "--with-*" arguments in any of my examples.
553 In previous versions of XEmacs, you had to override the defaults while
554 compiling font-lock.o and extents.o when building with icc. This seems
555 to no longer be true, but I'm including this old information in case it
556 resurfaces. The process I used was:
559 [ procure pizza, beer, repeat ]
561 make CC="icc -W0,-mP1COPT_max_tree_size=3000" font-lock.o extents.o
564 If you want sound support, get the tls566 supplement from
565 ftp.sco.com:/TLS or any of its mirrors. It works just groovy
568 The M-x manual-entry is known not to work. If you know Lisp and would
569 like help in making it work, e-mail me at <robertl@dgii.com>.
570 (UNCHECKED for 19.15 -- it might work).
572 In earlier releases, gnuserv/gnuclient/gnudoit would open a frame
573 just fine, but the client would lock up and the server would
574 terminate when you used C-x # to close the frame. This is now
577 In etc/ there are two files of note. emacskeys.sco and emacsstrs.sco.
578 The comments at the top of emacskeys.sco describe its function, and
579 the emacstrs.sco is a suitable candidate for /usr/lib/keyboard/strings
580 to take advantage of the keyboard map in emacskeys.sco.
582 Note: Much of the above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0
587 *** In general use etc/check_cygwin_setup.sh to trap environment problems.
589 The script etc/check_cygwin_setup.sh will attempt to detect whether
590 you have a suitable environment for building. This script may not work
591 correctly if you are using ash instead of bash (see below).
593 *** Syntax errors running configure scripts, make failing with exit code 127
594 in inexplicable situations, etc.
596 This may be because you are using the default cygwin shell. The
597 default cygwin shell (/bin/sh.exe) is ash which appears to work in
598 most circumstances but has some weird failure modes. You need to
599 replace the symlink with bash.exe.
601 *** Lots of compile errors, esp. on lines containing macro definitions
602 terminated by backslashes.
604 Your partition holding the source files is mounted binary. It needs
605 to be mounted text. (This will not screw up any binary files because
606 the Cygwin utilities specify explicitly whether they want binary or
607 text mode when working with source vs. binary files, which overrides
608 the mount type.) To fix this, you just need to run the appropriate
609 mount command once -- afterwards, the settings are remembered in the
612 *** Errors from make like /c:not found.
614 make sure you set the environment variable MAKE_MODE to UNIX in your
615 .bashrc, Control Panel (Windows 2000/NT), or AUTOEXEC.BAT (Windows
618 *** X11 not detected.
620 This is usually because xmkmf is not in your path or because you are
621 using the default cygwin shell. The default cygwin shell (/bin/sh.exe)
622 is ash which appears to work in most circumstances but has some weird
623 failure modes. I recommend replacing sh.exe with bash.exe, this will
624 mean configure is slower but more reliable.
626 *** Subprocesses do not work.
628 You do not have "tty" in your CYGWIN environment variable. This must
629 be set in your autoexec.bat (win95) or the system properties (winnt)
630 as it must be read before the cygwin DLL initializes.
632 *** ^G does not work on hung subprocesses.
634 This is a known problem. It can be remedied with cygwin b20 or greater
635 by defining BROKEN_SIGIO in src/s/cygwin32.h, however this currently
636 leads to instability in XEmacs.
638 *** The info files will not build.
640 makeinfo that ships with cygwin (all versions) is a noop. You need to
641 obtain makeinfo from somewhere or build it yourself.
643 *** I have no graphics.
645 You need to obtain the various graphics libraries. Pre-built versions
646 of these and the X libraries are located on the XEmacs website in
647 ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/aux/cygwin/.
649 *** There are no images in the toolbar buttons.
651 You need version 4.71 of commctrl.dll which does not ship with windows
652 95. You can get this by installing IE 4.0 or downloading it from the
656 * Problems with running XEmacs
657 ==============================
659 *** gnuserv is running, some clients can connect, but others cannot.
661 The code in gnuslib.c respects the value of TMPDIR. If the server and
662 the client have different values in their environment, you lose.
663 One program known to set TMPDIR and manifest this problem is exmh.
664 You can defeat the use of TMPDIR by unsetting USE_TMPDIR at the top of
665 gnuserv.h at build time.
667 *** C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs.
669 You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even
670 though the system itself is capable of it. Try using a different
673 *** You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters.
675 Emacs has traditionally used Control-H for help; unfortunately this
676 interferes with its use as Backspace on TTY's. As of XEmacs 21,
677 XEmacs looks at the "erase" setting of TTY structures and maps C-h to
678 backspace when erase is set to C-h. This is sort of a special hack,
679 but it makes it possible for you to use the standard:
683 to get your backspace key to erase characters. The erase setting is
684 recorded in the Lisp variable `tty-erase-char', which you can use to
685 tune the settings in your .emacs.
687 A major drawback of this is that when C-h becomes backspace, it no
688 longer invokes help. In that case, you need to use f1 for help, or
689 bind another key. An example of the latter is the following code,
690 which moves help to Meta-? (ESC ?):
692 (global-set-key "\M-?" 'help-command)
694 *** Mail agents (VM, Gnus, rmail) cannot get new mail
696 rmail and VM get new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program
697 called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using the
698 protocol defined by /bin/mail.
700 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses
701 the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
702 `movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do
703 this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, the
704 macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. IF
705 YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR SYSTEM,
708 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
709 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail,
710 you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as
711 `mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing
717 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
718 installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The
719 installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory
720 /usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and
721 mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
722 directory copy is ineffective.
724 *** VM appears to hang in large folders.
726 This is normal (trust us) when upgrading to VM-6.22 from earlier
727 versions. Let VM finish what it is doing and all will be well.
729 *** Changes made to .el files do not take effect.
731 You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. Then the
732 old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes will not be seen. To
733 fix this, do `M-x byte-recompile-directory' and specify the directory
734 that contains the Lisp files.
736 Note that you will get a warning when loading a .elc file that is
737 older than the corresponding .el file.
739 *** Things which should be bold or italic (such as the initial
740 copyright notice) are not.
742 The fonts of the "bold" and "italic" faces are generated from the font
743 of the "default" face; in this way, your bold and italic fonts will
744 have the appropriate size and family. However, emacs can only be
745 clever in this way if you have specified the default font using the
746 XLFD (X Logical Font Description) format, which looks like
748 *-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*
750 if you use any of the other, less strict font name formats, some of
753 lucidasanstypewriter-12
757 then emacs won't be able to guess the names of the "bold" and "italic"
758 versions. All X fonts can be referred to via XLFD-style names, so you
759 should use those forms. See the man pages for X(1), xlsfonts(1), and
762 *** The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data.
764 Two causes have been seen for such problems.
766 1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined
767 as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong,
768 it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct
769 value in the man page for a.out (5).
771 2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the
772 initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most
773 of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and
774 not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you
775 may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file.
777 *** Reading and writing files is very very slow.
779 Try evaluating the form (setq lock-directory nil) and see if that helps.
780 There is a problem with file-locking on some systems (possibly related
781 to NFS) that I don't understand. Please send mail to the address
782 xemacs-beta@xemacs.org if you figure this one out.
784 *** When emacs starts up, I get lots of warnings about unknown keysyms.
786 If you are running the prebuilt binaries, the Motif library expects to find
787 certain thing in the XKeysymDB file. This file is normally in /usr/lib/X11/
788 or in /usr/openwin/lib/. If you keep yours in a different place, set the
789 environment variable $XKEYSYMDB to point to it before starting emacs. If
790 you still have the problem after doing that, perhaps your version of X is
791 too old. There is a copy of the MIT X11R5 XKeysymDB file in the emacs `etc'
792 directory. Try using that one.
794 *** My X resources used to work, and now some of them are being ignored.
796 Check the resources in .../etc/Emacs.ad (which is the same as the file
797 sample.Xdefaults). Perhaps some of the default resources built in to
798 emacs are now overriding your existing resources. Copy and edit the
799 resources in Emacs.ad as necessary.
801 *** I have focus problems when I use `M-o' to switch to another screen
802 without using the mouse.
804 The focus issues with a program like XEmacs, which has multiple
805 homogeneous top-level windows, are very complicated, and as a result,
806 most window managers don't implement them correctly.
808 The R4/R5 version of twm (and all of its descendants) had buggy focus
809 handling. Sufficiently recent versions of tvtwm have been fixed. In
810 addition, if you're using twm, make sure you have not specified
811 "NoTitleFocus" in your .tvtwmrc file. The very nature of this option
812 makes twm do some illegal focus tricks, even with the patch.
814 It is known that olwm and olvwm are buggy, and in different ways. If
815 you're using click-to-type mode, try using point-to-type, or vice
818 In older versions of NCDwm, one could not even type at XEmacs windows.
819 This has been fixed in newer versions (2.4.3, and possibly earlier).
821 (Many people suggest that XEmacs should warp the mouse when focusing
822 on another screen in point-to-type mode. This is not ICCCM-compliant
823 behavior. Implementing such policy is the responsibility of the
824 window manager itself, it is not legal for a client to do this.)
826 *** Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen.
828 This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being
829 used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes
830 away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long
831 streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a
832 user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a
833 properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible
834 input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is
835 easy, for a person with at least half a brain.
837 There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place:
839 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control
840 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use
841 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible
843 First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether
844 they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to
845 "no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an
846 escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off
847 and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow
848 control off, and the `te' string should turn it on.
850 Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it
851 needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled
852 by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud
853 rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print
854 your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if
855 it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If
856 the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a
857 problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard
858 to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type.
860 For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just
861 giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control
862 codes. You might as well try it.
864 If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer
865 through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the
866 computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how
867 much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow
868 control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard),
869 you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator
870 replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic
871 measures can make Emacs semi-work.
873 You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system
874 handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x
875 enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are
876 now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x
877 enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow
880 If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them
881 is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose
882 other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement
883 and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all
884 other control characters are already used by emacs.
886 IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled,
887 Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in
890 If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a
891 certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function
892 `enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme
893 automatically. Here is an example:
895 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
897 If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled
898 and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control
901 I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the
902 assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow
903 control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad
904 merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming
905 widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some
906 use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I
907 will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake
910 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely.
912 For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow
913 control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your
914 terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator
915 that wants to use flow control.
917 You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control.
918 If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without
919 flow control, as described in the preceding section.
921 If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters
922 into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above
923 shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\.
925 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net
928 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
929 control characters to the remote system to which they connect.
930 On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
931 control on the local system.
933 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
934 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
935 stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
936 `stty start u stop u' will do this.
938 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
939 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and
940 issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
942 If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type
943 `M-x enable-flow-control' at the beginning of your emacs session, or
944 if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the
945 following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind):
947 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
949 See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more
952 *** TTY redisplay is slow.
954 XEmacs has fairly new TTY redisplay support (beginning from 19.12),
955 which doesn't include some basic TTY optimizations -- like using
956 scrolling regions to move around blocks of text. This is why
957 redisplay on the traditional terminals, or over slow lines can be very
960 If you are interested in fixing this, please let us know at
961 <xemacs-beta@xemacs.org>.
963 *** Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal.
965 This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that terminal
966 is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing the
967 combination of features specified for that terminal.
969 The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters
970 Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression
971 (open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all terminal
972 output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do what makes the
973 screen update wrong, and look at the file and decode the characters
974 using the manual for the terminal. There are several possibilities:
976 1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual.
978 In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you
979 need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong.
981 2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect of the
982 terminal behavior not described in an obvious way by termcap.
984 This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for Emacs
985 to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior and other
986 terminals that behave subtly differently but are classified the same
987 by termcap; or else find an algorithm for Emacs to use that avoids the
988 difference. Such changes must be tested on many kinds of terminals.
990 3) The termcap entry is wrong.
992 See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes that are known to be
993 needed in commonly used termcap entries for certain terminals.
995 4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be right for
996 any terminal with the termcap entry you were using.
998 This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed in
999 termcap.c, terminfo.c, tparam.c, cm.c, redisplay-tty.c,
1000 redisplay-output.c, or redisplay.c.
1002 *** My buffers are full of \000 characters or otherwise corrupt.
1004 Some compilers have trouble with gmalloc.c and ralloc.c; try recompiling
1005 without optimization. If that doesn't work, try recompiling with
1006 SYSTEM_MALLOC defined, and/or with REL_ALLOC undefined.
1008 *** A position you specified in .Xdefaults is ignored, using twm.
1010 twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions.
1011 You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file:
1013 UsePPosition "on" #allow clents to request a position
1015 *** With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice to do
1016 incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response.
1018 This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit,
1019 with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use
1020 another escape character in kermit. One user did
1022 set escape-character 17
1024 in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character.
1026 *** The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color.
1028 This has been observed to result from the following X resource:
1030 Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
1032 That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we
1033 do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can
1034 explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing
1035 the resource prevents the problem.
1037 *** After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash.
1039 Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the
1040 mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly
1041 the first time, and then crash when run a second time.
1043 Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time,
1044 you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your
1045 operating system description file (whose name is reported by the
1046 configure script) that reads:
1047 #define SYSTEM_MALLOC
1048 This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around
1051 *** Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating
1052 directly with an X server.
1054 If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it
1055 does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is
1056 whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c
1057 followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event
1058 it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you
1059 have made the key binding correctly.
1061 If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may
1062 be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X
1063 server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by
1066 If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows:
1068 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L'
1069 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R'
1071 If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those
1072 commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you
1073 are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any
1074 modifier bit not otherwise used.
1076 If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other
1077 keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or
1078 some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the
1079 commands show above to make them modifier keys.
1081 Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt
1082 into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs.
1084 *** In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line.
1086 This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too
1087 smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns
1088 on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the
1089 problem by adding this to your .cshrc file:
1092 if ($EMACS == "t") then
1094 stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
1098 *** An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid
1099 parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'.
1101 This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as
1103 (which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something
1104 that isn't a color.)
1106 The fix is to correct your X resources.
1108 *** Once you pull down a menu from the menubar, it won't go away.
1110 It has been claimed that this is caused by a bug in certain very old
1111 (1990?) versions of the twm window manager. It doesn't happen with
1112 recent vintages, or with other window managers.
1114 *** Emacs ignores the "help" key when running OLWM.
1116 OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client
1117 using XSendEvent. Allowing emacs to react to synthetic events is a
1118 security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by
1119 setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix
1120 this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding
1121 "OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:".
1123 *** Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs'
1126 The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP
1127 environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to
1128 provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs
1131 Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP
1132 in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets
1133 it only if it is undefined.
1135 if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file
1137 Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not
1138 happen in a non-login shell.
1140 *** The popup menu appears at the bottom/right of my screen.
1142 You probably have something like the following in your ~/.Xdefaults
1144 Emacs.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1146 Use the following instead
1148 Emacs*EmacsFrame.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1152 *** Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm.
1154 The solution is to include in your .Xdefaults the lines:
1156 *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f)
1157 aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^?
1159 This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127).
1161 *** On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer
1162 with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown".
1164 On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default.
1165 `unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal
1166 Definitions" to make them defined.
1168 *** On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs:
1170 Could not load program emacs
1171 Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined
1172 Error was: Exec format error
1176 Could not load program .emacs
1177 Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined
1178 Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined
1179 Error was: Exec format error
1181 These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was
1182 compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile.
1184 *** Trouble using ptys on AIX.
1186 People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly.
1187 Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly.
1191 *** The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q.
1193 Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit
1194 command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use
1195 Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window
1196 manager to use some other command. You can disable the
1197 shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults:
1199 OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False
1201 *** When Emacs tries to ring the bell, you get an error like
1203 audio: sst_open: SETQSIZE" Invalid argument
1204 audio: sst_close: SETREG MMR2, Invalid argument
1206 you have probably compiled using an ANSI C compiler, but with non-ANSI
1207 include files. In particular, on Suns, the file
1208 /usr/include/sun/audioio.h uses the _IOW macro to define the constant
1209 AUDIOSETQSIZE. _IOW in turn uses a K&R preprocessor feature that is
1210 now explicitly forbidden in ANSI preprocessors, namely substitution
1211 inside character constants. All ANSI C compilers must provide a
1212 workaround for this problem. Lucid's C compiler is shipped with a new
1213 set of system include files. If you are using GCC, there is a script
1214 called fixincludes that creates new versions of some system include
1215 files that use this obsolete feature.
1217 *** On Solaris 2.6, XEmacs dumps core when exiting.
1219 This happens if you're XEmacs is running on the same machine as the X
1220 server, and the optimized memory transport has been turned on by
1221 setting the environment variable XSUNTRANSPORT. The crash occurs
1222 during the call to XCloseDisplay.
1224 If this describes your situation, you need to undefine the
1225 XSUNTRANSPORT environment variable.
1227 *** On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console.
1229 This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r
1230 C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs.
1232 *** On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs
1233 forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie.
1235 casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so
1236 after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines
1239 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1244 #if OSMinorVersion < 4
1246 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1250 Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4
1251 (as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for
1252 OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under
1253 Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the
1254 definition for your type of machine and system.
1256 Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild
1257 the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on
1258 Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3.
1260 For multithreaded X to work it necessary to install patch
1261 101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need
1262 to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that
1265 However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution:
1267 #define ThreadedX YES
1269 #define ThreadedX NO
1270 in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all
1271 `-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and
1272 typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work.
1274 *** On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft.
1276 This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4'
1277 on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise
1278 version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which
1279 it can do perfectly well for SunOS).
1281 *** Mail is lost when sent to local aliases.
1283 Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the
1284 sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be
1285 delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually)
1286 program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which
1287 means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the
1288 command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to
1289 obtain the destination address.
1291 There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail.
1292 In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize
1293 non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris
1294 2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS
1295 4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which
1296 have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time
1297 of this writing, these official versions are available:
1299 Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail:
1300 sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation)
1301 sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files)
1302 sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs)
1303 sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript)
1305 IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub:
1306 sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz
1308 *** Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though
1309 the names work properly with other programs on the same system.
1310 Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0.
1311 Gnus can't make contact with the specified host for nntp.
1313 This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared
1314 libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the
1315 shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a
1316 similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses.
1318 The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with
1319 the nameserver, but Emacs does not.
1321 The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you
1322 installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs.
1324 On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT.
1326 If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a,
1327 then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to
1328 do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE
1329 or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro
1330 that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries,
1331 be careful not to lose the others.
1333 Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h:
1335 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1337 Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that
1338 the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h
1341 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar
1343 *** With process-connection-type set to t, each line of subprocess
1344 output is terminated with a ^M, making ange-ftp and GNUS not work.
1346 On SunOS systems, this problem has been seen to be a result of an
1347 incomplete installation of gcc 2.2 which allowed some non-ANSI
1348 compatible include files into the compilation. In particular this
1349 affected virtually all ioctl() calls.
1354 **** XEmacs warns "Symbol `toggleClassRec' has different size in shared
1355 object, consider re-linking / Symbol `labelClassRec' has different
1356 size in shared object, consider re-linking / Warning: Representation
1357 size 4 must match superclass's to override value"
1359 Sometimes this results in segfaults when using the tab control widget
1360 or a progress bar widget.
1362 Some versions of Debian install 3D versions of the Athena widget
1363 library as /usr/X11R6/lib/libXaw.so. We have not yet solved the
1364 problem of identifying the actual library in use in ./configure, so it
1365 is possible for XEmacs to be compiled with reference to headers for
1366 "flat" Xaw but find a "3D" Xaw when loading.
1368 The straightforward solution is to rebuild XEmacs with additional
1369 configure options: --with-widgets=athena --with-athena=3d.
1371 There are several 3D Athena widget sets available; to see which ones
1372 are supported by XEmacs, use ./configure --usage.
1376 The Mandrake Linux distribution is attempting to comprehensively
1377 update the user interface, and make it consistent across
1378 applications. This is very difficult, and will occasionally cause
1379 conflicts with applications like Emacs with their own long-established
1380 interfaces. Known issues specific to Mandrake or especially common:
1382 Some versions of XEmacs (21.1.9 is known) distributed with Mandrake
1383 were patched to make the Meta and Alt keysyms synonymous. These
1384 normally work as expected in the Mandrake environment. However,
1385 custom-built XEmacsen (including all 21.2 betas) will "inexplicably"
1386 not respect the "Alt-invokes-Meta-commands" convention. See "I want
1387 XEmacs to use the Alt key" below.
1389 The color-gcc wrapper (see below) is in common use on the Mandrake
1392 *** XEmacs configured with ESD crashes with a segmentation violation
1394 This often occurs when a progress bar pops up.
1396 The problem is that the ESD sound daemon manipulates interrupts in a
1397 way that disagrees with XEmacs. The currently available workaround is
1398 not very satisfactory: remove ESD support. Rebuild after
1399 reconfiguring with the option --with-sound=none[,native][,nas]
1401 The funny syntax (requiring the initial "none") is for backward
1402 compatibility, and may change. Native sound and NAS do not cause the
1403 problem, so they may be added to the option to get some sound support.
1405 *** I want XEmacs to use the Alt key, not the XXX key, for Meta commands
1407 For historical reasons, XEmacs looks for a Meta key, then an Alt key.
1408 It binds Meta commands to the X11 modifier bit attached to the first
1409 of these it finds. On PCs, the Windows key is often assigned the Meta
1410 bit, but many desktop environments go to great lengths to get all apps
1411 to use the Alt key, and reserve the Windows key to (sensibly enough)
1414 One correct way to implement this was suggested on comp.emacs.xemacs
1415 (by Kilian Foth and in more detail by Michael Piotrowski): unmap the
1416 Meta modifier using xmodmap or xkb, and then map the Meta/Windows key
1417 to the Super or Hyper keysym and an appropriate mod bit. XEmacs will
1418 not find the Meta keysym, and default to using the Alt key for Meta
1419 keybindings. Typically few applications use the (X11) Meta modifier;
1420 it is tedious but not too much so to teach the ones you need to use
1421 Super instead of Meta. There may be further useful hints in the
1422 discussion of keymapping on non-Linux platforms.
1424 *** The color-gcc wrapper
1426 This wrapper colorizes the error messages from gcc. By default XEmacs
1427 does not interpret the escape sequences used to generate colors,
1428 resulting in a cluttered, hard-to-read buffer. You can remove the
1429 wrapper, or defeat the wrapper colorization in Emacs process buffers
1430 by editing the "nocolor" attribute in /etc/colorgccrc:
1432 $ diff -u /etc/colorgccrc.old /etc/colorgccrc
1433 --- /etc/colorgccrc.old Tue Dec 26 02:17:46 2000
1434 +++ /etc/colorgccrc Tue Dec 26 02:15:48 2000
1437 +nocolor: dumb emacs
1439 If you want colorization in your Emacs buffers, you may get good
1440 results from the ansi-color.el library:
1442 http://www.geocities.com/kensanata/color-emacs.html#ansicolors
1444 This is written for the mainline GNU Emacs but the author has made
1445 efforts to adapt it to XEmacs. YMMV.
1447 *** You get crashes in a non-C locale with Linux GNU Libc 2.0.
1449 Internationalization was not the top priority for GNU Libc 2.0.
1450 As of this writing (1998-12-28) you may get crashes while running
1451 XEmacs in a non-C locale. For example, `LC_ALL=en_US xemacs' crashes
1452 while `LC_ALL=C xemacs' runs fine. This happens for example with GNU
1453 libc 2.0.7. Installing libintl.a and libintl.h built from gettext
1454 0.10.35 and re-building XEmacs solves the crashes. Presumably soon
1455 everyone will upgrade to GNU Libc 2.1 and this problem will go away.
1457 *** `C-z', or `M-x suspend-emacs' hangs instead of suspending.
1459 If you build with `gpm' support on Linux, you cannot suspend XEmacs
1460 because gpm installs a buggy SIGTSTP handler. Either compile with
1461 `--with-gpm=no', or don't suspend XEmacs on the Linux console until
1464 *** With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the
1465 character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead.
1467 One user on a Linux system reported that this problem went away with
1468 installation of a new X server. The failing server was XFree86 3.1.1.
1469 XFree86 3.1.2 works.
1471 *** Slow startup on Linux.
1473 People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that
1474 startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'. There are two
1475 problems, one older, one newer.
1477 **** Old problem: IPv4 host lookup
1479 On older systems, this is because Emacs looks up the host name when it
1480 starts. Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due
1481 to improper system configuration. (Recent Linux distros usually have
1482 this configuration correct "out of the box".) This problem can occur
1483 for both networked and non-networked machines.
1485 Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root.
1487 ***** Networked Case
1489 First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both
1490 exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this
1491 (replace HOSTNAME with your host name):
1493 127.0.0.1 localhost HOSTNAME
1495 Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following
1501 Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be
1502 indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local
1503 database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections
1504 dynamically allocate ip addresses).
1506 ***** Non-Networked Case
1508 The solution described in the networked case applies here as well.
1509 However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a
1510 simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command
1511 `touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts'
1512 file is not necessary with this approach.
1514 **** New problem: IPv6 CNAME lookup
1516 A newer problem is due to XEmacs changing to use the modern
1517 getaddrinfo() interface from the older gethostbyname() interface. The
1518 solution above is insufficient, because getaddrinfo() by default tries
1519 to get IPv6 information for localhost (including the local X server).
1520 This always involves a dns lookup to get the CNAME, and the strategies
1521 above don't work. It then falls back to IPv4 behavior.
1523 ***** Robust network case
1525 Configure your network so that there are no nameservers configured
1526 until the network is actually running. getaddrinfo() will not try to
1527 access a nameserver that isn't configured.
1529 ***** Flaky network case
1531 If you have a flaky modem or DSL connection that can be relied on only
1532 to go down whenever you want to bring XEmacs up, you need to force
1533 IPv4 behavior. Explicitly setting DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0 (or whatever
1534 is appropriate) works in most cases.
1536 If you cannot or do not want to do that, you can hard code IPv4
1537 behavior in src/process-unix.c. Add `--with-ipv6-cname=no" to your
1538 configure options and rebuild XEmacs.
1540 *** XEmacs disappears after several sound events in succession
1542 If esd is not running (e.g. you unchecked the run esd checkbox in the
1543 GNOME Configuration tool), every sound event will cause the esound
1544 client library to signal SIGUSR1. It is not that difficult (hold down
1545 PgUp or PgDn, for example) to cause XEmacs to generate additional
1546 SIGUSR1 signals before the first handler has a chance to reset, so the
1547 second SIGUSR1 causes the default behavior of ending the process.
1549 The solution is either to build XEmacs with -sound=native,noesd or to make sure
1550 that esd is in fact running.
1553 *** On Irix, I don't see the toolbar icons and I'm getting lots of
1554 entries in the warnings buffer.
1556 SGI ships a really old Xpm library in /usr/lib which does not work at
1557 all well with XEmacs. The solution is to install your own copy of the
1558 latest version of Xpm somewhere and then use the --site-includes and
1559 --site-libraries flags to tell configure where to find it.
1561 *** Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys.
1563 The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to
1564 be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able
1565 to allocate ptys reliably.
1567 *** Motif dialog boxes lose on Irix.
1569 Larry Auton <lda@control.att.com> writes:
1570 Beware of not specifying
1572 --with-dialogs=athena
1574 if it builds with the motif dialogs [boom!] you're a dead man.
1576 *** Beware of the default image & graphics library on Irix
1578 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1580 You *have* to compile your own jpeg lib. The one delivered with SGI
1581 systems is a C++ lib, which apparently XEmacs cannot cope with.
1584 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS/Ultrix
1585 *** XEmacs crashes on Digital Unix within font-lock, or when dealing
1586 with large compilation buffers.
1588 The default stack size under Digital Unix is rather small (2M as
1589 opposed to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
1590 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
1593 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
1596 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
1598 *** The `Alt' key doesn't behave as `Meta' when running DECwindows.
1600 The default DEC keyboard mapping has the Alt keys set up to generate the
1601 keysym `Multi_key', which has a meaning to xemacs which is distinct from that
1602 of the `Meta_L' and `Meta-R' keysyms. A second problem is that certain keys
1603 have the Mod2 modifier attached to them for no adequately explored reason.
1604 The correct fix is to pass this file to xmodmap upon starting X:
1607 keysym Multi_key = Alt_L
1611 *** The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key.
1613 This shell command should fix it:
1615 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L'
1617 *** `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped
1620 On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information
1621 in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using
1622 expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work
1623 in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on.
1625 The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in
1626 anything it loads. Yuck - some solution.
1628 I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is
1629 going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know.
1630 Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included
1631 in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host.
1635 *** I get complaints about the mapping of my HP keyboard at startup,
1636 but I haven't changed anything.
1638 The default HP keymap is set up to have Mod1 assigned to two different keys:
1639 Meta_L and Mode_switch (even though there is not actually a Mode_switch key on
1640 the keyboard -- it uses an "imaginary" keycode.) There actually is a reason
1641 for this, but it's not a good one. The correct fix is to execute this command
1644 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
1646 *** On HP-UX, you get "poll: Interrupted system call" message in the
1647 window where XEmacs was launched.
1649 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1651 I get a very strange problem when linking libc.a dynamically: every
1652 event (mouse, keyboard, expose...) results in a "poll: Interrupted
1653 system call" message in the window where XEmacs was
1654 launched. Forcing a static link of libc.a alone by adding
1655 /usr/lib/libc.a at the end of the link line solves this. Note that
1656 my 9.07 build of 19.14b17 and my (old) build of 19.13 both exhibit
1657 the same behavior. I've tried various hpux patches to no avail. If
1658 this problem cannot be solved before the release date, binary kits
1659 for HP *must* be linked statically against libc, otherwise this
1660 problem will show up. (This is directed at whoever will volunteer
1661 for this kit, as I won't be available to do it, unless 19.14 gets
1662 delayed until mid-june ;-). I think this problem will be an FAQ soon
1663 after the release otherwise.
1665 Note: The above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0 and
1668 *** The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps
1669 other non-English HP keyboards too).
1671 This is because HP-UX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a
1672 shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE
1673 configures the X server.
1675 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
1676 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
1677 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
1682 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
1684 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
1685 add mod2 = Mode_switch
1689 *** XEmacs dumps core at startup when native audio is used. Native
1690 audio does not work with recent versions of HP-UX.
1692 Under HP-UX 10.20 and later (e.g., HP-UX 11.XX), with native audio
1693 enabled, the dumped XEmacs binary ("xemacs") core dumps at startup if
1694 recent versions of the libAlib.sl audio shared library is used. Note
1695 that "temacs" will run, but "xemacs" will dump core. This, of course,
1696 causes the XEmacs build to fail. If GNU malloc is enabled, a stack
1697 trace will show XEmacs to have crashed in the "first" call to malloc().
1699 This bug currently exists in all versions of XEmacs, when the undump
1700 mechanism is used. It is not known if using the experimental portable
1701 dumper will allow native audio to work.
1705 Recent versions of the HP-UX 10.20 (and later) audio shared library (in
1706 /opt/audio/lib), pulls in the libdce shared library, which pulls in a
1707 thread (libcma) library. This prevents the HP-UX undump() routine (in
1708 unexhp9k800.c) from properly working. What's happening is that some
1709 initialization routines are being called in the libcma library, *BEFORE*
1710 main() is called, and these initialization routines are calling
1711 malloc(). Unfortunately, in order for the undumper to work, XEmacs must
1712 adjust (move upwards) the sbrk() value *BEFORE* the first call to
1713 malloc(); if malloc() is called before XEmacs has properly adjusted sbrk
1714 (which is what is happening), dumped memory that is being used by
1715 XEmacs, is improperly re-allocated for use by malloc() and the dumped
1716 memory is corrupted. This causes XEmacs to die an horrible death.
1718 It is believed that versions of the audio library past December 1998
1719 will trigger this problem. Under HP-UX 10.20, you probably have to
1720 install audio library patches to encounter this. It's probable that
1721 recent "fresh, out-of-the-box" HP-UX 11.XX workstations also have this
1722 problem. For HP-UX 10.20, it's believed that audio patch PHSS_17121 (or
1723 a superceeding one, like PHSS_17554, PHSS_17971, PHSS_18777, PHSS_21481,
1724 or PHSS_21662, etc.) will trigger this.
1726 To check if your audio library will cause problems for XEmacs, run
1727 "chatr /opt/audio/lib/libAlib.sl". If "libdce" appears in the displayed
1728 shared library list, XEmacs will probably encounter problems if audio is
1733 Don't enable native audio. Re-run configure without native audio
1736 If your site supports it, try using NAS (Network Audio Support).
1738 Try using the experimental portable dumper. It may work, or it may
1742 *** `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error'
1744 On HP-UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS
1745 file system. HP-UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and
1746 does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default
1747 value is just ten seconds.
1749 If this happens to you, extend the timeout period.
1751 *** Shell mode on HP-UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous".
1753 christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says:
1755 The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to
1756 execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then tty
1757 will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, but tty
1758 is giving it back 3.
1760 The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a
1763 if (`tty` == "/dev/console")
1765 should be changed to:
1767 if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console")
1769 Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc
1774 *** Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems.
1776 On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled
1777 with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C
1778 version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick
1779 C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with
1784 *** In general, the Windows code is less mature than the Unix code.
1786 The Windows code base is still changing quickly. If you are
1787 experiencing problems, try the latest beta version to see if the
1788 problem still exists. Also ask on xemacs-nt@xemacs.org.
1792 *** Subprocesses do not work.
1794 You do not have "tty" in your CYGWIN environment variable. This must
1795 be set in your autoexec.bat (win95) or the system properties (winnt)
1796 as it must be read before the cygwin DLL initializes.
1798 *** ^G does not work on hung subprocesses.
1800 This is a known problem. It can be remedied by defining BROKEN_SIGIO
1801 in src/s/cygwin.h, however this currently leads to instability in XEmacs.
1802 (#### is this still true?)
1804 *** Errors from make like `/c:not found' when running `M-x compile'.
1806 Make sure you set the environment variable MAKE_MODE to UNIX in your
1807 init file (.xemacs/init.el), Control Panel (Windows 2000/NT), or
1808 AUTOEXEC.BAT (Windows 98/95).
1810 *** There are no images in the toolbar buttons.
1812 You need version 4.71 of commctrl.dll which does not ship with windows
1813 95. You can get this by installing IE 4.0 or downloading it from the
1817 * Compatibility problems (with Emacs 18, GNU Emacs, or previous XEmacs/lemacs)
1818 ==============================================================================
1820 *** "Symbol's value as variable is void: unread-command-char".
1821 "Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<keymap 143 entries>"
1822 "Wrong type argument: stringp, [#<keypress-event return>]"
1824 There are a few incompatible changes in XEmacs, and these are the
1825 symptoms. Some of the emacs-lisp code you are running needs to be
1826 updated to be compatible with XEmacs.
1828 The code should not treat keymaps as arrays (use `define-key', etc.),
1829 should not use obsolete variables like `unread-command-char' (use
1830 `unread-command-events'). Many (most) of the new ways of doing things
1831 are compatible in GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
1833 Modern Emacs packages (Gnus, VM, W3, efs, etc) are written to support
1834 GNU Emacs and XEmacs. We have provided modified versions of several
1835 popular emacs packages (dired, etc) which are compatible with this
1836 version of emacs. Check to make sure you have not set your load-path
1837 so that your private copies of these packages are being found before
1838 the versions in the lisp directory.
1840 Make sure that your load-path and your $EMACSLOADPATH environment
1841 variable are not pointing at an Emacs18 lisp directory. This will
1844 ** Some packages that worked before now cause the error
1845 Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<face ... >
1847 Code which uses the `face' accessor functions must be recompiled with
1848 xemacs 19.9 or later. The functions whose callers must be recompiled
1849 are: face-font, face-foreground, face-background,
1850 face-background-pixmap, and face-underline-p. The .elc files
1851 generated by version 19.9 will work in 19.6 and 19.8, but older .elc
1852 files which contain calls to these functions will not work in 19.9.
1854 ** Signaling: (error "Byte code stack underflow (byte compiler bug), pc 38")
1856 This error is given when XEmacs 20 is compiled without MULE support
1857 but is attempting to load a .elc which requires MULE support. The fix
1858 is to rebytecompile the offending file.
1860 ** Signaling: (wrong-type-argument ...) when loading mail-abbrevs
1862 The is seen when installing the Insidious Big Brother Data Base (bbdb)
1863 which includes an outdated copy of mail-abbrevs.el. Remove the copy
1864 that comes with bbdb and use the one that comes with XEmacs.
1870 ** A reminder: XEmacs/Mule work does not currently receive *any*
1871 funding, and all work is done by volunteers. If you think you can
1872 help, please contact the XEmacs maintainers.
1874 ** XEmacs/Mule doesn't support TTY's satisfactorily.
1876 This is a major problem, which we plan to address in a future release
1877 of XEmacs. Basically, XEmacs should have primitives to be told
1878 whether the terminal can handle international output, and which
1879 locale. Also, it should be able to do approximations of characters to
1880 the nearest supported by the locale.
1882 ** Internationalized (Asian) Isearch doesn't work.
1884 Currently, Isearch doesn't directly support any of the input methods
1885 that are not XIM based (like egg, canna and quail) (and there are
1886 potential problems with XIM version too...). If you're using egg
1887 there is a workaround. Hitting <RET> right after C-s to invoke
1888 Isearch will put Isearch in string mode, where a complete string can
1889 be typed into the minibuffer and then processed by Isearch afterwards.
1890 Since egg is now supported in the minibuffer using string mode you can
1891 now use egg to input your Japanese, Korean or Chinese string, then hit
1892 return to send that to Isearch and then use standard Isearch commands
1895 ** Using egg and mousing around while in 'fence' mode screws up my
1898 Don't do this. The fence modes of egg and canna are currently very
1899 modal, and messing with where they expect point to be and what they
1900 think is the current buffer is just asking for trouble. If you're
1901 lucky they will realize that something is awry, and simply delete the
1902 fence, but worst case can trash other buffers too. We've tried to
1903 protect against this where we can, but there still are many ways to
1904 shoot yourself in the foot. So just finish what you are typing into
1905 the fence before reaching for the mouse.
1907 ** Not all languages in Quail are supported like Devanagari and Indian
1908 languages, Lao and Tibetan.
1910 Quail requires more work and testing. Although it has been ported to
1911 XEmacs, it works really well for Japanese and for the European
1914 ** Right-to-left mode is not yet implemented, so languages like
1915 Arabic, Hebrew and Thai don't work.
1917 Getting this right requires more work. It may be implemented in a
1918 future XEmacs version, but don't hold your breath. If you know
1919 someone who is ready to implement this, please let us know.
1921 ** We need more developers and native language testers. It's extremely
1922 difficult (and not particularly productive) to address languages that
1923 nobody is using and testing.
1925 ** The kWnn and cWnn support for Chinese and Korean needs developers
1926 and testers. It probably doesn't work.
1928 ** There are no `native XEmacs' TUTORIALs for any Asian languages,
1929 including Japanese. FSF Emacs and XEmacs tutorials are quite similar,
1930 so it should be sufficient to skim through the differences and apply
1931 them to the Japanese version.
1933 ** We only have localized menus translated for Japanese, and the
1934 Japanese menus are developing bitrot (the Mule menu appears in
1937 ** XIM is untested for any language other than Japanese.