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 ===============================
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 *** Link failure when using acc on a Sun.
192 To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as
194 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1
196 and you need to add -lansi just before -lc.
198 The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we
199 cannot easily arrange to supply them.
201 *** Problems finding X11 libraries on Solaris with Openwindows
203 Some users have reported problems in this area. The reported solution
204 is to define the environment variable OPENWINHOME, even if you must set
205 it to `/usr/openwin'.
207 *** Sed problems on Solaris 2.5
209 There have been reports of Sun sed truncating very lines in the
210 Makefile during configuration. The workaround is to use GNU sed or,
211 even better, think of a better way to generate Makefile, and send us a
214 *** On Solaris 2 I get undefined symbols from libcurses.a.
216 You probably have /usr/ucblib/ on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Do the link with
217 LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset. Generally, avoid using any ucb* stuff when
220 *** On Solaris 2 I cannot make alloc.o, glyphs.o or process.o.
222 The SparcWorks C compiler may have difficulty building those modules
223 with optimization level -xO4. Try using only "-fast" optimization
224 for just those modules. (Or use gcc).
226 *** Solaris 2.3 /bin/sh coredumps during configuration.
228 This only occurs if you have LANG != C. This is a known bug with
229 /bin/sh fixed by installing Patch-ID# 101613-01. Or, you can use
230 bash, as a workaround.
232 *** On SunOS, you get linker errors
234 _get_wmShellWidgetClass
235 _get_applicationShellWidgetClass
237 The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0
238 or link libXmu statically.
240 *** On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version.
242 This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant
243 for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete
244 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory.
246 *** Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1.
248 If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace,
249 _iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after
250 -lXaw in the command that links temacs.
252 This problem seems to arise only when the international language
253 extensions to X11R5 are installed.
255 *** On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld:
257 /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment
259 The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld.
261 The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun.
263 *** SunOS 4.1.2: undefined symbol _get_wmShellWidgetClass
265 Apparently the version of libXmu.so.a that Sun ships is hosed: it's missing
266 some stuff that is in libXmu.a (the static version). Sun has a patch for
267 this, but a workaround is to use the static version of libXmu, by changing
268 the link command from "-lXmu" to "-Bstatic -lXmu -Bdynamic". If you have
269 OpenWindows 3.0, ask Sun for these patches:
270 100512-02 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 libXt Jumbo patch
271 100573-03 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 undefined symbols with shared libXmu
273 *** Random other SunOS 4.1.[12] link errors.
275 The X headers and libraries that Sun ships in /usr/{include,lib}/X11 are
276 broken. Use the ones in /usr/openwin/{include,lib} instead.
279 *** Under Linux, you get "too many arguments to function `getpgrp'".
281 You have probably installed LessTiff under `/usr/local' and `libXm.so'
282 could not be found when linking `getpgrp()' test program, making XEmacs
283 think that `getpgrp()' takes an argument. Try adding `/usr/local/lib'
284 in `/etc/ld.so.conf' and run `ldconfig'. Then run XEmacs's `configure'
285 again. As with all problems of this type, reading the config.log file
286 generated from configure and seeing the log of how the test failed can
289 *** `Error: No ExtNode to pop!' on Linux systems with Lesstif.
291 This error message has been observed with lesstif-0.75a. It does not
292 appear to cause any harm.
294 *** xemacs: can't resolve symbol '__malloc_hook'
296 This is a Linux problem where you've compiled the XEmacs binary on a libc
297 5.4 with version higher than 5.4.19 and attempted to run the binary against
298 an earlier version. The solution is to upgrade your old library.
301 *** Linking with -rpath on IRIX.
303 Darrell Kindred <dkindred@cmu.edu> writes:
304 There are a couple of problems [with use of -rpath with Irix ld], though:
306 1. The ld in IRIX 5.3 ignores all but the last -rpath
307 spec, so the patched configure spits out a warning
308 if --x-libraries or --site-runtime-libraries are
309 specified under irix 5.x, and it only adds -rpath
310 entries for the --site-runtime-libraries. This bug was
311 fixed sometime between 5.3 and 6.2.
313 2. IRIX gcc 2.7.2 doesn't accept -rpath directly, so
314 it would have to be prefixed by -Xlinker or "-Wl,".
315 This would be fine, except that configure compiles with
316 ${CC-cc} $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS ...
317 rather than quoting $LDFLAGS with prefix-args, like
318 src/Makefile does. So if you specify --x-libraries
319 or --site-runtime-libraries, you must use --use-gcc=no,
320 or configure will fail.
322 *** On Irix 6.3, the SGI ld quits with segmentation fault when linking temacs
324 This occurs if you use the SGI linker version 7.1. Installing the
325 patch SG0001872 fixes this problem.
327 *** On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi
329 A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o"
330 in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run,
331 find that string, and take out the spaces.
333 Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem.
335 *** On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h.
337 The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the
338 Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset
339 compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy
340 workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of
343 *** Coredumping in Irix 6.2
345 Pete Forman <gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com> writes:
346 A problem noted by myself and others (I've lost the references) was
347 that XEmacs coredumped when the cut or copy toolbar buttons were
348 pressed. This has been fixed by loading the SGI patchset (Feb 98)
349 without having to recompile XEmacs.
351 My versions are XEmacs 20.3 (problem first noted in 19.15) and IRIX
352 6.2, compiled using -n32. I'd guess that the relevant individual
353 patch was "SG0002580: multiple fixes for X libraries". SGI recommends
354 that the complete patch set be installed rather than parts of it.
356 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS
357 *** On Digital UNIX, the DEC C compiler might have a problem compiling
360 In particular, src/extents.c and src/faces.c might cause the DEC C
361 compiler to abort. When this happens: cd src, compile the files by
362 hand, cd .., and redo the "make" command. When recompiling the files by
363 hand, use the old C compiler for the following versions of Digital UNIX:
364 - V3.n: Remove "-migrate" from the compile command.
365 - V4.n: Add "-oldc" to the compile command.
367 A related compiler bug has been fixed by the DEC compiler team. The
368 new versions of the compiler should run fine.
370 *** Under some versions of OSF XEmacs runs fine if built without
371 optimization but will crash randomly if built with optimization.
373 Using 'cc -g' is not sufficient to eliminate all optimization. Try
376 *** Compilation errors on VMS.
378 Sorry, XEmacs does not work under VMS. You might consider working on
379 the port if you really want to have XEmacs work under VMS.
382 *** On HPUX, the HP C compiler might have a problem compiling some files
385 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
387 Had to drop once again to level 2 optimization, at least to
388 compile lstream.c. Otherwise, I get a "variable is void: \if"
389 problem while dumping (this is a problem I already reported
390 with vanilla hpux 10.01 and 9.07, which went away after
391 applying patches for the C compiler). Trouble is I still
392 haven't found the same patch for hpux 10.10, and I don't
393 remember the patch numbers. I think potential XEmacs builders
394 on HP should be warned about this.
396 *** I don't have `xmkmf' and `imake' on my HP.
398 You can get these standard X tools by anonymous FTP to
399 hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com. Essentially all X programs need these.
401 *** On HP-UX, problems with make
403 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
405 Some releases of XEmacs (e.g. 20.4) require GNU make to build
406 successfully. You don't need GNU make when building 21.x.
408 *** On HP-UX 9.05 XEmacs won't compile or coredump during the build.
410 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
412 This might be a sed problem. For your own safety make sure to use
413 GNU sed while dumping XEmacs.
415 *** On HP-UX 11.0 XEmacs causes excessive X11 errors when running.
416 (also appears on AIX as reported in comp.emacs.xemacs)
418 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
420 Unfortunately, XEmacs releases prior to 21.0 don't work with
421 Motif2.1. It will compile but you will get excessive X11 errors like
423 xemacs: X Error of failed request: BadGC (invalid GC parameter)
425 and finally XEmacs gets killed. A workaround is to use the
426 Motif1.2_R6 libraries. You can the following line to your call to
429 --x-libraries="/usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6 -L/usr/lib/X11R6"
431 Make sure /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.sl is a link to
432 /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.3.
434 *** On HP-UX 11.0: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor
436 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
438 XEmacs dies without core file and reports:
440 Error: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor.
442 This is a bug. Please apply the patch PHSS_19964 (check if
443 superseded). The other alternative is to link with Motif1.2_R6 (see
448 *** Native cc on SCO OpenServer 5 is now OK. Icc may still throw you
449 a curve. Here is what Robert Lipe <robertl@arnet.com> says:
451 Unlike XEmacs 19.13, building with the native cc on SCO OpenServer 5
452 now produces a functional binary. I will typically build this
453 configuration for COFF with:
455 /path_to_xemacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
456 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
457 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas
459 This version now supports ELF builds. I highly recommend this to
460 reduce the in-core footprint of XEmacs. This is now how I compile
461 all my test releases. Build it like this:
463 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
464 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
465 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic
467 The compiler known as icc [ supplied with the OpenServer 5 Development
468 System ] generates a working binary, but it takes forever to generate
469 XEmacs. ICC also whines more about the code than /bin/cc does. I do
470 believe all its whining is legitimate, however. Note that you do
471 have to 'cd src ; make LD=icc' to avoid linker errors.
473 The way I handle the build procedure is:
475 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
476 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
477 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic --compiler="icc"
479 NOTE I have the xpm, xface, and audio libraries and includes in
480 /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include. If you don't have these,
481 don't include the "--with-*" arguments in any of my examples.
483 In previous versions of XEmacs, you had to override the defaults while
484 compiling font-lock.o and extents.o when building with icc. This seems
485 to no longer be true, but I'm including this old information in case it
486 resurfaces. The process I used was:
489 [ procure pizza, beer, repeat ]
491 make CC="icc -W0,-mP1COPT_max_tree_size=3000" font-lock.o extents.o
494 If you want sound support, get the tls566 supplement from
495 ftp.sco.com:/TLS or any of its mirrors. It works just groovy
498 The M-x manual-entry is known not to work. If you know Lisp and would
499 like help in making it work, e-mail me at <robertl@dgii.com>.
500 (UNCHECKED for 19.15 -- it might work).
502 In earlier releases, gnuserv/gnuclient/gnudoit would open a frame
503 just fine, but the client would lock up and the server would
504 terminate when you used C-x # to close the frame. This is now
507 In etc/ there are two files of note. emacskeys.sco and emacsstrs.sco.
508 The comments at the top of emacskeys.sco describe its function, and
509 the emacstrs.sco is a suitable candidate for /usr/lib/keyboard/strings
510 to take advantage of the keyboard map in emacskeys.sco.
512 Note: Much of the above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0
516 *** In general use etc/check_cygwin_setup.sh to trap environment problems.
518 The script etc/check_cygwin_setup.sh will attempt to detect whether
519 you have a suitable environment for building. This script may not work
520 correctly if you are using ash instead of bash (see below).
522 *** X11 not detected.
524 This is usually because xmkmf is not in your path or because you are
525 using the default cygwin shell. The default cygwin shell (/bin/sh.exe)
526 is ash which appears to work in most circumstances but has some weird
527 failure modes. I recommend replacing sh.exe with bash.exe, this will
528 mean configure is slower but more reliable.
530 *** Subprocesses do not work.
532 You do not have "tty" in your CYGWIN32 (for b19) or CYGWIN (for b20)
533 environment variable. This must be set in your autoexec.bat (win95) or
534 the system properties (winnt) as it must be read before the cygwin dll
537 *** ^G does not work on hung subprocesses.
539 This is a known problem. It can be remedied with cygwin b20 or greater
540 by defining BROKEN_SIGIO in src/s/cygwin32.h, however this currently
541 leads to instability in XEmacs.
543 *** The XEmacs executable crashes at startup.
545 This can be caused by many things.
547 If you are running with X11 you need to have cygwin b19 or cygwin
548 b20.1 or greater, cygwin b20 will not work.
550 If you are running with cygwin b19 make sure you are using egcs 1.0.2
551 rather than vanilla gcc. XEmacs builds by default with -O3 which does
552 not work with the gcc that ships with b19. Alternatively use -O2.
554 *** The info files will not build.
556 makeinfo that ships with cygwin (all versions) is a noop. You need to
557 obtain makeinfo from somewhere or build it yourself.
559 *** I have no graphics.
561 You need to obtain the various graphics libraries. Pre-built versions
562 of these and the X libraries are located on the XEmacs website in
563 ftp://ftp.xemacs.org/pub/aux/cygwin*.
565 *** There are no images in the toolbar buttons.
567 You need version 4.71 of commctrl.dll which does not ship with windows
568 95. You can get this by installing IE 4.0 or downloading it from the
572 * Problems with running XEmacs
573 ==============================
575 *** C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs.
577 You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even
578 though the system itself is capable of it. Try using a different
581 *** You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters.
583 Emacs has traditionally used Control-H for help; unfortunately this
584 interferes with its use as Backspace on TTY's. As of XEmacs 21,
585 XEmacs looks at the "erase" setting of TTY structures and maps C-h to
586 backspace when erase is set to C-h. This is sort of a special hack,
587 but it makes it possible for you to use the standard:
591 to get your backspace key to erase characters. The erase setting is
592 recorded in the Lisp variable `tty-erase-char', which you can use to
593 tune the settings in your .emacs.
595 A major drawback of this is that when C-h becomes backspace, it no
596 longer invokes help. In that case, you need to use f1 for help, or
597 bind another key. An example of the latter is the following code,
598 which moves help to Meta-? (ESC ?):
600 (global-set-key "\M-?" 'help-command)
602 *** Mail agents (VM, Gnus, rmail) cannot get new mail
604 rmail and VM get new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program
605 called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using the
606 protocol defined by /bin/mail.
608 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses
609 the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
610 `movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do
611 this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, the
612 macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. IF
613 YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR SYSTEM,
616 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
617 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail,
618 you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as
619 `mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing
625 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
626 installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The
627 installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory
628 /usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and
629 mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
630 directory copy is ineffective.
632 *** VM appears to hang in large folders.
634 This is normal (trust us) when upgrading to VM-6.22 from earlier
635 versions. Let VM finish what it is doing and all will be well.
637 *** Changes made to .el files do not take effect.
639 You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. Then the
640 old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes will not be seen. To
641 fix this, do `M-x byte-recompile-directory' and specify the directory
642 that contains the Lisp files.
644 Note that you will get a warning when loading a .elc file that is
645 older than the corresponding .el file.
647 *** Things which should be bold or italic (such as the initial
648 copyright notice) are not.
650 The fonts of the "bold" and "italic" faces are generated from the font
651 of the "default" face; in this way, your bold and italic fonts will
652 have the appropriate size and family. However, emacs can only be
653 clever in this way if you have specified the default font using the
654 XLFD (X Logical Font Description) format, which looks like
656 *-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*
658 if you use any of the other, less strict font name formats, some of
661 lucidasanstypewriter-12
665 then emacs won't be able to guess the names of the "bold" and "italic"
666 versions. All X fonts can be referred to via XLFD-style names, so you
667 should use those forms. See the man pages for X(1), xlsfonts(1), and
670 *** The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data.
672 Two causes have been seen for such problems.
674 1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined
675 as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong,
676 it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct
677 value in the man page for a.out (5).
679 2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the
680 initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most
681 of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and
682 not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you
683 may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file.
685 *** Reading and writing files is very very slow.
687 Try evaluating the form (setq lock-directory nil) and see if that helps.
688 There is a problem with file-locking on some systems (possibly related
689 to NFS) that I don't understand. Please send mail to the address
690 xemacs@xemacs.org if you figure this one out.
692 *** When emacs starts up, I get lots of warnings about unknown keysyms.
694 If you are running the prebuilt binaries, the Motif library expects to find
695 certain thing in the XKeysymDB file. This file is normally in /usr/lib/X11/
696 or in /usr/openwin/lib/. If you keep yours in a different place, set the
697 environment variable $XKEYSYMDB to point to it before starting emacs. If
698 you still have the problem after doing that, perhaps your version of X is
699 too old. There is a copy of the MIT X11R5 XKeysymDB file in the emacs `etc'
700 directory. Try using that one.
702 *** My X resources used to work, and now some of them are being ignored.
704 Check the resources in .../etc/Emacs.ad (which is the same as the file
705 sample.Xdefaults). Perhaps some of the default resources built in to
706 emacs are now overriding your existing resources. Copy and edit the
707 resources in Emacs.ad as necessary.
709 *** I have focus problems when I use `M-o' to switch to another screen
710 without using the mouse.
712 The focus issues with a program like XEmacs, which has multiple
713 homogeneous top-level windows, are very complicated, and as a result,
714 most window managers don't implement them correctly.
716 The R4/R5 version of twm (and all of its descendants) had buggy focus
717 handling. Sufficiently recent versions of tvtwm have been fixed. In
718 addition, if you're using twm, make sure you have not specified
719 "NoTitleFocus" in your .tvtwmrc file. The very nature of this option
720 makes twm do some illegal focus tricks, even with the patch.
722 It is known that olwm and olvwm are buggy, and in different ways. If
723 you're using click-to-type mode, try using point-to-type, or vice
726 In older versions of NCDwm, one could not even type at XEmacs windows.
727 This has been fixed in newer versions (2.4.3, and possibly earlier).
729 (Many people suggest that XEmacs should warp the mouse when focusing
730 on another screen in point-to-type mode. This is not ICCCM-compliant
731 behavior. Implementing such policy is the responsibility of the
732 window manager itself, it is not legal for a client to do this.)
734 *** Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen.
736 This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being
737 used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes
738 away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long
739 streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a
740 user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a
741 properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible
742 input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is
743 easy, for a person with at least half a brain.
745 There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place:
747 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control
748 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use
749 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible
751 First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether
752 they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to
753 "no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an
754 escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off
755 and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow
756 control off, and the `te' string should turn it on.
758 Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it
759 needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled
760 by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud
761 rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print
762 your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if
763 it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If
764 the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a
765 problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard
766 to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type.
768 For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just
769 giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control
770 codes. You might as well try it.
772 If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer
773 through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the
774 computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how
775 much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow
776 control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard),
777 you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator
778 replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic
779 measures can make Emacs semi-work.
781 You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system
782 handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x
783 enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are
784 now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x
785 enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow
788 If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them
789 is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose
790 other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement
791 and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all
792 other control characters are already used by emacs.
794 IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled,
795 Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in
798 If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a
799 certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function
800 `enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme
801 automatically. Here is an example:
803 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
805 If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled
806 and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control
809 I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the
810 assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow
811 control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad
812 merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming
813 widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some
814 use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I
815 will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake
818 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely.
820 For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow
821 control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your
822 terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator
823 that wants to use flow control.
825 You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control.
826 If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without
827 flow control, as described in the preceding section.
829 If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters
830 into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above
831 shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\.
833 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net
836 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
837 control characters to the remote system to which they connect.
838 On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
839 control on the local system.
841 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
842 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
843 stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
844 `stty start u stop u' will do this.
846 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
847 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and
848 issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
850 If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type
851 `M-x enable-flow-control' at the beginning of your emacs session, or
852 if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the
853 following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind):
855 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
857 See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more
860 *** TTY redisplay is slow.
862 XEmacs has fairly new TTY redisplay support (beginning from 19.12),
863 which doesn't include some basic TTY optimizations -- like using
864 scrolling regions to move around blocks of text. This is why
865 redisplay on the traditional terminals, or over slow lines can be very
868 If you are interested in fixing this, please let us know at
871 *** Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal.
873 This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that terminal
874 is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing the
875 combination of features specified for that terminal.
877 The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters
878 Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression
879 (open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all terminal
880 output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do what makes the
881 screen update wrong, and look at the file and decode the characters
882 using the manual for the terminal. There are several possibilities:
884 1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual.
886 In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you
887 need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong.
889 2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect of the
890 terminal behavior not described in an obvious way by termcap.
892 This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for Emacs
893 to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior and other
894 terminals that behave subtly differently but are classified the same
895 by termcap; or else find an algorithm for Emacs to use that avoids the
896 difference. Such changes must be tested on many kinds of terminals.
898 3) The termcap entry is wrong.
900 See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes that are known to be
901 needed in commonly used termcap entries for certain terminals.
903 4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be right for
904 any terminal with the termcap entry you were using.
906 This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed in
907 termcap.c, terminfo.c, tparam.c, cm.c, redisplay-tty.c,
908 redisplay-output.c, or redisplay.c.
910 *** My buffers are full of \000 characters or otherwise corrupt.
912 Some compilers have trouble with gmalloc.c and ralloc.c; try recompiling
913 without optimization. If that doesn't work, try recompiling with
914 SYSTEM_MALLOC defined, and/or with REL_ALLOC undefined.
916 *** A position you specified in .Xdefaults is ignored, using twm.
918 twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions.
919 You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file:
921 UsePPosition "on" #allow clents to request a position
923 *** With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice to do
924 incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response.
926 This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit,
927 with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use
928 another escape character in kermit. One user did
930 set escape-character 17
932 in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character.
934 *** The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color.
936 This has been observed to result from the following X resource:
938 Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
940 That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we
941 do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can
942 explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing
943 the resource prevents the problem.
945 *** After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash.
947 Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the
948 mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly
949 the first time, and then crash when run a second time.
951 Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time,
952 you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your
953 operating system description file (whose name is reported by the
954 configure script) that reads:
955 #define SYSTEM_MALLOC
956 This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around
959 *** Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating
960 directly with an X server.
962 If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it
963 does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is
964 whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c
965 followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event
966 it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you
967 have made the key binding correctly.
969 If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may
970 be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X
971 server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by
974 If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows:
976 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L'
977 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R'
979 If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those
980 commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you
981 are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any
982 modifier bit not otherwise used.
984 If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other
985 keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or
986 some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the
987 commands show above to make them modifier keys.
989 Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt
990 into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs.
992 *** In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line.
994 This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too
995 smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns
996 on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the
997 problem by adding this to your .cshrc file:
1000 if ($EMACS == "t") then
1002 stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
1006 *** An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid
1007 parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'.
1009 This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as
1011 (which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something
1012 that isn't a color.)
1014 The fix is to correct your X resources.
1016 *** Once you pull down a menu from the menubar, it won't go away.
1018 It has been claimed that this is caused by a bug in certain very old
1019 (1990?) versions of the twm window manager. It doesn't happen with
1020 recent vintages, or with other window managers.
1022 *** Emacs ignores the "help" key when running OLWM.
1024 OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client
1025 using XSendEvent. Allowing emacs to react to synthetic events is a
1026 security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by
1027 setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix
1028 this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding
1029 "OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:".
1031 *** Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs'
1034 The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP
1035 environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to
1036 provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs
1039 Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP
1040 in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets
1041 it only if it is undefined.
1043 if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file
1045 Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not
1046 happen in a non-login shell.
1048 *** The popup menu appears at the bottom/right of my screen.
1050 You probably have something like the following in your ~/.Xdefaults
1052 Emacs.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1054 Use the following instead
1056 Emacs*EmacsFrame.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1060 *** Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm.
1062 The solution is to include in your .Xdefaults the lines:
1064 *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f)
1065 aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^?
1067 This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127).
1069 *** On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer
1070 with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown".
1072 On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default.
1073 `unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal
1074 Definitions" to make them defined.
1076 *** On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs:
1078 Could not load program emacs
1079 Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined
1080 Error was: Exec format error
1084 Could not load program .emacs
1085 Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined
1086 Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined
1087 Error was: Exec format error
1089 These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was
1090 compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile.
1092 *** Trouble using ptys on AIX.
1094 People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly.
1095 Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly.
1099 *** The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q.
1101 Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit
1102 command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use
1103 Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window
1104 manager to use some other command. You can disable the
1105 shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults:
1107 OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False
1109 *** When Emacs tries to ring the bell, you get an error like
1111 audio: sst_open: SETQSIZE" Invalid argument
1112 audio: sst_close: SETREG MMR2, Invalid argument
1114 you have probably compiled using an ANSI C compiler, but with non-ANSI
1115 include files. In particular, on Suns, the file
1116 /usr/include/sun/audioio.h uses the _IOW macro to define the constant
1117 AUDIOSETQSIZE. _IOW in turn uses a K&R preprocessor feature that is
1118 now explicitly forbidden in ANSI preprocessors, namely substitution
1119 inside character constants. All ANSI C compilers must provide a
1120 workaround for this problem. Lucid's C compiler is shipped with a new
1121 set of system include files. If you are using GCC, there is a script
1122 called fixincludes that creates new versions of some system include
1123 files that use this obsolete feature.
1125 *** On Solaris 2.6, XEmacs dumps core when exiting.
1127 This happens if you're XEmacs is running on the same machine as the X
1128 server, and the optimized memory transport has been turned on by
1129 setting the environment variable XSUNTRANSPORT. The crash occurs
1130 during the call to XCloseDisplay.
1132 If this describes your situation, you need to undefine the
1133 XSUNTRANSPORT environment variable.
1135 *** On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console.
1137 This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r
1138 C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs.
1140 *** On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs
1141 forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie.
1143 casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so
1144 after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines
1147 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1152 #if OSMinorVersion < 4
1154 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1158 Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4
1159 (as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for
1160 OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under
1161 Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the
1162 definition for your type of machine and system.
1164 Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild
1165 the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on
1166 Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3.
1168 For multithreaded X to work it necessary to install patch
1169 101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need
1170 to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that
1173 However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution:
1175 #define ThreadedX YES
1177 #define ThreadedX NO
1178 in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all
1179 `-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and
1180 typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work.
1182 *** On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft.
1184 This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4'
1185 on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise
1186 version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which
1187 it can do perfectly well for SunOS).
1189 *** Mail is lost when sent to local aliases.
1191 Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the
1192 sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be
1193 delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually)
1194 program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which
1195 means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the
1196 command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to
1197 obtain the destination address.
1199 There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail.
1200 In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize
1201 non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris
1202 2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS
1203 4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which
1204 have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time
1205 of this writing, these official versions are available:
1207 Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail:
1208 sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation)
1209 sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files)
1210 sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs)
1211 sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript)
1213 IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub:
1214 sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz
1216 *** Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though
1217 the names work properly with other programs on the same system.
1218 Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0.
1219 Gnus can't make contact with the specified host for nntp.
1221 This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared
1222 libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the
1223 shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a
1224 similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses.
1226 The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with
1227 the nameserver, but Emacs does not.
1229 The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you
1230 installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs.
1232 On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT.
1234 If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a,
1235 then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to
1236 do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE
1237 or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro
1238 that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries,
1239 be careful not to lose the others.
1241 Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h:
1243 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1245 Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that
1246 the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h
1249 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar
1251 *** With process-connection-type set to t, each line of subprocess
1252 output is terminated with a ^M, making ange-ftp and GNUS not work.
1254 On SunOS systems, this problem has been seen to be a result of an
1255 incomplete installation of gcc 2.2 which allowed some non-ANSI
1256 compatible include files into the compilation. In particular this
1257 affected virtually all ioctl() calls.
1261 *** You get crashes in a non-C locale with Linux GNU Libc 2.0.
1263 Internationalization was not the top priority for GNU Libc 2.0.
1264 As of this writing (1998-12-28) you may get crashes while running
1265 XEmacs in a non-C locale. For example, `LC_ALL=en_US xemacs' crashes
1266 while `LC_ALL=C xemacs' runs fine. This happens for example with GNU
1267 libc 2.0.7. Installing libintl.a and libintl.h built from gettext
1268 0.10.35 and re-building XEmacs solves the crashes. Presumably soon
1269 everyone will upgrade to GNU Libc 2.1 and this problem will go away.
1271 *** `C-z', or `M-x suspend-emacs' hangs instead of suspending.
1273 If you build with `gpm' support on Linux, you cannot suspend XEmacs
1274 because gpm installs a buggy SIGTSTP handler. Either compile with
1275 `--with-gpm=no', or don't suspend XEmacs on the Linux console until
1278 *** With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the
1279 character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead.
1281 One user on a Linux system reported that this problem went away with
1282 installation of a new X server. The failing server was XFree86 3.1.1.
1283 XFree86 3.1.2 works.
1285 *** Slow startup on Linux.
1287 People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that
1288 startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'.
1290 This is because Emacs looks up the host name when it starts.
1291 Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due to
1292 improper system configuration. This problem can occur for both
1293 networked and non-networked machines.
1295 Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root.
1299 First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both
1300 exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this
1301 (replace HOSTNAME with your host name):
1303 127.0.0.1 localhost HOSTNAME
1305 Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following
1311 Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be
1312 indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local
1313 database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections
1314 dynamically allocate ip addresses).
1316 **** Non-Networked Case
1318 The solution described in the networked case applies here as well.
1319 However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a
1320 simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command
1321 `touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts'
1322 file is not necessary with this approach.
1326 *** On Irix, I don't see the toolbar icons and I'm getting lots of
1327 entries in the warnings buffer.
1329 SGI ships a really old Xpm library in /usr/lib which does not work at
1330 all well with XEmacs. The solution is to install your own copy of the
1331 latest version of Xpm somewhere and then use the --site-includes and
1332 --site-libraries flags to tell configure where to find it.
1334 *** Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys.
1336 The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to
1337 be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able
1338 to allocate ptys reliably.
1340 *** Motif dialog boxes lose on Irix.
1342 Larry Auton <lda@control.att.com> writes:
1343 Beware of not specifying
1345 --with-dialogs=athena
1347 if it builds with the motif dialogs [boom!] you're a dead man.
1349 *** Beware of the default image & graphics library on Irix
1351 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1353 You *have* to compile your own jpeg lib. The one delivered with SGI
1354 systems is a C++ lib, which apparently XEmacs cannot cope with.
1357 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS/Ultrix
1358 *** XEmacs crashes on Digital Unix within font-lock, or when dealing
1359 with large compilation buffers.
1361 The default stack size under Digital Unix is rather small (2M as
1362 opposed to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
1363 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
1366 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
1369 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
1371 *** The `Alt' key doesn't behave as `Meta' when running DECwindows.
1373 The default DEC keyboard mapping has the Alt keys set up to generate the
1374 keysym `Multi_key', which has a meaning to xemacs which is distinct from that
1375 of the `Meta_L' and `Meta-R' keysyms. A second problem is that certain keys
1376 have the Mod2 modifier attached to them for no adequately explored reason.
1377 The correct fix is to pass this file to xmodmap upon starting X:
1380 keysym Multi_key = Alt_L
1384 *** The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key.
1386 This shell command should fix it:
1388 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L'
1390 *** `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped
1393 On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information
1394 in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using
1395 expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work
1396 in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on.
1398 The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in
1399 anything it loads. Yuck - some solution.
1401 I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is
1402 going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know.
1403 Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included
1404 in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host.
1408 *** I get complaints about the mapping of my HP keyboard at startup,
1409 but I haven't changed anything.
1411 The default HP keymap is set up to have Mod1 assigned to two different keys:
1412 Meta_L and Mode_switch (even though there is not actually a Mode_switch key on
1413 the keyboard -- it uses an "imaginary" keycode.) There actually is a reason
1414 for this, but it's not a good one. The correct fix is to execute this command
1417 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
1419 *** On HP-UX, you get "poll: Interrupted system call" message in the
1420 window where XEmacs was launched.
1422 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1424 I get a very strange problem when linking libc.a dynamically: every
1425 event (mouse, keyboard, expose...) results in a "poll: Interrupted
1426 system call" message in the window where XEmacs was
1427 launched. Forcing a static link of libc.a alone by adding
1428 /usr/lib/libc.a at the end of the link line solves this. Note that
1429 my 9.07 build of 19.14b17 and my (old) build of 19.13 both exhibit
1430 the same behavior. I've tried various hpux patches to no avail. If
1431 this problem cannot be solved before the release date, binary kits
1432 for HP *must* be linked statically against libc, otherwise this
1433 problem will show up. (This is directed at whoever will volunteer
1434 for this kit, as I won't be available to do it, unless 19.14 gets
1435 delayed until mid-june ;-). I think this problem will be an FAQ soon
1436 after the release otherwise.
1438 Note: The above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0 and
1441 *** The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps
1442 other non-English HP keyboards too).
1444 This is because HP-UX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a
1445 shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE
1446 configures the X server.
1448 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
1449 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
1450 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
1455 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
1457 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
1458 add mod2 = Mode_switch
1462 *** XEmacs dumps core at startup when native audio is used. Native
1463 audio does not work with recent versions of HP-UX.
1465 Under HP-UX 10.20 and later (e.g., HP-UX 11.XX), with native audio
1466 enabled, the dumped XEmacs binary ("xemacs") core dumps at startup if
1467 recent versions of the libAlib.sl audio shared library is used. Note
1468 that "temacs" will run, but "xemacs" will dump core. This, of course,
1469 causes the XEmacs build to fail. If GNU malloc is enabled, a stack
1470 trace will show XEmacs to have crashed in the "first" call to malloc().
1472 This bug currently exists in all versions of XEmacs, when the undump
1473 mechanism is used. It is not known if using the experimental portable
1474 dumper will allow native audio to work.
1478 Recent versions of the HP-UX 10.20 (and later) audio shared library (in
1479 /opt/audio/lib), pulls in the libdce shared library, which pulls in a
1480 thread (libcma) library. This prevents the HP-UX undump() routine (in
1481 unexhp9k800.c) from properly working. What's happening is that some
1482 initialization routines are being called in the libcma library, *BEFORE*
1483 main() is called, and these initialization routines are calling
1484 malloc(). Unfortunately, in order for the undumper to work, XEmacs must
1485 adjust (move upwards) the sbrk() value *BEFORE* the first call to
1486 malloc(); if malloc() is called before XEmacs has properly adjusted sbrk
1487 (which is what is happening), dumped memory that is being used by
1488 XEmacs, is improperly re-allocated for use by malloc() and the dumped
1489 memory is corrupted. This causes XEmacs to die an horrible death.
1491 It is believed that versions of the audio library past December 1998
1492 will trigger this problem. Under HP-UX 10.20, you probably have to
1493 install audio library patches to encounter this. It's probable that
1494 recent "fresh, out-of-the-box" HP-UX 11.XX workstations also have this
1495 problem. For HP-UX 10.20, it's believed that audio patch PHSS_17121 (or
1496 a superceeding one, like PHSS_17554, PHSS_17971, PHSS_18777, PHSS_21481,
1497 or PHSS_21662, etc.) will trigger this.
1499 To check if your audio library will cause problems for XEmacs, run
1500 "chatr /opt/audio/lib/libAlib.sl". If "libdce" appears in the displayed
1501 shared library list, XEmacs will probably encounter problems if audio is
1506 Don't enable native audio. Re-run configure without native audio
1509 If your site supports it, try using NAS (Network Audio Support).
1511 Try using the experimental portable dumper. It may work, or it may
1515 *** `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error'
1517 On HP-UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS
1518 file system. HP-UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and
1519 does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default
1520 value is just ten seconds.
1522 If this happens to you, extend the timeout period.
1524 *** Shell mode on HP-UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous".
1526 christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says:
1528 The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to
1529 execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then tty
1530 will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, but tty
1531 is giving it back 3.
1533 The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a
1536 if (`tty` == "/dev/console")
1538 should be changed to:
1540 if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console")
1542 Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc
1547 *** Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems.
1549 On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled
1550 with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C
1551 version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick
1552 C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with
1557 *** Emacs exits with "X protocol error" when run with an X server for
1560 A certain X server for Windows had a bug which caused this.
1561 Supposedly the newer 32-bit version of this server doesn't have the
1566 * Compatibility problems (with Emacs 18, GNU Emacs, or previous XEmacs/lemacs)
1567 ==============================================================================
1569 *** "Symbol's value as variable is void: unread-command-char".
1570 "Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<keymap 143 entries>"
1571 "Wrong type argument: stringp, [#<keypress-event return>]"
1573 There are a few incompatible changes in XEmacs, and these are the
1574 symptoms. Some of the emacs-lisp code you are running needs to be
1575 updated to be compatible with XEmacs.
1577 The code should not treat keymaps as arrays (use `define-key', etc.),
1578 should not use obsolete variables like `unread-command-char' (use
1579 `unread-command-events'). Many (most) of the new ways of doing things
1580 are compatible in GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
1582 Modern Emacs packages (Gnus, VM, W3, efs, etc) are written to support
1583 GNU Emacs and XEmacs. We have provided modified versions of several
1584 popular emacs packages (dired, etc) which are compatible with this
1585 version of emacs. Check to make sure you have not set your load-path
1586 so that your private copies of these packages are being found before
1587 the versions in the lisp directory.
1589 Make sure that your load-path and your $EMACSLOADPATH environment
1590 variable are not pointing at an Emacs18 lisp directory. This will
1593 ** Some packages that worked before now cause the error
1594 Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<face ... >
1596 Code which uses the `face' accessor functions must be recompiled with
1597 xemacs 19.9 or later. The functions whose callers must be recompiled
1598 are: face-font, face-foreground, face-background,
1599 face-background-pixmap, and face-underline-p. The .elc files
1600 generated by version 19.9 will work in 19.6 and 19.8, but older .elc
1601 files which contain calls to these functions will not work in 19.9.
1603 ** Signaling: (error "Byte code stack underflow (byte compiler bug), pc 38")
1605 This error is given when XEmacs 20 is compiled without MULE support
1606 but is attempting to load a .elc which requires MULE support. The fix
1607 is to rebytecompile the offending file.
1609 ** Signaling: (wrong-type-argument ...) when loading mail-abbrevs
1611 The is seen when installing the Insidious Big Brother Data Base (bbdb)
1612 which includes an outdated copy of mail-abbrevs.el. Remove the copy
1613 that comes with bbdb and use the one that comes with XEmacs.
1619 ** A reminder: XEmacs/Mule work does not currently receive *any*
1620 funding, and all work is done by volunteers. If you think you can
1621 help, please contact the XEmacs maintainers.
1623 ** XEmacs/Mule doesn't support TTY's satisfactorily.
1625 This is a major problem, which we plan to address in a future release
1626 of XEmacs. Basically, XEmacs should have primitives to be told
1627 whether the terminal can handle international output, and which
1628 locale. Also, it should be able to do approximations of characters to
1629 the nearest supported by the locale.
1631 ** Internationalized (Asian) Isearch doesn't work.
1633 Currently, Isearch doesn't directly support any of the input methods
1634 that are not XIM based (like egg, canna and quail) (and there are
1635 potential problems with XIM version too...). If you're using egg
1636 there is a workaround. Hitting <RET> right after C-s to invoke
1637 Isearch will put Isearch in string mode, where a complete string can
1638 be typed into the minibuffer and then processed by Isearch afterwards.
1639 Since egg is now supported in the minibuffer using string mode you can
1640 now use egg to input your Japanese, Korean or Chinese string, then hit
1641 return to send that to Isearch and then use standard Isearch commands
1644 ** Using egg and mousing around while in 'fence' mode screws up my
1647 Don't do this. The fence modes of egg and canna are currently very
1648 modal, and messing with where they expect point to be and what they
1649 think is the current buffer is just asking for trouble. If you're
1650 lucky they will realize that something is awry, and simply delete the
1651 fence, but worst case can trash other buffers too. We've tried to
1652 protect against this where we can, but there still are many ways to
1653 shoot yourself in the foot. So just finish what you are typing into
1654 the fence before reaching for the mouse.
1656 ** Not all languages in Quail are supported like Devanagari and Indian
1657 languages, Lao and Tibetan.
1659 Quail requires more work and testing. Although it has been ported to
1660 XEmacs, it works really well for Japanese and for the European
1663 ** Right-to-left mode is not yet implemented, so languages like
1664 Arabic, Hebrew and Thai don't work.
1666 Getting this right requires more work. It may be implemented in a
1667 future XEmacs version, but don't hold your breath. If you know
1668 someone who is ready to implement this, please let us know.
1670 ** We need more developers and native language testers. It's extremely
1671 difficult (and not particularly productive) to address languages that
1672 nobody is using and testing.
1674 ** The kWnn and cWnn support for Chinese and Korean needs developers
1675 and testers. It probably doesn't work.
1677 ** There are no `native XEmacs' TUTORIALs for any Asian languages,
1678 including Japanese. FSF Emacs and XEmacs tutorials are quite similar,
1679 so it should be sufficient to skim through the differences and apply
1680 them to the Japanese version.
1682 ** We only have localized menus translated for Japanese, and the
1683 Japanese menus are developing bitrot (the Mule menu appears in
1686 ** XIM is untested for any language other than Japanese.