5 Known Problems and Workarounds
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1. Introduction
The Indigo Magic Desktop provides the interface that is used
in day to day operation of your system.
Note: Packaged with your software is a separate sheet that
contains the Software License Agreement. This
software is provided to you solely under the terms
and conditions of the Software License Agreement.
Please take a few moments to review the Agreement.
The Indigo Magic Desktop includes the following components:
The 4Dwm Window Manager is described in a separate set of
release notes.
The Toolchest is a menu of commonly used system commands.
It is started up automatically when you log in.
Session Management In its default configuration, 4Dwm will
attempt to save command lines for windows that are on
your display when you log out. Then, when you log in
again, 4Dwm will execute these commands, thus
restoring your session as closely as it can. Session
management is described in the 4Dwm release notes.
The Desks Overview provides the controls you need to
effectively manipulate desks. With the Overview you
can create, change, copy, rename and delete desks.
Windows can also be dragged from one desk to another
or placed on the global desk, in which case they will
appear on all desks. Newly created and removed desks
will be remembered between sessions only if session
management is set to continuous.
The Desk Overview is invoked from the Desktop menu on
the toolchest. It can also be invoked from the IRIX
command line. See the overview man page for details.
The File Manager is a tool which provides facilities for
executing, manipulating, and managing files on the
system. Some of these features include: the ability
to place icons on the background window; active
device icons which automatically change their
appearance based on the type of media inserted in
them; as well as the ability to perform standard file
operations such as copy, link, remove, create a new
directory, or change permissions.
The Tape Tool provides a visual interface for archiving and
unarchiving files. You may select a group of files
for archiving to tape. You may get a listing of files
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archived on a tape or retrieve files from a tape.
The Tape Tool supports tar and cpio tape formats. See
the tapetool man page.
The Icon Catalog contains named pages where you can store
frequently used icons of any type. The catalog comes
populated with icons for commonly used programs. You
can customize any page by simply dropping a new icon
onto it.
The Icon Catalog is invoked from the Find menu on the
toolchest, by pulling right through the ``Icon
Catalog'' entry. It can also be invoked from the
command line. See the iconbook man page for details.
The Search Tool helps you find icons, either on your local
machine or across the network (using object and
directory servers). The tool has pages which are
specific to a type of icon, e.g. Files, People,
Printers, Tape Drives, Disk Drives or Hosts. You can
customize any of the pages by changing the match
criteria. They will be remembered.
The search tool is invoked from the Find menu on the
toolchest, by pulling down to choose an entry. It
can also be invoked from the command line. See the
searchbook man page for details.
Customization Panels allow you to modify aspects of the
Indigo Magic Desktop to your liking. The
configurable features include the background, audio
volume, icon size, toolchest orientation, screen
saver, mouse and keyboard sensitivities, and
language-specific keyboard layout.
The customization panels can be invoked in four ways:
from the Desktop toolchest's Customize submenu, from
the command line, from the Icon Catalog, or from the
Find tool.
Background Management allows the placement of file and
device icons on the background. It also maintains a
different background in each desk.
The File Alteration Monitor (FAM) FAM monitors files for all
icons represented on the desktop and updates them
automatically.
Confidence Tests allow testing of certain system hardware.
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This document contains the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Installation Information
3. Changes and Additions
4. Bug Fixes
5. Known Problems and Workarounds
6. Documentation Errors
Appendix A: Sounds
1.1 Release_Identification_Information
Following is the release identification information for
desktop_eoe:
Software Product Desktop Execution
Environment
Version 5.2
Product Code SC4-W4D-5.2
System Software Requirements IRIX 5.2
1.2 Online_Release_Notes
After you install the online release notes for a product
(the relnotes subsystem), you can view the release notes on
your screen.
Note: You can read the online release notes for most
products before installing the software. Refer to
the booklet in your CD-ROM case for more information.
If you have a graphics system, select ``Release Notes'' from
the Help submenu of the Toolchest. This displays the
grelnotes(1) graphical browser for the online release notes.
Refer to the grelnotes(1) man page for information on
options to this command.
If you do not have a graphics system, you can use the
relnotes command. Refer to the relnotes(1) man page for
accessing the online release notes.
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1.3 Product_Support
Silicon Graphics, Inc., provides a comprehensive product
support maintenance program for its products.
If you are in the U.S. or Canada and would like support for
your Silicon Graphics-supported products, contact the
Technical Assistance Center at (800)800-4SGI. If you are
outside these areas, contact the Silicon Graphics subsidiary
or authorized distributor in your country.
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2. Installation_Information
This chapter lists supplemental information to the IRIS
Software Installation Guide. The information listed here is
product- and release-specific; use it with the Installation
Guide to install this product.
2.1 Indigo_Magic_Desktop_Subsystems
The Indigo Magic Desktop includes these subsystems:
desktop_eoe.books.DesktopHelp Context-sensitive help
information for each of the
Indigo Magic Desktop tools.
desktop_eoe.books.ErrorMessageHelp Help for error messages
that may occur when using the
Indigo Magic Desktop.
desktop_eoe.books.IRISEssentials InSight documentation on
the Indigo Magic Desktop.
desktop_eoe.books.PerSysAdmin InSight documentation on
administering your Indigo
Magic system.
desktop_eoe.books.WkSpIndMg_TG InSight documentation on the
transition from WorkSpace to
IndigoMagic.
desktop_eoe.man.eoe Manual pages for all Indigo
Magic Desktop Tools.
desktop_eoe.man.relnotes These release notes.
desktop_eoe.sw.Confidence Confidence tests used for
testing system hardware.
desktop_eoe.sw.Desks Software providing multiple
desktops on your display.
desktop_eoe.sw.FileTypingRules Information needed to
determine file icon types.
This subsystem is needed to
run any application that makes
use of icons, including most
of the Indigo Magic Desktop as
well as many of the system
administration tools.
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desktop_eoe.sw.control_panels Control panels to allow
changing various system
attributes such as the
background or the mouse speed.
desktop_eoe.sw.dso Software required to run any
Indigo Magic tool.
desktop_eoe.sw.envm The iconic interface to the
desktop, including the File
Manager, the Icon Catalog, and
the Search Tool.
desktop_eoe.sw.fam Software that monitors files
on the desktop for changes.
This is required to run any
icon-based tools in Indigo
Magic.
desktop_eoe.sw.toolchest The toolchest application, a
front end to accessing several
common tools, including most
of the Indigo Magic Desktop.
2.2 Indigo_Magic_Desktop_Subsystem_Disk_Space_Requirements
This section lists the subsystems of the Indigo Magic
Desktop and their sizes.
If you are installing this product for the first time, the
subsystems marked ``default'' are the ones that are
installed if you use the ``go'' menu item. To install a
different set of subsystems, use the ``install,''
``remove,'' ``keep,'' and ``step'' commands in inst to
customize the list of subsystems to be installed, then
select the ``go'' menu item.
Note: The listed subsystem sizes are approximate. Refer to
the IRIS Software Installation Guide for information
on finding exact sizes.
Subsystem Name Subsystem Size
(512-byte blocks)
desktop_eoe.books.DesktopHelp (default) 1238
desktop_eoe.books.ErrorMessageHelp (default) 262
desktop_eoe.books.IRISEssentials (default) 2751
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desktop_eoe.books.PerSysAdmin (default) 2372
desktop_eoe.books.WkSpIndMg_TG (default) 391
desktop_eoe.man.eoe (default) 182
desktop_eoe.man.relnotes (default) 72
desktop_eoe.sw.Confidence (default) 4368
desktop_eoe.sw.Desks (default) 400
desktop_eoe.sw.FileTypingRules (default) 6474
desktop_eoe.sw.control_panels (default) 2399
desktop_eoe.sw.dso (default) 4004
desktop_eoe.sw.envm (default) 2510
desktop_eoe.sw.fam (default) 71
desktop_eoe.sw.toolchest (default) 1141
2.3 Installation_Method
All of the subsystems for desktop_eoe can be installed using
IRIX. You do not need to use the miniroot. Refer to the
IRIS Software Installation Guide for complete installation
instructions.
2.4 Prerequisites
If you want to install any of the desktop_eoe.books
subsystems, you must also install insight.sw.client.
If you want to install desktop_eoe.sw.toolchest, you must
also install desktop_eoe.sw.dso and motif_eoe.sw.eoe.
If you want to install desktop_eoe.sw.control_panels, you
must also install desktop_eoe.sw.dso, motif_eoe.sw.eoe, and
ViewKit_eoe.sw.base.
If you want to install desktop_eoe.sw.Desks, you must also
install desktop_eoe.sw.dso, motif_eoe.sw.eoe,
ViewKit_eoe.sw.base, and 4Dwm.sw.4Dwm.
If you want to install desktop_eoe.sw.envm, you must also
install desktop_eoe.sw.dso, desktop_eoe.sw.FileTypingRules,
desktop_eoe.sw.fam, motif_eoe.sw.eoe, ViewKit_eoe.sw.base,
cadmin.sw.dso, cadmin.sw.startup, 4Dwm.sw.4Dwm, and
il_eoe.sw.c++.
All of the above prerequisites will be enforced
automatically by the installation tool.
- 4 -
Additionally, if you wish audio feedback for various desktop
operations, you should install SoundScheme.sw.
To be able to display images within the icon based
applications, il_eoe.sw.sgi, il_eoe.sw.fit,
il_eoe.sw.photocd, and il_eoe.sw.tiff should be installed.
Each one supports a different image format. At a minimum,
il_eoe.sw.sgi is highly recommended.
2.5 Compatibility
The desktop_eoe subsystems are incompatible with the older
desktop (WorkSpace) subsystems.
2.6 Configuration_Files
Users who prefer to setup their machine so that the desktop
does not come up can create a file called .disableDesktop in
their home directory. This will also display different
toolchest contents. The desktop can also be disabled for
all users by issuing the command /etc/chkconfig desktop off.
Various desktop tools create configuration files in a
.desktop- directory within the user's home
directory. Except as discussed below, these files should
not be edited by the user.
The automatic startup of the file manager can be disabled by
creating the file .desktop-/nodesktop. Should this
file be present, the file manager will not start up, and
icons will not be available on the background. Opening the
Home Directory from the toolchest, or running the dirview
command will still open up a directory view, but icons
cannot be dragged to the background. This mode may be
useful to users who do not wish to run the file manager, or
who wish to have arbitrary images on their background. It
may also be useful for users with limited memory. To resume
starting the file manager and having icons on the
background, remove the file .desktop-/nodesktop,
log out, and log in.
The use of .desktop-/nodesktop differs from the
use of .disableDesktop in that the former only disables the
starting of the file manager. All other desktop features
are still available.
The .desktop- directory also contains a log of all
file transactions made through the desktop. Although
slightly cryptic, this log may assist in determining where a
file has gone to if you accidentally move a file to
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someplace unintentional. The file is called .desktop-
/log; after it grows to about 50K bytes, it is
moved to .desktop-/log.bak. The log size may be
changed by setting the resource
*desktopLogSize:
in the .Xdefaults or .Xresources files, where is
the maximum size in bytes of the log (including the backup copy).
Setting to 0 disables the log.
Users familiar with X configuration should be aware that X resources
modified by the Indigo Magic Customization Panels will not modify the
user's .Xdefaults or .Xresources files, but will instead
save the resources in one of two places. If the resources affect
a single application, they will be saved in $HOME/.desktop-/Appname,
where Appname is the application's class name. If the resource
affects multiple applications it will be saved in $HOME/.Sgiresources.
Panel changes that affect startup commands will be saved in
$HOME/.desktop-/panelsession or $HOME/.desktop-/desktopenv,
the former being used for commands, and the latter being used for
environment variables.
Users who used to launch applications from their .sgisession file,
will note that most of them are now launched through session
management. One major difference from 4Sight is that
session management is handled from 4Dwm, which is launched before
the .sgisession is read. If there are environment variables that were
set in .sgisession, these will not affect applications launched from
session management. If you must set environment variables that affect
applications, you can set them in $HOME/.desktop-/desktopenv.
This file is in the /bin/sh syntax of the form
VARIABLE="string" export VARIABLE
Lines also containing the string
# VARIABLE #
have been modified by various panels; the string within the #'s is
a key for future panel modifications.
Because session management will automatically restart applications
that were launched, a .sgisession file can cause multiple copies
of applications (one from the .sgisession and one from 4Dwm).
Because of this, if a user has a .sgisession file, it will get
renamed to .sgisession.bak the first time the user logs in after
installing the Indigo Magic Desktop. Should the user rename it back,
it will not get renamed again.
When using the Indigo Magic Desktop, the file
/usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession.dt is used instead of the standard
/usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession file. If the desktop is disabled
through the use of chkconfig or the .disableDesktop file
mentioned above, Xsession is used instead of Xsession.dt.
When the Indigo Magic Desktop is installed, the file
/usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession is not used as in a normal X environment.
- 6 -
Instead, the file /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession.dt is invoked. In future
releases, Xsession.dt may be merged back into Xsession.
If the user has a .xsession file, it will override the system
Xsession.dt file, and may prevent some of the Indigo Magic
desktop features from being started. The first time such a user logs
in after installing Indigo Magic, a warning will be given to this
effect.
The toolchest is configured using the file
/usr/lib/X11/system.chestrc. This file has been changed considerably
since the 4.0 release, to fit in with the Indigo Magic Desktop. Users
who wish for toolchest contents more like the 4.0 toolchest, may wish
to copy the file /usr/lib/X11/nodesktop.chestrc onto either their
private $HOME/.chestrc to affect only their account, or on top of
/usr/lib/X11/system.chestrc to affect all accounts on the machine.
/usr/lib/X11/nodesktop.chestrc is also the toolchest configuration
file that will be used if the user uses /etc/chkconfig desktop off or
creates a .disableDesktop file.
Users who already have a $HOME/.chestrc will not see the new toolchest
organization, since $HOME/.chestrc takes precedence over
/usr/lib/X11/system.chestrc. To allow users to see the new
toolchest, the first time they log in their .chestrc file will
be renamed to .chestrc.bak and a warning given. They may rename
it back if they wish, possibly editing it to include the new toolchest
contents. Alternatively,
they may use the toolchest include facility to include a
personal .auxchestrc. The latter has the advantage that future
changes to the system.chestrc will be automatically picked up.
The Background Customization Panel gets its list of backgrounds from
the file /usr/lib/X11/system.backgrounds. It accepts files in either
the X bitmap format or the X pixmap (xpm) format.
2.7 Files_Not_Listed_by_versions
The .desktop- directory mentioned above is not
listed by the versions command.
- 1 -
3. Changes_and_Additions
3.1 Changes and Additions from Previous Indigo Magic
Releases
o Significant performance improvements have been made to
the Indigo Magic Desktop.
o The .desktop directory has been renamed to .desktop-
. This allows logins from several machines
to share the same home directory without interfering
with one another
o Warnings are now given for personal .xsession files and
.chestrc files in addition to .sgisession files the
first time you log in. Old versions of these files can
prevent you from seeing some of the Indigo Magic
features. Warnings are given the first time you log
in, if you have copies of those files. In the case of
.sgisession and .chestrc they will be renamed to
.sgisession.bak and .chestrc.bak respectively.
o The Indigo Magic Desktop can be disabled by either
creating a file .disableDesktop in your home directory.
It can be disabled for all accounts by issuing the
command chkconfig desktop off. These are in addition
to the already existing capability of disabling icons
on the background through .desktop-
/nodesktop.
o Viewing hidden files can now be selected on a directory
by directory basis.
o The size of icons in directory views is now
independently zoomable. The thumbwheel in the Desktop
customization panel now controls only the size of icons
on the background.
o A desktop icon may be dropped onto any Motif widget, to
enter its name. (It may not, however be dropped onto
an xwsh or an xterm.)
o The search tool now allows searching for printers.
Once a printer is found, it can be installed by
dragging it onto the background or into the Icon
Catalog.
o The search tool and the icon catalog now contain tabs
to switch between pages
- 2 -
o Managing the background images is now done by the 4Dwm
window manager. The bgdaemon process no longer exists.
o Many of the customization panels now have a Reset
button, that allows resetting to either factory set, or
to the settings when the panel was brought up.
o The Desktop customization panel now allows control over
whether new files in the home directory should appear
automatically on the background.
o Although application error output by default goes to
the console, it is possible to start up a separate
application to catch errors from all applications
launched on the desktop and put them in popup windows.
To do so, choose Display Application Errors from the
Desktop customization panel. See the manual page for
outputd for more information on capturing command
output. Note that enabling capture of output does run
an additional process and may not be optimal for low
memory machines. However, running this process does
make it easier to detect application errors, and this
it is recommended that it be enabled if the memory is
available.
o When using the file manager to view a photo CD, the
index on the photo CD is used to produce the thumbnail
images, resulting in improved performance.
o The rcpDevice from the old transfer manager is now
available in the Desktop Tools page of the Icon
Catalog.
o Several new screen savers have been added. Using the
blank screen saver now uses video blanking instead of
the xlock program, resulting in a faster refresh.
o The color chips in the background customization panel
are now chosen to minimize colormap flashing with the
GL.
o File Typing Rules (ftr's) are now compiled into
Optimized Type Rules (otr's) instead of Compiled Type
Rules (ctr's). The otr's are laid out for more
efficient access. ctr's are still produced for
compatibility.
o Multiple CDROMS, floppies, or tapes on a single system
are now supported.
- 3 -
o The labels in some of the customization panels have
been changed. In the Windows panel, the label Icon Box
has been changed to Display Windows Overview. In the
Desktop Panel Audio Feedback has been changed to
Desktop Sounds.
3.2 Changes_and_Additions_from_4Sight
This section summarizes some of the changes since 4Sight.
For more information, select On-line Books from the Help
menu of the toolchest, and look at the "WorkSpace to Indigo
Magic Transition Guide".
The Toolchest has been extended since 4Sight, with the
following new features:
o The toolchest contents have changed significantly to
work well with the Indigo Magic Desktop. Users
familiar with 4Sight who are not using the Indigo Magic
Desktop may prefer an old 4Sight-style toolchest. Such
users can copy the file /usr/lib/X11/nodesktop.chestrc
onto either their private .chestrc or onto the system
file /usr/lib/X11/system.chestrc. The latter will
affect all users. Users who disable the desktop
completely through the use of a .disableDesktop file or
through chkconfig desktop off will automatically use
nodesktop.chestrc.
o Users who already have a private .chestrc should be
aware that they will not see the changes to the
toolchest. The first time they log in after installing
the Indigo Magic Desktop it will get renamed to
.chestrc.bak to allow them to see the new toolchest.
They may rename it back if they wish, possibly editing
it to include the new toolchest contents.
Alternatively, they may use the toolchest include
facility to include a personal .auxchestrc. The latter
has the advantage that future changes to the
system.chestrc will be automatically picked up. Using
a .auxchestrc file is discussed below.
o The new Toolchest includes a Desktop menu, which
provides access to many desktop functions; a Selected
menu, which provides access functions to icons on the
background; a Find menu, which allows finding many
system resources; a System menu for managing your
system; and a Help menu for accessing system help. If
the File Manager is not running with icons on the
background, the Selected menu will be empty.
- 4 -
o The Toolchest now includes a window manager title bar,
that includes the name of the current desk. Window
manager functions may be accessed from this title bar.
o The toolchest now has an include facility that allows
including additional files. By default, the system
toolchest automatically includes the file .auxchestrc
in the user's home directory. It is recommended that
users wishing to customize their toolchest contents do
so by providing a .auxchestrc containing their changes,
rather than by using a .chestrc that replaces the
system toolchest. By using the .auxchestrc file, future
changes to the system toolchest automatically will be
reflected in the user's toolchest. See the toolchest
manual page for a sample .auxchestrc.
o Toolchest has a new *hideTitle resource and -hideTitle
and -showTitle options. These allow the user to hide
the title bar similar to the default behavior in
4Sight. The default is to show a title bar with the
name of the current desk.
o The toolchest can be automatically switched between
vertical and horizontal orientation using the Windows
Settings customization panel.
o The toolchest provides audio feedback when launching
the command, as does the rest of the Indigo Magic
Desktop.
o Applications launched from the toolchest will be
started in the language loaded from the desktop
Language Control customization panel.
o For release notes on the applications launched from the
toolchest, see the release notes for those
applications.
The Transfer Manager that existed in IRIX 4.0 no longer
exists in the Indigo Magic environment. The functions
served by the transfer manager can now be done directly
within the Indigo Magic environment:
o To transfer files between machines, use the Remote
Directory entry in the Desktop menu of the toolchest to
open a directory view on the remote machine. Then drag
the icons of the files to be transferred between the
machines. (This will only work if the remote machine
has the file manager installed. If it does not, then
if the Network File System (NFS) is installed and the
automounter is in use, a directory view can also be
- 5 -
obtained by prefixing the pathname with
/hosts/machinename. )
o An rpcDevice script is also available in the icon
catalog. This script is similar to the one that was
used by the transfer manager to transfer files. Select
Find/Icon Catalog/Desktop Tools from the toolchest, and
look for the rpcDevice icon (which may be dragged onto
your desktop, or used in place). This icon may be
double clicked, it may have icons dropped on it, or,
when selected, files may be transferred using the
"Selected" or the pull down menu.
o To transfer files to and from a local tape, click on
the tape icon. If the tape is remote, the icon can be
found by selecting Tape Drives on the Find menu in the
toolchest. The tape tool can also be invoked directly
through the tapetool command.
o The 4Dgifts directory used to include a shellDevice for
the transfer manager. To get similar functionality,
use Find An Icon to find winterm. Drag it out onto the
desktop. You can then drop any file or directory on it
to open a shell in that directory (in the case of a
file, in the directory containing the file).
The File Manager replaces WorkSpace, which existed in
previous releases. The File Manager contains the following
additional features:
o Support for icons for devices, hosts, and people, in
addition to files.
o The Indigo Magic Desktop has been written using Motif,
and is internationalized.
o For image files, including PhotoCD's, a View as Gallery
mode allows viewing the icons as images.
o Icons can be placed on the background.
o The Indigo Magic desktop does still support the same
file typing rules that were used in WorkSpace. There is
a new compiler for these rules, called fftr, which
creates a .otr (optimized type rule) file instead of a
.ctr (compiled type rule) file. The .ctr files are
still created for compatibility.
o A log is kept of all file system transactions. This
log may assist in determining where a file has gone to
if you accidentally move a file to someplace
unintentional. See the section on configuration files
- 6 -
in chapter 2 for more details.
All other Indigo Magic Desktop capabilities are new; no
counterpart existed in previous releases. These features
include:
o Session Management.
o Desks.
o The Icon Catalog.
o The Search Tool.
o Customization Panels.
o Background Management.
- 1 -
4. Bug_Fixes
The following bugs have been fixed since previous Indigo
Magic releases:
o When the files in a directory view are sorted by type,
those of the same type are sorted by name.
o Removing or copying a directory now works on a
Macintosh disk
o It is now possible to make a copy of a file on a DOS
disk.
o Dragging from remote automounted directories to a local
directory now works.
o It is no longer necessary to press when
changing the owner or group of a file using the
permissions tool.
- 1 -
5. Known_Problems_and_Workarounds
The following problems exist in the overall Indigo Magic
Desktop:
o On rare occasions a menu may post and remain posted.
Using the mouse to unpost it won't work. In this case,
press the key to unpost the menu.
o On machines with two displays, some of the desktop
tools will only run on a single display. Once they are
running on the first display, attempting to launch them
on the second display will bring them up on the first.
This includes the file manager and the icon catalog,
which both always run on the same display.
o If there are errors when launching an application from
the toolchest or the file manager, the output will go
the the system Console. If the Console is not visible,
the user will not notice the error. You can, however,
cause all error output to go to a popup window. To do
so, choose Customize/Desktop from the Desktop menu in
the toolchest. In the control panel select Display
Application Errors. This will start up an additional
process that will collect errors from any running
application and pop them up in separate windows.
o Applications in the Indigo Magic Desktop are not
guaranteed to work when displayed over the network to a
non-Silicon Graphics display, as the applications use
several Silicon Graphics extensions.
o Indigo Magic Desktop applications are not guaranteed to
work in color schemes other than the default (Base)
scheme. This scheme has been hard coded in each
application's defaults file, however it is possible to
override this. Results are not guaranteed should such
overriding be done.
o Icon based programs rely on the Network File System
(NFS) and automount for many operations between
machines. When working with remote directories, if
either automount or NFS are off or the remote directory
is not exported, certain actions, such as dragging a
remote file onto the background, or double clicking on
it when it is on the background, may fail silently.
However, regardless of the presence or absence of NFS,
it is possible to copy files between two different
machines, by dragging the files from one directory view
to another.
- 2 -
o When disabling the desktop through the use of the
.disableDesktop file or through the chkconfig desktop
off command, a couple of features managed by the window
manager will not be disabled. The window manager will
still manage the backgrounds, and it will still save
session management information (although it will not
attempt to restore the session on login). To disable
the background management, add the line
4Dwm*SG_useBackgrounds: FALSE
to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file. To disable
session management saving, add the lines
4Dwm*SG_manageSession: FALSE
4Dwm*SG_autoSave: FALSE
to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file. It would also
be a good idea to remove any 4Dwm files that may have
already been created in the .desktop-
directory. (These lines should all be removed if you
ever reenable the desktop.)
o If a menu is posted in the file manager or the
iconbook, and then posted in another window without
unposting the first, both menus may post and a warning
message similar to the following may be issued:
Warning:
Name: menuBar
Class: XmRowColumn
XtGrabKeyboard failed
The error may be ignored.
The following problems occur in the Toolchest:
o When Audio Feedback is disabled or reenabled in the
Desktop Customization panel, it will not affect the
toolchest until the next time the toolchest is
restarted.
o The toolchest will not notice changes to its
configuration file, but must be restarted to pick them
up.
o When changing the toolchest between horizontal and
vertical in the Windows Customization panel, the
toolchest orientation is changed immediately. However,
the customization panel tries to restart the window
manager. The reason for this restart is to reposition
the window manager icons appropriately relative to the
new position of the toolchest. Therefore the window
manager should be restarted.
o The toolchest is not restarted by session management.
Instead, to guarantee that a toolchest is started up,
it is explicitly started at startup. This will not
- 3 -
affect most users. However, users who wish to start up
multiple toolchests with different contents must do so
explicitly in their .sgisession files.
o The toolchest is always global to all desks; it cannot
be placed independently in individual desks.
o Users who were running Indigo Magic under release 5.1
who change their hostname may find that the titlebar
still shows the old hostname. In release 5.1, the
initial desk was named the same as the hostname.
Renaming the host does not rename the desk. The desk
can be renamed using the desks overview. In the
current release, the initial desk is no longer named
the same as the hostname, to eliminate this confusion.
The following problems occur in the the Desks Overview:
o The windows list does not properly update after the
deleting of a desk. Sometimes it may be necessary to
close the windows list, deiconify some window on the
desk, then bring up the windows list again.
o Sometimes the overview will continue to resize itself.
Closing it and then restarting it will clear up this
problem.
o Sometimes the overview will appear to stop doing any
window functions. This is caused by a communication
problem between the overview and 4Dwm. Closing the
overview and then starting it up again should solve the
problem. If it does not, then restart 4Dwm.
o The overview has some geometry problems. If the
overview does not display the desks correctly, resizing
the overview window will usually clear up the problem.
If it does not, quit the overview and then start it up
again.
o 4Dwm buttonBindings on Btn1 over the client window
(such as "app" or "window") context may prevent the
overview from detecting a double-click of Btn1, thus
interfering with switching desks.
o Users who were running Indigo Magic under release 5.1
who change their hostname may find that they still have
a desk that shows the old hostname. In release 5.1,
the initial desk was named the same as the hostname.
Renaming the host does not rename the desk. The desk
can be renamed using the desks overview. In the
current release, the initial desk is no longer named
- 4 -
the same as the hostname, to eliminate this confusion.
The following problems occur in the File Manager:
o On machines with multiple displays, the file manager
and icon catalog will only run on a single display.
o The Icon Catalog, Find an Icon, and Get Info windows
will not be restarted under session management. File
Icon Windows will always be restored to their previous
state, even if explicit session management is in use.
o If the file /usr/lib/filetype/desktop.otr is
accidentally removed, the File Manager will not run. A
message will appear in the console, stating "You need
to call Panel-registerCategory(CategoryName)." Become
root, cd to /usr/lib/filetype, and run make.
o If icons for installed applications are not recognized,
it is possible that there was an error on building the
file /usr/lib/filetype/desktop.otr. Become root, cd to
/usr/lib/filetype, and run make, looking for errors.
You may wish to use make -u to force an update. Also,
make sure that the directory where the icon is declared
was actually built. If the directory contains dangling
symbolic link (a symbolic link that points to a non
existent file), it is possible that the directory will
be silently skipped. It is especially recommended
checking the install and local directories for dangling
symbolic links.
o If you insert a blank tape in the tape drive, the icon
that appears will be the icon for a music tape. The
right mouse menu has an entry which will allow you to
write files to this tape.
o If the File Manager is not running on the background,
changes made by the control panels will not be heard
and drag-and-drop onto the background will not be
possible.
o Options under the ``Arrange'' menu item pertain to all
icons in the directory view and not to selected groups
of icons.
o The ``View as List'' option can be very slow with large
amounts ( > 256 ) of files and has trouble displaying
linked directories.
o After logging in, File Manager windows may be on
different desks than when you last logged out.
- 5 -
o It is possible to have two icons for the same file.
This will only happen when they came from two separate
sources (for example, automount versus NFS).
o Dragging a file off of a Macintosh disk and onto a DOS
disk will result in an error. This is true even if the
file is first moved to the UNIX disk.
The following problems occur in the Icon Catalog:
o If extra pages are created in the icon catalog, they
will not show up in the toolchest until the icon
catalog is started.
o If you keep remote icons in your icon catalog, such as
tape or disk drives or people from other hosts, these
icons may not appear on startup. This occurs if the
remote machine has been disconnected from the network
or its objectserver is turned off. To turn any
machine's object server back on, log in to that system
as root and type:
su
/etc/init.d/cadmin stop
chkconfig objectserver on
/etc/init.d/cadmin start
exit
The following problems occur in the Search Tool:
o When match criteria are removed from a search,
subsequently added match criteria are sometimes
displayed without enough vertical space. To fix this
simply resize the window vertically a bit.
o If extra pages are created in the search tool, they
will not show up in the toolchest until the search tool
is started.
o If a printer is not supported by Impressario, the
resolution is treated as zero dots per inch.
o Searching for anything but files depends on there being
a running directory server on your network. Directory
servers will only cache information broadcast to them
by object servers. Thus, you can only query
information about hosts that are running object
servers.
- 6 -
To recap this three step chain:
Hosts of interest must be running object
servers.
Those object servers must be able to broadcast
to a directory server.
That directory server caches the information
and is queried by the search tool.
For full information on setting up object servers on
any host and a directory server on your network see the
system administration documentation.
Once you have established a directory server on your
network the following troubleshooting information may
be useful.
o Network timeout errors
The search tool attempts to contact a directory server
in two steps.
First, a short ``ping'' is sent onto the network to
locate a server. This ping will be tried first on the
local subnet and then others which are one, two, three,
etc. up to eight multicast hops away. If one replies,
then the actual query is sent to it.
If a reply is received within 30 seconds (the length of
time is customizable through the SearchBook*dsTimeout
resource) the search tool remembers the network address
of the directory server and tries to use it again
during subsequent searches. If any network errors
occur while using a remembered address the tool will
``throw it away'' and start over again by pinging to
find another directory server.
If no reply is received within 30 seconds, the search
tool will display an error dialog: ``Timed out trying
to find a directory server''.
This error will occur if either the directory server
cannot be reached from your network, or your directory
server is very busy. To test if your directory server
is running and can be reached, type the following:
/usr/etc/ping -T 8 224.0.1.2
- 7 -
This will cause all directory servers within 8
multicast hops to respond with their host numbers. You
can get their host name from the host number using
nslookup (if you are running NIS).
If no response was received, please recheck your
directory server setup.
If a response was received, then your network
connection to the directory server is working.
Next, check the conditions on the directory server
machine. If this system is a server, bursts of CPU
activity (for example, CPU-intensive programs) can
momentarily slow responses past the 30 second mark and
cause timeouts. In this case you may consider either
increasing the timeout interval by setting it in
/usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/SearchBook or by running a
second directory server on another host, preferably one
whose CPU loading is complimentary to the first.
o Search missing expected items
If you conduct a search and items that you expect to
see do not show up there are three things to check.
The first is that the host which contains the items you
expected to see is not running an object server. Also,
if the object server was just started, it may not have
finished sending local information out to the directory
server. In most cases this broadcasting of local
information finishes within 15 minutes. If you are
depending on another directory server to update your
local directory server, the wait will be longer.
The second is that the host which contains the items
you expected to see is farther than four multicast hops
away from the directory server.
Finally, if you are contacting a local directory server
which is being updated by another directory server
containing the information you expected to see, be sure
that the two directory servers are within four
multicast hops of one another.
The following problems occur in the Customization Panels:
o Several of the resources changed by the customization
panels are saved in the directory $HOME/.desktop-
- 8 -
. In order for applications so customized to
pick these resources up, this directory should be the
first entry in the environment variable
$XUSERFILESEARCHPATH. By default, the desktop sets
this variable correctly. However, if the variable is
changed on one of the user's configuration files, (e.g.
.login or .profile), the applications will not be able
to pick up the changes. If $XUSERFILESEARCHPATH is not
set correctly, the customization panels will issue a
warning.
o In general, if any customization panel attempts to
modify a resource that the user has already specified
in their .Xdefaults or .Xresources file, the .Xdefaults
or .Xresources file setting will not be overridden and
no message will indicate this fact. The setting may
have no effect, or it may have an effect until the user
logs out, after which it will revert to the setting in
the .Xdefaults or .Xresources file.
o Audio Control (apanel): Unlike the other control-panel
settings, the Audio Control panel setting will not be
remembered by session management. The volume levels
will reset to default with each login. The Audio
Control panel differs from the other control panels in
icon appearance and panel layout. It is also invoked
from a different menu item in the toolchest. For more
information on sound in the Indigo Magic Desktop, see
Appendix A of these release notes.
o Desktop Settings (desktop): Changing Default File
Permissions changes the umask. If there are umask
command in user login files (e.g. .profile or .login,
these will override for any files created through login
shells (e.g. winterms). If a umask command appears in
the .cshrc file for csh users, or the file indicated by
$ENV for ksh users, then that will override for any
command launched through the shell. In particular,
toolchest launches all commands using the $SHELL
environment variable, so any command launched through
the toolchest (including the Desktop customization
panel itself), will pick up the setting from the file.
If an icon is near the screen edge when you resize
them, the icons might reappear a bit offscreen.
Reposition them as needed.
Toggling audio feedback will not take effect some
applications such as the toolchest until you log in
again. Note, that if soundscheme is not running,
toggling audio feedback will have no effect. For more
- 9 -
information on sound, see Appendix A of these release
notes.
o Window Settings (windows): You must restart 4Dwm after
changing the toolchest orientation. Otherwise the
window manager will not reposition any icons relative
to the new toolchest position, and may place icons such
that they overlap the toolchest.
o Mouse Settings (mouse): The on-line help mentions that
you may toggle the mouse between right-handed and
left-handed behavior, but does not explain what this
means. Essentially, the right and left mouse buttons
switch their functionality. Note that once you have
selected the left-handed radio button, you must use the
right mouse button to select the right-handed radio
button to return to a right-handed mouse configuration.
o International Controls (ipanel): Whent this panel is
started, it does not show the current settings.
The following problems occur in the Background Manager:
o It is not possible to display arbitrary backgrounds if
icons are on the background. Only backgrounds set
through the Background Customization Panel or through
the xsetroot command will have an effect if icons are
on the background. It is also not possible to use
certain background setting programs such as
``twilight''. To disable icons on the background,
create a file called .desktop-/nodesktop, and
log out and in again.
o If icons are on the background, mouse buttons 1 and 2
(left and middle) are used for icon management, so
window manager menus are only available on mouse button
3 (right). Icons on the background will not
necessarily work with any window manager other than
4Dwm. If you should use an alternate window manager, be
aware that entries on the window manager menu that
refer to the selected icon will not show up on that
window manager menu.
o If icons are not on the background, ``Empty Dumpster''
and ``Find Icon'' will not work from the toolchest.
They may still be invoked from within the file manager.
o Even if icons are not on the background, if you create
a background other than through the Background
Configuration Panel or through the command xsetroot,
the background will still be changed when switching
- 10 -
desks, and will not be restored when returning to the
original desks. To completely disable the desktop
managing the background, add the line
4Dwm*SG_useBackgrounds: FALSE
to your .Xdefaults or .Xresources file.
o On machines with only a single colormap (mostly older
hardware), some of the backgrounds from the background
customization panel may flash when running GL
applications. To eliminate the flashing, bring up the
color chooser on the background customization panel,
and choose colors from the palette colors at the top of
the panel.
o Should all icons suddenly disappear from the background
(along with any file manager windows that may be
showing), they can be restored by selecting Home
Directory from the Desktop entry in the toolchest.
o In some cases, if icons on the background are restarted
through the use of Home Directory from the toolchest,
dropping icons on the background will fail. Should
this happen, log out and in again.
The following problems occur in the Remote Directory
(newdir) tool:
o The drop-pockets for the ``Open Remote Directory'' and
``As User'' fields reflect the local machine,
regardless of which host is selected. Simply enter the
desired information in these fields and disregard any
icons which may or may not appear in the drop-pockets.
o The remote File Manager (which is invoked by the Remote
Directory tool) will not automatically be in Gallery
mode for a remote photo CDROM. The user needs to
explicitly choose View from the File Manager menu and
select ``as Gallery''.
o Opening a remote directory will only work if the remote
site has the the File Manager installed. If the
Network File System (NFS) is installed locally,
automount is enabled, and the remote site is exporting
that file system, it is possible to get to the remote
directory by opening it locally, prefixing the pathname
with /hosts/machinename (where machinename is the
machine name).
o If the remote site is unreachable, it may take a long
time to determine this.
- 11 -
o If the remote host cannot access the local display, the
only notification will be an error message to the
console, unless Display Application Errors has been
selected from the Desktop customization panel.
The following problems occur in the Output Manager
(outputd):
o Killing outputd will cause any application that was
launched while outputd was running to die if it tries
to produce any output.
If one application is launched from the desktop, and
another application is launched from the first, the
title in the outputd window will show the first
application, not the new one. Sometimes this
connection can be obscure. For example, certain
daemons, such as tooltalk are launched by the first
processes that needs them. Other applications using
the daemons just connect to them. Any output produced
by the daemon will appear to be from the first process.
- 1 -
6. Documentation_Errors
o There are no known documentation errors at this time.
- 1 -
1. Sounds
For sounds to appear correctly in the Indigo Magic Desktop,
three conditions must hold:
o Soundscheme must be running. To check if soundscheme is
on, use the chkconfig command. If it is off, activate
it with the soundscheme command and try chkconfig
again. If it is still off, it may not be installed;
see the SoundScheme release notes to install it.
o The volume must be sufficiently high. There are two
ways to control volume: the black triangular buttons on
the front of the Indy, and the Audio Control
customization panel (apanel).
o Indigo Magic Desktop audio feedback must be turned on.
The toggle for audio feedback is located on the Desktop
Settings customization panel (desktop).
Sounds generated by the X Window System (like the shell
beep) operate independently of both soundscheme and the
Desktop panel audio toggle and can not be turned off via
those two mechanisms. Only by turning down the volume on
the audio panel can you make the X-generated sounds
inaudible, but that will have the added effect of making
inaudible all Indigo Magic Desktop sounds.