5 Known Problems and Workarounds
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1. Introduction
The X Window System is a device-independent, network-
transparent window system developed at MIT. It runs on a
wide range of computing and graphics systems. The X window
server mediates all access to the graphics display and
allows it to be shared by both 2D and 3D applications.
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.
This document contains the following chapters:
1. Introduction
2. Installation Information
3. Changes and Additions
4. Bug Fixes
5. Known Problems and Workarounds
1.1 Release_Identification_Information
Following is the release identification information for X11:
Software Option Product X11
Version 3.1.2
Product Code SC4-W4D-5.2
System Software Requirements IRIX 5.2
1.2 Online_Release_Notes
After you install the online documentation for a product
(the relnotes subsystem), you can view the release notes on
your screen.
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.
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Refer to the grelnotes(1) man page for information on
options to this command.
If you have a nongraphics system, you can use the relnotes
command. Refer to the relnotes(1) man page for accessing
the online release notes.
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 1-800-800-4SGI.
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-specific; use it with the Installation Guide to
install this product.
2.1 X_Development_Subsystems
The X development product includes these subsystems:
x_dev.sw.dev This subsystem contains header
files, Makefiles, and other source
files useful for writing X
applications.
x_dev.sw.binaries These applications are useful in
developing X applications.
x_dev.sw.intl This subsystem contains an
internationalized version of the
Athena widgets.
x_dev.sw.pex This subsystem contains header
files and a library for developing
3D applications written to the
PEXlib API.
x_dev.man.mandev These are manual pages for the X
development tools.
x_dev.man.pex These are manual pages for PEX (a
3D extension of the X Window
System)
x_dev.man.relnotes These are release notes for the X
development tools.
x_books.books.XLib_PG This book describes the Xlib
programming library.
x_books.books.XLib_WinSys This book describes the Xt
programming library.
2.2 X_Subsystem_Disk_Space_Requirements
This section lists the subsystems (and their sizes) of the X
Window System software.
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If you are installing this software 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)
x_dev.sw.dev (default) 6468
x_dev.sw.binaries (default) 239
x_dev.sw.intl 2247
x_dev.sw.pex 1745
x_dev.man.mandev 1880
x_dev.man.pex 2
x_dev.man.relnotes (default) 16
x_books.books.XLib_PG (default) 11759
x_books.books.XLib_WinSys (default) 10681
2.3 Installation_Method
All of the subsystems for X 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 x_dev.sw.dev or x_dev.sw.binaries,
you must also install x_eoe.sw.eoe. If you want to install
x_dev.sw.pex, you must also install x_dev.sw.dev.
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3. Changes_and_Additions
o The Xlib library has new support for
internationalization. Many of the tools needed to
produce internationalized applications have themselves
been internationalized: atobm, bmtoa, editres, listres,
viewres, bitmap, xclipboard, xcutsel, xedit, and xmh.
o Scalable fonts are supported, allowing a font to be
displayed at any point size.
o Adobe Type1 and Bitstream Speedo fonts can be read by
the X server and scaled. The Type1 fonts used by the
IRIS Font Manager and Display PostScriptr (DPS) can now
be made available to normal X clients.
o A font server is supported allowing the X server to
retrieve fonts remotely. It is located at
/usr/bin/X11/fs. chkconfig fontserver enables a font
server. A font server can be added to your font path
with the command:
xset +fp tcp/mumble.abc:7000
where tcp is the name of the transport, mumble.abc is
the name of the system the font server is running on,
and 7000 is the port the font server listens to (7000
is the traditional port for the font server).
o Most of the important X libraries are now supported as
dynamic shared libraries. This includes Xlib, Xt, Xmu,
Xaw, Xext, and Xi. This can significantly reduce the
size of many X executables. In IRIX 4.0, only Xlib and
Xt were supported as shared libraries, and they were
statically linked.
o The X server now consumes less memory when it is
running. When possible, the server even decreases its
size.
o Many bugs have been fixed and enhancements made to the
MIT clients. These clients are now part of the X Gifts
product. Silicon Graphics does not support them.
o When started by xdm, the X server starts up with a
light blue background instead of the black and white
basketweave. This was done to reduce flickering at
power-up. Libraries and include files match those
supplied by MIT for X11R5.
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o Rendering performance into 16- and 32-bit-deep pixmaps
has been improved.
o The new PEX extension supports the immediate rendering
and structure mode subsets of the PEX Version 5.1
protocol. Applications written to the PEXlib interface
can be compiled with header files in
/usr/include/X11/PEX5, and linked with the library
/usr/lib/libPEX5.a. Public review copies of the PEX
protocol and PEXlib API documents are available via
anonymous ftp from host ftp.x.org.
Two pairs of tutorial and reference manuals are now
available for PEXlib applications developers:
"PEXlib A Tutorial" by Paula Womack
"PEXlib A Reference Manual" by Mark Graff
both published by Prentice Hall, and
"PEXlib Programming Manual" by Tom Gaskins
"PEXlib Reference Manual" edited by Steve Talbott
both published by O'Reilly & Associates.
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4. Bug_Fixes
Applications written with the XView library do not hang the
X server as they did in some releases of IRIX 4.0.5.
See the release notes for x_eoe for other bug fixes.
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5. Known_Problems_and_Workarounds
o Applications built with -lsocket (the MIPS ABI-
compliant way) cannot connect to the X server using
UNIXr Domain Sockets (unix:0). Instead, they must use
the TCP/IP loopback mechanism (localhost:0).
Applications not explicitly linking in libsocket work
with UNIX Domain Sockets. This will be fixed in a
later release.
o The shared memory transport interface (shm:0) has
changed between 4.0.5 and 5.1. COFF-based executables
that attempt to use shared memory transport silently
fall back to UNIX Domain Sockets.
o The PCF font format has changed between IRIX 4.0.X and
5.1. Silicon Graphics has supplied new versions of all
its PCF files. The bdftopcf utility produces 5.1-
compatible PCF files. The IRIX 4 utility showpcf does
not understand the new PCF format, so results from it
are no longer meaningful.
o xstdcmap does not work properly, nor do the colormap
utilities in libXmu. The X server creates the standard
colormap properties by default at startup. They work
properly if not accessed through libXmu.
o In the search pane of the Insight application, any
search in the Xt library will come up saying
XLib_WinSys, rather than referring to Xt. Similarly,
searches for the Xlib library come up saying XLib_PG.
o X and OpenGL do not coordinate swapping a double-
buffered window properly. When OpenGL swaps buffers, X
will fail to always render to the front buffer.
o When running OpenGL applications that use indirect
rendering, it is normal for more than one instance of
Xsgi, the SGI X server, to show up under 'ps'. They
represent multiple threads of the X server, used to
implement indirect rendering.
o The X server does not yet support the large request
mechanism. Protocol requests are limited to 64K words
(262,144 bytes) in length. This applies to the core X
protocol as well as to extension protocols such as PEX.