_________________________________________________________________________
John Ostrowick
Computer Science Department, University of the Witwatersrand
1 Jan Smuts Ave, Johannesburg, South Africa. 1st Floor, Senate House 1012
Phone: +27 (011) 716-3783
jon@cs.wits.ac.za or jon@macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za or jon@is.co.za
My web page is on my server's: http://macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za/
My ftp site: ftp://macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za/public partition/
My listserv: subscr@macenroe.cs.wits.ac.za (any message with a body)
On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, Paul Goyette wrote:

> On Thu, 29 Aug 1996, John Ostrowick wrote:
> 
> > when i try to start the xserver by running xinit, it works, flashes the
> > desktop pattern and the x cursor, then exits with an error message which i
> > do not have enough time to read because it then clears the screen.
> > 
> > ok, now read my lips:
> > i cannot afford to spend a few more hours downloading a new copy of the
> > x11r6 package in all its 8-meg glory to reinstall it. i presume that xinit
> > is broken and that is part of the reason as to why startx is ignoring my
> > .xinitrc files. 
> > 
> > so, can someone send me xinit? 
> 
> Not I, but you just _might_ try to be a little nicer when you ask this 
> list for help - your "Read my lips" and "cant afford to spend" comments 
> make it sound like you have a right to demand our help!

yes, I know, i've been stomped on by a number of people on the list
already. I'm sorry, but try to understand my situation. Our ISP is
pathetically slow. during the day i am very lucky to be able to get
anything off the net. as i already explained to someone, i'm used to mac
support types who simply tell me to reinstall every time i run into system
problems, so i was expecting the same response (reinstall x)  so i put my
request very strongly to indicate that there was no way i was going to
attempt a macos style fixer-up (reinstall the whole system)  but rather,
that i want to find out what specifically is wrong and then try to fix it. 
i suppose i should have said it this way in the first place.  I apologise
to everyone who was offended. .

> > Anyway, try running xinit and
redirecting the output (including error) to > a file so that you can then
read the error message _after_ it fails.  >

this was in fact the very first thing i tried when i noticed the error,
but it actually did not work, regardless of whether i ran from xinit or
startx, the same error resulted and neither actually output any error
intoa file. the file created was blank, empty. The error still flashed
onto the terminal.  It was when i saw that this was not working and that
i'd not be able to capture that error report, that i got desperate and
tried asking the list.  I have books on unix but they aren't any help
(don't have sections called 'what can cause xinit to fail'). 

sorry for the tone. as i say, i've tried this already.