3 At the time of this release (SXEmacs 22.1.14), SXEmacs has the
4 following idiosyncrasies:
9 ** User init file (C-h v user-init-file)
11 SXEmacs searches for its init file in `~/.sxemacs/init.el'.
12 Symlinking your old ~/.xemacs directory should be enough to get you up
15 $ ln -s ~/.xemacs ~/.sxemacs RET
17 BTW, unlike XEmacs, SXEmacs doesn't attempt to "migrate" your old init
18 file or Gnu/Emacs .emacs file.
22 The default location that SXEmacs searches for packages is
23 `$prefix/share/sxemacs/'. The same as for the user-init-file, a
24 symlink is all you need to get up and running.
26 $ ln -s /usr/local/lib/xemacs /usr/local/share/sxemacs RET
34 *** FFI is not included with your distro
36 Sadly, some Linux distributions (hello Fedora) don't ship a libffi
37 package, and their GCC does NOT include libffi or FFI headers either.
38 In this instance you have 2 options...
40 1) Get the standalone package of libffi at
41 <http://sourceware.org/libffi/>.
43 2) Compile your own GCC from source, making sure you enable the java
44 compiler. Enabling java in your GCC build is the only way to get
47 Obviously, option #1 there is the easiest and quickest path to
48 FFI-enabled SXEmacsen, and it is the option that we recommend.
50 Oh, and please nag your distro to have FFI included by default.
52 *** FFI is included in your GCC but you see missing header errors
54 Often libffi headers aren't completely installed. If you are getting
55 errors in effi.c that seem to be hinged from something like...
57 /usr/include/ffi.h:63:23: ffitarget.h: No such file or directory
59 You need to find `ffitarget.h' and put it in the same directory as
60 your `ffi.h'. Your libffi came with GCC, so you'll find it within
63 $ dirname $(gcc -print-libgcc-file-name)
64 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.1
66 Using that example, ffitarget.h would be in...
68 /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.1/libffi/
70 Just copy or symlink the ffitarget.h there to /usr/include
72 *** FFI on SELinux enabled machines
74 If you are running with SELinux enabled and configure fails with
75 messages like the following in `config.log'...
77 error while loading shared libraries: /usr/local/lib/libffi.so.1:
78 cannot restore segment prot after reloc: Permission denied
80 You need to correct the default security context for `libffi.so'.
82 $ chcon -t textrel_shlib_t /usr/local/lib/libffi.so
86 The autoconf tests for PostgreSQL support have changed. SXEmacs'
87 configure script now uses `pg_config' to determine whether or not to
88 enable PostgreSQL. Because of this you may have to set you $PATH
89 environment to include the pgsql bin directory. It is normally
90 `/usr/local/pgsql/bin/'. Another popular directory on Solaris 9 is
91 `/opt/crw/postgresql/bin/'. Check with your site administrator.
93 Bash users can do it like this...
95 export PATH=/usr/local/pgsql/bin:$PATH
97 *** Solaris 9 with 64-bit PostgreSQL
99 There has also been a report that on Solaris 9 you may also need to
100 configure with `--with-cflags='-mcpu=ultrasparc -m64''. Apparently
101 GCC on Solaris 9 defaults to building 32-bit, so you lose if you have
104 ** 64-bit test suite failure
106 We have had a couple of reports of the test suite failing on 64-bit
107 systems. The error is like this (or similar)...
109 Testing /usr/src/sxemacs/modules/ase/ase-heap-tests.el...
110 Loading ase_heap v0.0.0 (SXEmacs module: ase-heap)
111 Loaded module ase_heap v0.0.0 (SXEmacs module: ase-heap)Fatal error: assertion failed, file alloc.c, line 298, block != (void*)0xCAFEBABEDEADBEEF
112 make[3]: *** [check-am] Aborted
114 At this point we are not too sure exactly what the issue is. It looks
115 like it might be a bug in the malloc or free code of the libc. We do
116 know that not all 64-bit systems are affected, so far, only Fedora
117 Core 7, and Gentoo on x86_64.
119 One user has reported that using `-O1' in CFLAGS prevents it.
121 But even with this test failure, SXEmacs still runs and opperates
122 without incident. In fact, the failure can't be reproduced when
123 running the test suite interactively. With that in mind, it should be
124 safe to install if you see this failure.
126 We'll endeavour to get to the bottom of this one ASAP, if you think
127 you can help, let us know.
129 ** m4, libtool, autoconf, automake, and whatnot
131 SXEmacs tries to cope with any combination of versions of the above
132 programs. However, there is one lower bound, autoconf 2.60, and
133 unfortunately this has an impact on the other parts of the build
136 To cut it really short, here is the minimum known-to-work combination:
137 - autoconf 2.62, automake 1.9.6, libtool 1.5.22, m4 1.4.6
139 In general we support (as of April, 2010):
140 - autoconf >= 2.62, including current git versions
141 - automake 1.9.6, 1.10, 1.10a, 1.11.1, and current git versions
142 - libtool 1.5.N with N >= 22, libtool >= 2.1a (current CVS version)
143 - m4 1.4.M with M >= 6 plus current git versions
145 Note that many libtool packages shipped with the distros (OpenSuSE,
146 Debian, just to name two) are _broken_. Make sure you compile
147 your own libtool in case you want to rerun autogen.sh or bootstrap
148 the build chain, and double check that you use --enable-ltdl-install
151 If you are on a platform that has its own _non_gnu libtool (like OS/X
152 Leopard) add --program-prefix=g to your gnu libtool configure so it
153 installs as glibtool and doesn't clobber your other one.
155 Sometimes it helps just to copy over the libtool script manually:
156 cp -a $(type -p libtool) ${top_builddir}
158 *** ylwrap fails with sed errors
160 Some versions of the ylwrap script provided by autotools uses commas
161 as separators in sed commands. As such if your build path uses commas
162 the ylwrap will fail.
164 Sample message (where the build path was /Users/njsf/Projects/SXEmacs/nsx-up/,,mac):
166 /Users/njsf/Projects/SXEmacs/nsx-up/,,mac/lib-src/make-docfile --modname cl-loop -E cl-loop.doc.c ../../../modules/cl/cl-loop.c
167 /bin/sh ../../../ylwrap ../../../modules/cl/cl-loop-parser.y y.tab.c cl-loop-parser.c y.tab.h cl-loop-parser.h y.output
168 cl-loop-parser.output -- bison -y -d
169 sed: 1: "s,/Users/njsf/Projects/ ...": bad flag in substitute command: 'm'
170 sed: 1: "s,/Users/njsf/Projects/ ...": bad flag in substitute command: 'm'
172 The workaround is to use a path without commas in it.
175 *** Missing libltdl.la (Solaris 2.8)
177 We've had a report that missing libtool on Solaris 2.8 isn't detected
178 and so the included libtool still isn't used. If you see an error
179 about a missing libltdl.la all you need to do is configure SXEmacs
186 *** configure on FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, etc.
188 Building SXEmacs on *BSD as far as we know requires the GNU Bourne
189 Again SHell (bash) versions 3 or 4.
191 bash is available for all tier 1 architectures as a binary package and
192 and for tier 2/3 as a port.
194 To run configure successfully...
196 CONFIG_SHELL=/path/to/bash $CONFIG_SHELL configure [option, ...]
198 ** bdwgc and gcc and code optimisation
200 There are some weird optimisation issues with the Boehm-Demers-Weiser
201 garbage collector (hereafter BDWGC) and the GCC C compilers of the 2 and
202 3 series. The build will crash like this:
204 Loading build-autoloads.el...
205 Loading loadup-el.el...
206 Loading loadup.el...make[3]: *** [auto-autoloads.el] Segmentation fault
208 make[3]: Leaving directory
210 The C backtrace will look like:
212 #0 0xbff9a2f0 in ?? ()
213 #1 0xb7eaf7d6 in GC_invoke_finalizers () at finalize.c:787
214 #2 0xb7eaf8ed in GC_notify_or_invoke_finalizers () at finalize.c:844
215 #3 0xb7eb2c8c in GC_generic_malloc (lb=32, k=0) at malloc.c:190
217 If this is true for you, you may want to try another optimisation level:
219 ./configure CFLAGS="-g -O2"
221 If this still does not work out either dispense with BDWGC support or
222 use a recent C compiler. ATTOW, all GCC 4.x compilers (including SVN)
227 ENT is basically a conglomerate of internally and externally implemented
228 arithmetics. Hence it supports a number of libraries, some of which
229 overlap in their functionality, some others do not but then break at the
232 One of the most likely problems is the GMP vs. MPFR issue. In past
233 times, mpfr (a multiprecision library for floats with exact rounding
234 facilities) has been a part of the GMP distribution. Later on, mpfr got
235 separated from it and has been developed independently while the version
236 of mpfr which ships with GMP stayed the same. Now that scenario is
239 Inattentive distributions (like Fedora) still deliver packages of GMP
240 with the old'n'incompatible mpfr library. SXEmacs will disable the MPFR
241 support on such systems by default (at configure time). However, if you
242 install a supported version of mpfr in parallel to the packaged ones on
243 such a system SXEmacs autodetection correctly reports that a sane
244 version of mpfr is available and enables it. Nonetheless, the according
245 build may fail (or the build may even succeed but calling the binary may
248 number-mpfr.o: In function `ent_lt_BIGFR_T':
249 /home/martin/src/edit/sxemacs-main/src/number-mpfr.c:661: undefined
250 reference to `mpfr_less_p'
251 number-mpfr.o: In function `ent_gt_BIGFR_T':
252 /home/martin/src/edit/sxemacs-main/src/number-mpfr.c:671: undefined
253 reference to `mpfr_greater_p'
256 Especially note that we _only_ support the standalone version of MPFR,
257 and not the one distributed with GMP.
262 Badger your distributor and demand separate packages for GMP and
265 Remove the GMP package and install your own build -- available at
266 http://swox.com/gmp -- afterwards install your own build of mpfr (the
267 one from http://www.mpfr.org)
269 Reconfigure and rebuild SXEmacs afterwards.
272 ** Build fails because of missing makeinfo
274 Install the GNU texinfo package on your system. You'll need at least
278 ** MacOS X warns of a crash during configure
280 This is normal, as one of the tests made during configure (for the
281 realpath call correctness) induces as crash.
283 If you are developing SXEmacs and will do lots of runs of configure
284 and that dialog annoys you, consider issuing:
286 # Disable crash reporting
287 sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist
288 # Redo last configure
289 ./config.status --recheck
290 # Enable crash reporting
291 sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.ReportCrash.Root.plist
293 Another alternative (not recommended) is to launch
295 /Developer/Applications/Utilities/CrashReporterPrefs
297 and configure the mode to server, but you will loose notifications of
298 crashes on all applications.
300 In order to give SXEmacs developers with good diagnosis information it
301 is recommended the mode be Developer.
307 We have identified 2 packages so far that don't work "out of the box"
308 with SXEmacs. In both of these the problem is with parsing version
309 information. Patches have been sent to the appropriate maintainer to
310 fix the problem and are included here in case the packages haven't
311 been updated by the time you install SXEmacs.
313 Update: The EFS, and Dired XEmacs packages that are currently
314 available from the "Pre-Releases" area of XEmacs package mirrors are
315 both now compatible with SXEmacs and do not need the patches mentioned
320 Here is the patch to make EFS work with SXEmacs:
322 (Note: the current EFS package that XEmacs distributes has this
326 ===================================================================
327 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/efs/ChangeLog,v
328 retrieving revision 1.41
329 diff -u -U0 -r1.41 ChangeLog
330 --- ChangeLog 4 Oct 2004 08:54:56 -0000 1.41
331 +++ ChangeLog 14 Jan 2005 02:43:10 -0000
333 +2005-01-14 Steve Youngs <steve@sxemacs.org>
335 + * efs-fnh.el (efs-handle-emacs-version): Use `emacs-*-version'
336 + variables for version info instead of string-matching through
340 ===================================================================
341 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/efs/efs-fnh.el,v
342 retrieving revision 1.13
343 diff -u -u -r1.13 efs-fnh.el
344 --- efs-fnh.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:00 -0000 1.13
345 +++ efs-fnh.el 14 Jan 2005 02:42:59 -0000
347 (let ((ehev-match-data (match-data)))
349 (let ((xemacsp (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
351 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
352 - (error "efs does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
353 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
354 - (match-beginning 1)
356 - subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
357 - (match-beginning 2)
359 + (ver emacs-major-version)
360 + (subver emacs-minor-version))
362 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
363 + (error "efs does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
364 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
365 + (match-beginning 1)
367 + subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version
368 + (match-beginning 2)
372 ;; XEmacs (emacs-version looks like \"19.xx XEmacs\")
376 Here is the patch to make Dired work with SXEmacs:
378 (Note: the current Dired package that XEmacs distributes has this
382 ===================================================================
383 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/ChangeLog,v
384 retrieving revision 1.19
385 diff -u -U0 -r1.19 ChangeLog
386 --- ChangeLog 4 Oct 2004 08:54:24 -0000 1.19
387 +++ ChangeLog 14 Jan 2005 02:37:37 -0000
389 +2005-01-14 Steve Youngs <steve@sxemacs.org>
391 + * dired.el: Use `emacs-*-version' variables for finding version
392 + information instead of string-matching through `emacs-version'.
394 + * diff.el (diff-emacs-19-p): Ditto.
397 ===================================================================
398 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/diff.el,v
399 retrieving revision 1.4
400 diff -u -u -r1.4 diff.el
401 --- diff.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:17 -0000 1.4
402 +++ diff.el 14 Jan 2005 02:37:23 -0000
404 ;;; Internal variables
406 (defconst diff-emacs-19-p
407 - (let ((ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version 0 2))))
408 + (let ((ver emacs-major-version))
411 (or diff-emacs-19-p (require 'emacs-19))
413 ===================================================================
414 RCS file: /pack/xemacscvs/XEmacs/packages/xemacs-packages/dired/dired.el,v
415 retrieving revision 1.7
416 diff -u -u -r1.7 dired.el
417 --- dired.el 2 Oct 2004 14:06:19 -0000 1.7
418 +++ dired.el 14 Jan 2005 02:37:25 -0000
420 ;; Testing against the string `Lucid' breaks InfoDock. How many years has
421 ;; it been since Lucid went away?
422 (let ((lucid-p (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
424 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
425 - (error "dired does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
426 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
428 - subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 2)
430 + (ver emacs-major-version)
431 + (subver emacs-minor-version))
433 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\.\\([0-9]+\\)" emacs-version)
434 + (error "dired does not work with emacs version %s" emacs-version))
435 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
437 + subver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 2)
442 @@ -6616,11 +6618,12 @@
443 ;;;; --------------------------------------------------------------
445 (let ((lucid-p (string-match "XEmacs" emacs-version))
447 - (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\." emacs-version)
448 - (error "Weird emacs version %s" emacs-version))
449 - (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
451 + (ver emacs-major-version))
453 + (or (string-match "^\\([0-9]+\\)\\." emacs-version)
454 + (error "Weird emacs version %s" emacs-version))
455 + (setq ver (string-to-int (substring emacs-version (match-beginning 1)
458 ;; Reading with history.
462 * Problems with running SXEmacs
463 ===============================
467 *** ffi-wand.el refuses to load.
469 Can't load library `libMagickWand': libgomp.so.1: shared object cannot be
472 If you get that error when trying to load ffi-wand, it is because you
473 have a ImageMagick that is using OpenMP (currently only svn HEAD). To
474 fix this you will need to rebuild ImageMagick, making sure that you
475 configure it using --disable-openmp.
477 See: <http://issues.sxemacs.org/show_bug.cgi?id=104>
479 ** Multimedia Goodness
481 *** SXEmacs hangs or crashes during (init-asynchronousity).
483 This is most likely a known effect (we do not want to call it bug,
484 since there is no definite location) with certain (g)libc and kernel
485 combinations under Linux. If it crashes analyse the core file, it
486 should look like this:
488 #0 0x4014ebc4 in __sigsuspend (set=0xbffffbb4) at
489 ../sysdeps/unix/sysv/linux/sigsuspend.c:48
490 #1 0x40101b34 in __pthread_wait_for_restart_signal (self=0x401116e0) at
492 #2 0x40101138 in __pthread_create_2_1 (thread=0x206f8dc, attr=0xbffffc58,
493 start_routine=0x20043ac <console>, arg=0xbffffd88) at restart.h:26
495 A definite fault-prone setup is using kernel 2.6.x in conjunction with
498 *** SXEmacs hangs or crashes before it ought to playback sound.
500 As before, this is most likely a suspicious (g)libc/kernel
503 *** SXEmacs dumps core when using the ALSA audio device
505 This has been reported to happen with old ALSA libraries (1.0.3 to be
506 precise). At the moment it is uncertain at which version these
507 problems disappear (no developer wants to downgrade to a non-working
508 ALSA :D). We highly suggest to use the version 1.0.10 and above, or
511 *** SXEmacs in async mode does not play simultaneous sounds with ALSA
513 This is due to missing (hardware-)mixing capabilities of your
514 soundcard. There is a user-space plugin called dmix, which can
515 effectively circumvent this issue.
517 *** SXEmacs dumps core when using the aRts audio device
519 Does it? Please report details (version number of aRts, backtrace,
522 *** SXEmacs crashes when using state sentinels with asynchronous sounds
524 This is a known bug (#13 in our bug database). At the moment the only
525 advise we can give is: do not use sentinels before 22.1.7.
526 Also see our bug database at http://issues.sxemacs.org
528 *** make-media-stream seems to recognise any file as valid audio
530 This is a known issue with fully-featured ffmpeg builds. The current
531 code in SXEmacs blindly relies on FFmpeg when it reports a file or
532 string as valid audio. There is no way to double-check that at the
533 moment. However, you can perform the additional check yourself if
534 you have taglib installed. Use the included ffi-taglib.el.
537 * Original XEmacs PROBLEMS File
538 ===============================
539 From here down is a reproduction of the original XEmacs PROBLEMS
540 file. Much of it is already fixed in SXEmacs (and in XEmacs too).
541 We're keeping it here for prosperity, or until somebody finds the time
542 to go through it all and remove the irrelevant stuff. :-)
544 Note: Some irrelevant stuff purged (mostly windows rubbish) 2010-04-01
546 This file describes various problems that have been encountered
547 in compiling, installing and running XEmacs. It has been updated for
550 This file is rather large, but we have tried to sort the entries by
551 their respective relevance for XEmacs, but may have not succeeded
552 completely in that task. The file is divided into four parts:
554 - Problems with building XEmacs
555 - Problems with running XEmacs
556 - Compatibility problems
559 Use `C-c C-f' to move to the next equal level of outline, and
560 `C-c C-b' to move to previous equal level. `C-h m' will give more
561 info about the Outline mode.
563 Also, Try finding the things you need using one of the search commands
564 XEmacs provides (e.g. `C-s').
568 WATCH OUT for your init file! (~/.xemacs/init.el or ~/.emacs) If
569 you observe strange problems, invoke XEmacs with the `-vanilla'
570 option and see if you can repeat the problem.
572 Note that most of the problems described here manifest at RUN
573 time, even those described as BUILD problems. It is quite unusual
574 for a released XEmacs to fail to build. So a "build problem"
575 requires you to tweak the build environment, then rebuild XEmacs.
576 A "runtime problem" is one that can be fixed by proper
577 configuration of the existing build. Compatibility problems and
578 Mule issues are generally runtime problems, but are treated
579 separately for convenience.
582 * Problems with building XEmacs
583 ===============================
587 Much general information is in INSTALL. If it's covered in
588 INSTALL, we don't repeat it here.
590 *** How do I configure to get the buffer tabs/progress bars?
592 These features depend on support for "native widgets". Use the
593 --with-widgets option to configure. Configuration of widgets is
594 automatic for "modern" toolkits (MS Windows, GTK, and Motif), but if
595 you are using Xt and the Athena widgets, you will probably want to
596 specify a "3d" widget set. See configure --usage, and don't forget to
597 install the corresponding development libraries.
599 *** I know I have libfoo installed, but configure doesn't find it.
601 Typical of Linux systems with package managers. To link with a shared
602 library, you only need the shared library. To compile objects that
603 link with it, you need the headers---and distros don't provide them with
604 the libraries. You need the additional "development" package, too.
606 *** When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __fixunsdfsi".
607 When using gcc, you get the error message "undefined symbol __main".
609 This means that you need to link with the gcc library. It may be called
610 "gcc-gnulib" or "libgcc.a"; figure out where it is, and define LIB_GCC in
611 config.h to point to it.
613 It may also work to use the GCC version of `ld' instead of the standard one.
615 *** src/Makefile and lib-src/Makefile are truncated--most of the file missing.
617 This can happen if configure uses GNU sed version 2.03. That version
618 had a bug. GNU sed version 2.05 works properly.
622 Motif is the X11 version of the Gnus torture test: if there's a way to
623 crash, Motif will find it. With the open source release of Motif, it
624 seems like a good idea to collect all Motif-related issues in one
627 You should also look in your OS's section, as it may not be Motif's
630 *** XEmacs visibly repaints itty-bitty rectangles very slowly.
632 This should only be visible on a slow X connection (ISDN, maybe T1).
634 At least some versions of Motif apparently do not implement
635 XtExposeCompressMaximal properly, so it is disabled. If you wish to
636 experiment, you can remove the #ifdef LWLIB_NEEDS_MOTIF at line 238
637 (or so) of src/EmacsFrame.c, leaving only the line
639 /* compress_exposure */ XtExposeCompressMaximal | XtExposeNoRegion,
641 and recompile. This enables exposure compression, giving a 10:1 or
642 better speedup for some users. However, on some Motif platforms (Red
643 Hat Linux 9.0 and Solaris 2.8, at least), this causes XEmacs to hang
644 while displaying the progress bar (eg, in font-lock). A workaround
645 for that problem is to setq `progress-feedback-use-echo-area' to `t'.
647 *** XEmacs crashes on exit (#1).
649 The backtrace is something like:
652 #0 0xfeb9a480 in _libc_kill () from /usr/lib/libc.so.1
653 #1 0x000b0388 in fatal_error_signal ()
654 #2 <signal handler called>
655 #3 YowIter (ht=0xb, id=0x0, v=0x74682074, client=0x47e3c0)
657 #4 0xff26cc5c in _LTHashTableForEachItem (ht=0x4725e8,
658 iter=0xff26dda0 <YowIter>, ClientData=0x47e3c0) at Hash.c:671
659 #5 0xff2a4664 in destroy (w=0x496550) at Screen.c:352
660 #6 0xfef92118 in Phase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
661 #7 0xfef91940 in Recursive () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
662 #8 0xfef91e44 in XtPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
663 #9 0xfef91ae8 in _XtDoPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
664 #10 0xfef918cc in XtDestroyWidget () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
665 #11 0xfef91438 in CloseDisplay () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
666 #12 0xfef91394 in XtCloseDisplay () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
667 #13 0x0025b8b0 in x_delete_device ()
668 #14 0x000940b0 in delete_device_internal ()
669 #15 0x000806a0 in delete_console_internal ()
671 This is known to happen with Lesstif version 0.93.36. Similar
672 backtraces have also been observed on HP/UX and Solaris. There is a
673 patch for Lesstif. (This is not a solution; it just stops the crash.
674 It may or may not be harmless, but "it works for the author".)
676 Note that this backtrace looks a lot like the one in the next item.
677 However, this one is invulnerable to the Solaris patches mentioned there.
679 Frank McIngvale <frankm@hiwaay.net> says:
681 Ok, 0.93.34 works, and I tracked down the crash to a section
682 marked "experimental" in 0.93.36. Patch attached, "works for me".
684 diff -u -r lesstif-0.93.36/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c lesstif-0.93.36-mod/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c
685 --- lesstif-0.93.36/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c 2002-08-05 14:53:24.000000000 -0500
686 +++ lesstif-0.93.36-mod/lib/Xm/ImageCache.c 2002-11-11 11:13:12.000000000 -0600
687 @@ -1166,5 +1166,4 @@
688 DEBUGOUT(_LtDebug0(__FILE__, NULL, "_LtImageCacheScreenDestroy (XmGetPixmapByDepth) %p\n",
691 - (void) _LTHashTableForEachItem(PixmapCache, YowIter, (XtPointer)s);
694 *** XEmacs crashes on exit (#2)
696 Especially frequent with multiple frames. Crashes that produce C
697 backtraces like this:
699 #0 0xfec9a118 in _libc_kill () from /usr/lib/libc.so.1
700 #1 0x77f48 in fatal_error_signal (sig=11)
701 at /codes/rpluim/xemacs-21.4/src/emacs.c:539
702 #2 <signal handler called>
703 #3 0xfee929f4 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
704 #4 0xfee92930 in XFindContext () from /usr/openwin/lib/libX11.so.4
705 #5 0xff297e54 in DisplayDestroy () from /usr/dt/lib/libXm.so.4
706 #6 0xfefbece0 in XtCallCallbackList () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
707 #7 0xfefc486c in XtPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
708 #8 0xfefc45d0 in _XtDoPhase2Destroy () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
709 #9 0xfefc43b4 in XtDestroyWidget () from /usr/openwin/lib/libXt.so.4
710 #10 0x15cf9c in x_delete_device (d=0x523f00)
712 are caused by buggy Motif libraries. Installing the following patches
713 has been reported to solve the problem on Solaris 2.7:
717 For information (although they have not been confirmed to work), the
718 equivalent patches for Solaris 2.8 are:
722 *** On HP-UX 11.0 XEmacs causes excessive X11 errors when running.
723 (also appears on AIX as reported in comp.emacs.xemacs)
725 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
727 Unfortunately, XEmacs releases prior to 21.0 don't work with
728 Motif2.1. It will compile but you will get excessive X11 errors like
730 xemacs: X Error of failed request: BadGC (invalid GC parameter)
732 and finally XEmacs gets killed. A workaround is to use the
733 Motif1.2_R6 libraries. You can the following line to your call to
736 --x-libraries="/usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6 -L/usr/lib/X11R6"
738 Make sure /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.sl is a link to
739 /usr/lib/Motif1.2_R6/libXm.3.
741 *** On HP-UX 11.0: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor
743 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
745 XEmacs dies without core file and reports:
747 Error: Object "" does not have windowed ancestor.
749 This is a bug. Please apply the patch PHSS_19964 (check if
750 superseded). The other alternative is to link with Motif1.2_R6 (see
753 *** Motif dialog boxes lose on Irix.
755 Larry Auton <lda@control.att.com> writes:
756 Beware of not specifying
758 --with-dialogs=athena
760 if it builds with the motif dialogs [boom!] you're a dead man.
764 *** IBM compiler fails: "The character # is not a valid C source character."
766 Most recently observed in 21.5.9, due to USE_KKCC ifdefs (they just
767 happen to tickle the implementation).
769 Valdis Kletnieks says:
771 The problem is that IBM defines a *MACRO* called 'memcpy', and we
772 have stuck a #ifdef/#endif inside the macro call. As a workaround,
773 try adding '-U__STR__' to your CFLAGS - this will cause string.h to
774 not do a #define for strcpy() to __strcpy() - it uses this for
775 automatic inlining support.
777 (For the record, the same issue affects a number of other functions
778 defined in string.h - basically anything the compiler knows how to
781 *** On AIX 4.3, you must specify --with-dialogs=athena with configure
783 *** The libXt shipped with AIX 4.3 up to 4.3.2 is broken. This causes
784 xemacs -nw to fail in various ways. The official APAR is this:
786 APAR NUMBER: <IX89470> RESOLVED AS: PROGRAM ERROR
789 <IX89470>: LIBXT.A INCORRECT HANDLING OF EXCEPTIONS IN XTAPPADDINPUT
791 The solution is to install X11.base.lib at version >=4.3.2.5.
793 *** On AIX, you get this compiler error message:
795 Processing include file ./XMenuInt.h
796 1501-106: (S) Include file X11/Xlib.h not found.
798 This means your system was installed with only the X11 runtime i.d
799 libraries. You have to find your sipo (bootable tape) and install
802 *** On AIX 4.1.2, linker error messages such as
803 ld: 0711-212 SEVERE ERROR: Symbol .__quous, found in the global symbol table
804 of archive /usr/lib/libIM.a, was not defined in archive member shr.o.
806 This is a problem in libIM.a. You can work around it by executing
807 these shell commands in the src subdirectory of the directory where
810 cp /usr/lib/libIM.a .
814 Then change -lIM to ./libIM.a in the command to link temacs (in
817 *** Excessive optimization on AIX 4.2 can lead to compiler failure.
819 Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu writes:
820 At least at the b34 level, and the latest-and-greatest IBM xlc
821 (3.1.4.4), there are problems with -O3. I haven't investigated
826 *** Dumping error when using GNU binutils / GNU ld on a Sun.
828 Errors similar to the following:
830 Dumping under the name xemacs unexec():
831 dldump(/space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs): ld.so.1: ./temacs:
832 fatal: /space/rpluim/xemacs-obj/src/xemacs: unknown dynamic entry:
835 are caused by using GNU ld. There are several workarounds available:
837 In XEmacs 21.2 or later, configure using the new portable dumper
840 Alternatively, you can link using the Sun version of ld, which is
841 normally held in /usr/ccs/bin. This can be done by one of:
843 - building gcc with these configure flags:
844 configure --with-ld=/usr/ccs/bin/ld --with-as=/usr/ccs/bin/as
846 - adding -B/usr/ccs/bin/ to CFLAGS used to configure XEmacs
847 (Note: The trailing '/' there is significant.)
849 - uninstalling GNU ld.
851 The Solaris2 FAQ claims:
853 When you install gcc, don't make the mistake of installing
854 GNU binutils or GNU libc, they are not as capable as their
855 counterparts you get with Solaris 2.x.
857 *** Link failure when using acc on a Sun.
859 To use acc, you need additional options just before the libraries, such as
861 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1/values-Xt.o -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1/cg87 -L/usr/lang/SC2.0.1
863 and you need to add -lansi just before -lc.
865 The precise file names depend on the compiler version, so we
866 cannot easily arrange to supply them.
868 *** Problems finding X11 libraries on Solaris with Openwindows
870 Some users have reported problems in this area. The reported solution
871 is to define the environment variable OPENWINHOME, even if you must set
872 it to `/usr/openwin'.
874 *** Sed problems on Solaris 2.5
876 There have been reports of Sun sed truncating very lines in the
877 Makefile during configuration. The workaround is to use GNU sed or,
878 even better, think of a better way to generate Makefile, and send us a
881 *** On Solaris 2 I get undefined symbols from libcurses.a.
883 You probably have /usr/ucblib/ on your LD_LIBRARY_PATH. Do the link with
884 LD_LIBRARY_PATH unset. Generally, avoid using any ucb* stuff when
887 *** On Solaris 2 I cannot make alloc.o, glyphs.o or process.o.
889 The SparcWorks C compiler may have difficulty building those modules
890 with optimization level -xO4. Try using only "-fast" optimization
891 for just those modules. (Or use gcc).
893 *** Solaris 2.3 /bin/sh coredumps during configuration.
895 This only occurs if you have LANG != C. This is a known bug with
896 /bin/sh fixed by installing Patch-ID# 101613-01. Or, you can use
897 bash by setting the environment variable CONFIG_SHELL to /bin/bash
899 *** Solaris 2.x configure/Makefile syntax "errors"
901 This is a known bug with /bin/sh and /bin/test, i.e. they do not
902 support the XPG4 standard. You can use bash as a workaround or an
903 XPG4-compliant Bourne shell such as the Sun-supplied /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
904 by setting the environment variable CONFIG_SHELL to /usr/xpg4/bin/sh
906 *** On SunOS, you get linker errors
908 _get_wmShellWidgetClass
909 _get_applicationShellWidgetClass
911 The fix to this is to install patch 100573 for OpenWindows 3.0
912 or link libXmu statically.
914 *** On Sunos 4, you get the error ld: Undefined symbol __lib_version.
916 This is the result of using cc or gcc with the shared library meant
917 for acc (the Sunpro compiler). Check your LD_LIBRARY_PATH and delete
918 /usr/lang/SC2.0.1 or some similar directory.
920 *** Undefined symbols when linking on Sunos 4.1.
922 If you get the undefined symbols _atowc _wcslen, _iswprint, _iswspace,
923 _iswcntrl, _wcscpy, and _wcsncpy, then you need to add -lXwchar after
924 -lXaw in the command that links temacs.
926 This problem seems to arise only when the international language
927 extensions to X11R5 are installed.
929 *** On a Sun running SunOS 4.1.1, you get this error message from GNU ld:
931 /lib/libc.a(_Q_sub.o): Undefined symbol __Q_get_rp_rd referenced from text segment
933 The problem is in the Sun shared C library, not in GNU ld.
935 The solution is to install Patch-ID# 100267-03 from Sun.
937 *** SunOS 4.1.2: undefined symbol _get_wmShellWidgetClass
939 Apparently the version of libXmu.so.a that Sun ships is hosed: it's missing
940 some stuff that is in libXmu.a (the static version). Sun has a patch for
941 this, but a workaround is to use the static version of libXmu, by changing
942 the link command from "-lXmu" to "-Bstatic -lXmu -Bdynamic". If you have
943 OpenWindows 3.0, ask Sun for these patches:
944 100512-02 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 libXt Jumbo patch
945 100573-03 4.1.x OpenWindows 3.0 undefined symbols with shared libXmu
947 *** Random other SunOS 4.1.[12] link errors.
949 The X headers and libraries that Sun ships in /usr/{include,lib}/X11 are
950 broken. Use the ones in /usr/openwin/{include,lib} instead.
954 See also Intel Architecture General, above.
956 *** Under Linux, you get "too many arguments to function `getpgrp'".
958 You have probably installed LessTiff under `/usr/local' and `libXm.so'
959 could not be found when linking `getpgrp()' test program, making XEmacs
960 think that `getpgrp()' takes an argument. Try adding `/usr/local/lib'
961 in `/etc/ld.so.conf' and run `ldconfig'. Then run XEmacs's `configure'
962 again. As with all problems of this type, reading the config.log file
963 generated from configure and seeing the log of how the test failed can
966 *** `Error: No ExtNode to pop!' on Linux systems with Lesstif.
968 This error message has been observed with lesstif-0.75a. It does not
969 appear to cause any harm.
973 *** More coredumping in Irix (6.5 known to be vulnerable)
975 No fix is known yet. Here's the best information we have:
977 Valdis Kletnieks <Valdis.Kletnieks@vt.edu> writes:
979 Were xemacs and [any 3rd party, locally-compiled] libraries [you use]
980 all compiled with the same ABI ( -o32, -n32, -64) and
981 mips2/mips3/mips4 flags, and are they appropriate for the machine in
982 question? I know the IP30 implies an Octane, so it should be an R10K
983 chipset and above such nonsense, but I've seen the most astoundingly
984 bizzare crashes when somebody managed to compile with -mips4 and get
985 it to run on an R4400 or R5K system. ;)
987 Also, since you're using gcc, try re-running fixincludes and *then*
988 rebuilding xemacs and [any] libraries - mismatched headers can do that
989 sort of thing to you with little or no clue what's wrong (often you
990 get screwed when one routine does an malloc(sizeof(foo_struct)) and
991 passes the result to something that things foo_struct is a bit bigger,
994 Here's typical crash backtrace. With --pdump, this occurs usually at
995 startup under X windows and xemacs -nw at least starts, while without
996 --pdump a similar crash is observed during build.
998 #0 0x0fa460b8 in kill () at regcomp.c:637
999 637 regcomp.c: No such file or directory.
1002 #0 0x0fa460b8 in kill () at regcomp.c:637
1003 #1 0x10087f34 in fatal_error_signal ()
1006 This is confusing because there is no such file in the XEmacs
1007 distribution. This is seen on (at least) the following configurations:
1009 uname -a: IRIX64 oct202 6.5 01091821 IP30
1010 XEmacs 21.4.9 "Informed Management" configured for `mips-sgi-irix6.5'.
1011 XEmacs 21.5-b9 "brussels sprouts" configured for `mips-sgi-irix6.5'.
1013 *** On Irix 6.5, the MIPSpro compiler gets an internal compiler error
1015 The MIPSpro Compiler (at least version 7.2.1) can't seem to handle the
1016 union type properly, and fails to compile src/glyphs.c. To avoid this
1017 problem, always build ---use-union-type=no (but that's the default, so
1018 you should only see this problem if you're an XEmacs maintainer).
1020 *** Linking with -rpath on IRIX.
1022 Darrell Kindred <dkindred@cmu.edu> writes:
1023 There are a couple of problems [with use of -rpath with Irix ld], though:
1025 1. The ld in IRIX 5.3 ignores all but the last -rpath
1026 spec, so the patched configure spits out a warning
1027 if --x-libraries or --site-runtime-libraries are
1028 specified under irix 5.x, and it only adds -rpath
1029 entries for the --site-runtime-libraries. This bug was
1030 fixed sometime between 5.3 and 6.2.
1032 2. IRIX gcc 2.7.2 doesn't accept -rpath directly, so
1033 it would have to be prefixed by -Xlinker or "-Wl,".
1034 This would be fine, except that configure compiles with
1035 ${CC-cc} $CFLAGS $LDFLAGS ...
1036 rather than quoting $LDFLAGS with prefix-args, like
1037 src/Makefile does. So if you specify --x-libraries
1038 or --site-runtime-libraries, you must use --use-gcc=no,
1039 or configure will fail.
1041 *** On Irix 6.3, the SGI ld quits with segmentation fault when linking temacs
1043 This occurs if you use the SGI linker version 7.1. Installing the
1044 patch SG0001872 fixes this problem.
1046 *** On Irix 6.0, make tries (and fails) to build a program named unexelfsgi
1048 A compiler bug inserts spaces into the string "unexelfsgi . o"
1049 in src/Makefile. Edit src/Makefile, after configure is run,
1050 find that string, and take out the spaces.
1052 Compiler fixes in Irix 6.0.1 should eliminate this problem.
1054 *** On Irix 5.2, unexelfsgi.c can't find cmplrs/stsupport.h.
1056 The file cmplrs/stsupport.h was included in the wrong file set in the
1057 Irix 5.2 distribution. You can find it in the optional fileset
1058 compiler_dev, or copy it from some other Irix 5.2 system. A kludgy
1059 workaround is to change unexelfsgi.c to include sym.h instead of
1062 *** Coredumping in Irix 6.2
1064 Pete Forman <gsez020@compo.bedford.waii.com> writes:
1065 A problem noted by myself and others (I've lost the references) was
1066 that XEmacs coredumped when the cut or copy toolbar buttons were
1067 pressed. This has been fixed by loading the SGI patchset (Feb 98)
1068 without having to recompile XEmacs.
1070 My versions are XEmacs 20.3 (problem first noted in 19.15) and IRIX
1071 6.2, compiled using -n32. I'd guess that the relevant individual
1072 patch was "SG0002580: multiple fixes for X libraries". SGI recommends
1073 that the complete patch set be installed rather than parts of it.
1075 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS
1076 *** On Digital UNIX, the DEC C compiler might have a problem compiling
1079 In particular, src/extents.c and src/faces.c might cause the DEC C
1080 compiler to abort. When this happens: cd src, compile the files by
1081 hand, cd .., and redo the "make" command. When recompiling the files by
1082 hand, use the old C compiler for the following versions of Digital UNIX:
1083 - V3.n: Remove "-migrate" from the compile command.
1084 - V4.n: Add "-oldc" to the compile command.
1086 A related compiler bug has been fixed by the DEC compiler team. The
1087 new versions of the compiler should run fine.
1089 *** Under some versions of OSF XEmacs runs fine if built without
1090 optimization but will crash randomly if built with optimization.
1092 Using 'cc -g' is not sufficient to eliminate all optimization. Try
1093 'cc -g -O0' instead.
1095 *** Compilation errors on VMS.
1097 Sorry, XEmacs does not work under VMS. You might consider working on
1098 the port if you really want to have XEmacs work under VMS.
1101 *** On HPUX, the HP C compiler might have a problem compiling some files
1104 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
1106 Had to drop once again to level 2 optimization, at least to
1107 compile lstream.c. Otherwise, I get a "variable is void: \if"
1108 problem while dumping (this is a problem I already reported
1109 with vanilla hpux 10.01 and 9.07, which went away after
1110 applying patches for the C compiler). Trouble is I still
1111 haven't found the same patch for hpux 10.10, and I don't
1112 remember the patch numbers. I think potential XEmacs builders
1113 on HP should be warned about this.
1115 *** I don't have `xmkmf' and `imake' on my HP.
1117 You can get these standard X tools by anonymous FTP to
1118 hpcvaaz.cv.hp.com. Essentially all X programs need these.
1120 *** On HP-UX, problems with make
1122 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
1124 Some releases of XEmacs (e.g. 20.4) require GNU make to build
1125 successfully. You don't need GNU make when building 21.x.
1127 *** On HP-UX 9.05 XEmacs won't compile or coredump during the build.
1129 Marcus Thiessel <marcus@xemacs.org>
1131 This might be a sed problem. For your own safety make sure to use
1132 GNU sed while dumping XEmacs.
1136 *** Native cc on SCO OpenServer 5 is now OK. Icc may still throw you
1137 a curve. Here is what Robert Lipe <robertl@arnet.com> says:
1139 Unlike XEmacs 19.13, building with the native cc on SCO OpenServer 5
1140 now produces a functional binary. I will typically build this
1141 configuration for COFF with:
1143 /path_to_xemacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1144 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1145 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas
1147 This version now supports ELF builds. I highly recommend this to
1148 reduce the in-core footprint of XEmacs. This is now how I compile
1149 all my test releases. Build it like this:
1151 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1152 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1153 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic
1155 The compiler known as icc [ supplied with the OpenServer 5 Development
1156 System ] generates a working binary, but it takes forever to generate
1157 XEmacs. ICC also whines more about the code than /bin/cc does. I do
1158 believe all its whining is legitimate, however. Note that you do
1159 have to 'cd src ; make LD=icc' to avoid linker errors.
1161 The way I handle the build procedure is:
1163 /path_to_XEmacs_source/configure --with-gcc=no \
1164 --site-includes=/usr/local/include --site-libraries=/usr/local/lib \
1165 --with-xpm --with-xface --with-sound=nas --dynamic --compiler="icc"
1167 NOTE I have the xpm, xface, and audio libraries and includes in
1168 /usr/local/lib, /usr/local/include. If you don't have these,
1169 don't include the "--with-*" arguments in any of my examples.
1171 In previous versions of XEmacs, you had to override the defaults while
1172 compiling font-lock.o and extents.o when building with icc. This seems
1173 to no longer be true, but I'm including this old information in case it
1174 resurfaces. The process I used was:
1177 [ procure pizza, beer, repeat ]
1179 make CC="icc -W0,-mP1COPT_max_tree_size=3000" font-lock.o extents.o
1182 If you want sound support, get the tls566 supplement from
1183 ftp.sco.com:/TLS or any of its mirrors. It works just groovy
1186 The M-x manual-entry is known not to work. If you know Lisp and would
1187 like help in making it work, e-mail me at <robertl@dgii.com>.
1188 (UNCHECKED for 19.15 -- it might work).
1190 In earlier releases, gnuserv/gnuclient/gnudoit would open a frame
1191 just fine, but the client would lock up and the server would
1192 terminate when you used C-x # to close the frame. This is now
1195 In etc/ there are two files of note. emacskeys.sco and emacsstrs.sco.
1196 The comments at the top of emacskeys.sco describe its function, and
1197 the emacstrs.sco is a suitable candidate for /usr/lib/keyboard/strings
1198 to take advantage of the keyboard map in emacskeys.sco.
1200 Note: Much of the above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0
1203 * Problems with running XEmacs
1204 ==============================
1207 *** XEmacs consistently crashes in a particular strange place.
1209 One known case is on Red Hat Linux, compiled with GCC, attempting to
1210 render PNG images. The problem is that XEmacs code is not compliant
1211 with ANSI rules about aliasing. Adding -fno-strict-aliasing to CFLAGS
1212 may help (or the equivalent for your compiler). (Some versions of
1213 XEmacs may already do this automatically, but if you specify CFLAGS or
1214 --cflags yourself, you will have to add this flag by hand.)
1216 If you diagnose this bug for some other symptoms or systems, please
1217 let us know (if you can send mail from the affected system, use M-x
1218 report-xemacs-bug) so we can update this entry.
1220 *** Changes made to .el files do not take effect.
1222 You may have forgotten to recompile them into .elc files. Then the
1223 old .elc files will be loaded, and your changes will not be seen. To
1224 fix this, do `M-x byte-recompile-directory' and specify the directory
1225 that contains the Lisp files.
1227 Note that you will get a warning when loading a .elc file that is
1228 older than the corresponding .el file.
1230 *** VM appears to hang in large folders.
1232 This is normal (trust us) when upgrading to VM-6.22 from earlier
1233 versions. Let VM finish what it is doing and all will be well.
1235 *** Starting with 21.4.x, killing text is absurdly slow.
1237 See FAQ Q3.10.6. Should be available on the web near
1238 http://www.xemacs.org/faq/xemacs-faq.html#SEC160.
1240 *** Whenever I try to retrieve a remote file, I have problems.
1242 A typical error: FTP Error: USER request failed; 500 AUTH not understood.
1243 Thanks to giacomo boffi <giacomo.boffi@polimi.it> on comp.emacs.xemacs:
1245 tell your ftp client to not attempt AUTH authentication (or do not
1246 use FTP servers that don't understand AUTH)
1248 and notes that you need to add an element (often "-u") to
1249 `efs-ftp-program-args'. Use M-x customize-variable, and verify the
1250 needed flag with `man ftp' or other local documentation.
1252 *** gnuserv is running, some clients can connect, but others cannot.
1254 The code in gnuslib.c respects the value of TMPDIR. If the server and
1255 the client have different values in their environment, you lose.
1256 One program known to set TMPDIR and manifest this problem is exmh.
1257 You can defeat the use of TMPDIR by unsetting USE_TMPDIR at the top of
1258 gnuserv.h at build time.
1262 *** You type Control-H (Backspace) expecting to delete characters.
1264 Emacs has traditionally used Control-H for help; unfortunately this
1265 interferes with its use as Backspace on TTY's. As of XEmacs 21,
1266 XEmacs looks at the "erase" setting of TTY structures and maps C-h to
1267 backspace when erase is set to C-h. This is sort of a special hack,
1268 but it makes it possible for you to use the standard:
1272 to get your backspace key to erase characters. The erase setting is
1273 recorded in the Lisp variable `tty-erase-char', which you can use to
1274 tune the settings in your .emacs.
1276 A major drawback of this is that when C-h becomes backspace, it no
1277 longer invokes help. In that case, you need to use f1 for help, or
1278 bind another key. An example of the latter is the following code,
1279 which moves help to Meta-? (ESC ?):
1281 (global-set-key "\M-?" 'help-command)
1283 *** At startup I get a warning on stderr about missing charsets:
1285 Warning: Missing charsets in String to FontSet conversion
1287 You need to specify appropriate charsets for your locale (usually the
1288 value of the LANG environment variable) in .Xresources. See
1289 etc/Emacs.ad for the relevant resources (mostly menubar fonts and
1290 fontsets). Do not edit this file, it's purely informative.
1292 If you have no satisfactory fonts for iso-8859-1, XEmacs will crash.
1294 It looks like XFree86 4.x (the usual server on Linux and *BSD) has
1295 some braindamage where .UTF-8 locales will always generate this
1296 message, because the XFree86 (font)server doesn't know that UTF-8 will
1297 use the ISO10646-1 font registry (or a Cmap or something).
1299 If you are not using a .UTF-8 locale and see this warning for a
1300 character set not listed in the default in Emacs.ad, please let
1301 xemacs-beta@xemacs.org know about it, so we can add fonts to the
1302 appropriate fontsets and stifle this warning. (Unfortunately it's
1303 buried in Xlib, so we can't easily get rid of it otherwise.)
1305 *** Mail agents (VM, Gnus, rmail) cannot get new mail
1307 rmail and VM get new mail from /usr/spool/mail/$USER using a program
1308 called `movemail'. This program interlocks with /bin/mail using the
1309 protocol defined by /bin/mail.
1311 There are two different protocols in general use. One of them uses
1312 the `flock' system call. The other involves creating a lock file;
1313 `movemail' must be able to write in /usr/spool/mail in order to do
1314 this. You control which one is used by defining, or not defining, the
1315 macro MAIL_USE_FLOCK in config.h or the m- or s- file it includes. IF
1316 YOU DON'T USE THE FORM OF INTERLOCKING THAT IS NORMAL ON YOUR SYSTEM,
1319 If your system uses the lock file protocol, and fascist restrictions
1320 prevent ordinary users from writing the lock files in /usr/spool/mail,
1321 you may need to make `movemail' setgid to a suitable group such as
1322 `mail'. To do this, use the following commands (as root) after doing
1328 Installation normally copies movemail from the build directory to an
1329 installation directory which is usually under /usr/local/lib. The
1330 installed copy of movemail is usually in the directory
1331 /usr/local/lib/emacs/VERSION/TARGET. You must change the group and
1332 mode of the installed copy; changing the group and mode of the build
1333 directory copy is ineffective.
1335 *** Things which should be bold or italic (such as the initial
1336 copyright notice) are not.
1338 The fonts of the "bold" and "italic" faces are generated from the font
1339 of the "default" face; in this way, your bold and italic fonts will
1340 have the appropriate size and family. However, emacs can only be
1341 clever in this way if you have specified the default font using the
1342 XLFD (X Logical Font Description) format, which looks like
1344 *-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*
1346 if you use any of the other, less strict font name formats, some of
1349 lucidasanstypewriter-12
1353 then emacs won't be able to guess the names of the "bold" and "italic"
1354 versions. All X fonts can be referred to via XLFD-style names, so you
1355 should use those forms. See the man pages for X(1), xlsfonts(1), and
1358 *** The dumped Emacs crashes when run, trying to write pure data.
1360 Two causes have been seen for such problems.
1362 1) On a system where getpagesize is not a system call, it is defined
1363 as a macro. If the definition (in both unexec.c and malloc.c) is wrong,
1364 it can cause problems like this. You might be able to find the correct
1365 value in the man page for a.out (5).
1367 2) Some systems allocate variables declared static among the
1368 initialized variables. Emacs makes all initialized variables in most
1369 of its files pure after dumping, but the variables declared static and
1370 not initialized are not supposed to be pure. On these systems you
1371 may need to add "#define static" to the m- or the s- file.
1373 *** Reading and writing files is very very slow.
1375 Try evaluating the form (setq lock-directory nil) and see if that helps.
1376 There is a problem with file-locking on some systems (possibly related
1377 to NFS) that I don't understand. Please send mail to the address
1378 xemacs-beta@xemacs.org if you figure this one out.
1380 *** When emacs starts up, I get lots of warnings about unknown keysyms.
1382 If you are running the prebuilt binaries, the Motif library expects to find
1383 certain thing in the XKeysymDB file. This file is normally in /usr/lib/X11/
1384 or in /usr/openwin/lib/. If you keep yours in a different place, set the
1385 environment variable $XKEYSYMDB to point to it before starting emacs. If
1386 you still have the problem after doing that, perhaps your version of X is
1387 too old. There is a copy of the MIT X11R5 XKeysymDB file in the emacs `etc'
1388 directory. Try using that one.
1390 *** My X resources used to work, and now some of them are being ignored.
1392 Check the resources in .../etc/Emacs.ad (which is the same as the file
1393 sample.Xresources). Perhaps some of the default resources built in to
1394 emacs are now overriding your existing resources. Copy and edit the
1395 resources in Emacs.ad as necessary.
1397 *** I have focus problems when I use `M-o' to switch to another screen
1398 without using the mouse.
1400 The focus issues with a program like XEmacs, which has multiple
1401 homogeneous top-level windows, are very complicated, and as a result,
1402 most window managers don't implement them correctly.
1404 The R4/R5 version of twm (and all of its descendants) had buggy focus
1405 handling. Sufficiently recent versions of tvtwm have been fixed. In
1406 addition, if you're using twm, make sure you have not specified
1407 "NoTitleFocus" in your .tvtwmrc file. The very nature of this option
1408 makes twm do some illegal focus tricks, even with the patch.
1410 It is known that olwm and olvwm are buggy, and in different ways. If
1411 you're using click-to-type mode, try using point-to-type, or vice
1414 In older versions of NCDwm, one could not even type at XEmacs windows.
1415 This has been fixed in newer versions (2.4.3, and possibly earlier).
1417 (Many people suggest that XEmacs should warp the mouse when focusing
1418 on another screen in point-to-type mode. This is not ICCCM-compliant
1419 behavior. Implementing such policy is the responsibility of the
1420 window manager itself, it is not legal for a client to do this.)
1422 *** Emacs spontaneously displays "I-search: " at the bottom of the screen.
1424 This means that Control-S/Control-Q (XON/XOFF) "flow control" is being
1425 used. C-s/C-q flow control is bad for Emacs editors because it takes
1426 away C-s and C-q as user commands. Since editors do not output long
1427 streams of text without user commands, there is no need for a
1428 user-issuable "stop output" command in an editor; therefore, a
1429 properly designed flow control mechanism would transmit all possible
1430 input characters without interference. Designing such a mechanism is
1431 easy, for a person with at least half a brain.
1433 There are three possible reasons why flow control could be taking place:
1435 1) Terminal has not been told to disable flow control
1436 2) Insufficient padding for the terminal in use
1437 3) Some sort of terminal concentrator or line switch is responsible
1439 First of all, many terminals have a set-up mode which controls whether
1440 they generate XON/XOFF flow control characters. This must be set to
1441 "no XON/XOFF" in order for Emacs to work. Sometimes there is an
1442 escape sequence that the computer can send to turn flow control off
1443 and on. If so, perhaps the termcap `ti' string should turn flow
1444 control off, and the `te' string should turn it on.
1446 Once the terminal has been told "no flow control", you may find it
1447 needs more padding. The amount of padding Emacs sends is controlled
1448 by the termcap entry for the terminal in use, and by the output baud
1449 rate as known by the kernel. The shell command `stty' will print
1450 your output baud rate; `stty' with suitable arguments will set it if
1451 it is wrong. Setting to a higher speed causes increased padding. If
1452 the results are wrong for the correct speed, there is probably a
1453 problem in the termcap entry. You must speak to a local Unix wizard
1454 to fix this. Perhaps you are just using the wrong terminal type.
1456 For terminals that lack a "no flow control" mode, sometimes just
1457 giving lots of padding will prevent actual generation of flow control
1458 codes. You might as well try it.
1460 If you are really unlucky, your terminal is connected to the computer
1461 through a concentrator which sends XON/XOFF flow control to the
1462 computer, or it insists on sending flow control itself no matter how
1463 much padding you give it. Unless you can figure out how to turn flow
1464 control off on this concentrator (again, refer to your local wizard),
1465 you are screwed! You should have the terminal or concentrator
1466 replaced with a properly designed one. In the mean time, some drastic
1467 measures can make Emacs semi-work.
1469 You can make Emacs ignore C-s and C-q and let the operating system
1470 handle them. To do this on a per-session basis, just type M-x
1471 enable-flow-control RET. You will see a message that C-\ and C-^ are
1472 now translated to C-s and C-q. (Use the same command M-x
1473 enable-flow-control to turn *off* this special mode. It toggles flow
1476 If C-\ and C-^ are inconvenient for you (for example, if one of them
1477 is the escape character of your terminal concentrator), you can choose
1478 other characters by setting the variables flow-control-c-s-replacement
1479 and flow-control-c-q-replacement. But choose carefully, since all
1480 other control characters are already used by emacs.
1482 IMPORTANT: if you type C-s by accident while flow control is enabled,
1483 Emacs output will freeze, and you will have to remember to type C-q in
1486 If you work in an environment where a majority of terminals of a
1487 certain type are flow control hobbled, you can use the function
1488 `enable-flow-control-on' to turn on this flow control avoidance scheme
1489 automatically. Here is an example:
1491 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
1493 If this isn't quite correct (e.g. you have a mixture of flow-control hobbled
1494 and good vt200 terminals), you can still run enable-flow-control
1497 I have no intention of ever redesigning the Emacs command set for the
1498 assumption that terminals use C-s/C-q flow control. XON/XOFF flow
1499 control technique is a bad design, and terminals that need it are bad
1500 merchandise and should not be purchased. Now that X is becoming
1501 widespread, XON/XOFF seems to be on the way out. If you can get some
1502 use out of GNU Emacs on inferior terminals, more power to you, but I
1503 will not make Emacs worse for properly designed systems for the sake
1504 of inferior systems.
1506 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely.
1508 For some reason, your system is using brain-damaged C-s/C-q flow
1509 control despite Emacs's attempts to turn it off. Perhaps your
1510 terminal is connected to the computer through a concentrator
1511 that wants to use flow control.
1513 You should first try to tell the concentrator not to use flow control.
1514 If you succeed in this, try making the terminal work without
1515 flow control, as described in the preceding section.
1517 If that line of approach is not successful, map some other characters
1518 into C-s and C-q using keyboard-translate-table. The example above
1519 shows how to do this with C-^ and C-\.
1521 *** Control-S and Control-Q commands are ignored completely on a net
1524 Some versions of rlogin (and possibly telnet) do not pass flow
1525 control characters to the remote system to which they connect.
1526 On such systems, emacs on the remote system cannot disable flow
1527 control on the local system.
1529 One way to cure this is to disable flow control on the local host
1530 (the one running rlogin, not the one running rlogind) using the
1531 stty command, before starting the rlogin process. On many systems,
1532 `stty start u stop u' will do this.
1534 Some versions of tcsh will prevent even this from working. One way
1535 around this is to start another shell before starting rlogin, and
1536 issue the stty command to disable flow control from that shell.
1538 If none of these methods work, the best solution is to type
1539 `M-x enable-flow-control' at the beginning of your emacs session, or
1540 if you expect the problem to continue, add a line such as the
1541 following to your .emacs (on the host running rlogind):
1543 (enable-flow-control-on "vt200" "vt300" "vt101" "vt131")
1545 See the entry about spontaneous display of I-search (above) for more
1548 *** TTY redisplay is slow.
1550 XEmacs has fairly new TTY redisplay support (beginning from 19.12),
1551 which doesn't include some basic TTY optimizations -- like using
1552 scrolling regions to move around blocks of text. This is why
1553 redisplay on the traditional terminals, or over slow lines can be very
1556 If you are interested in fixing this, please let us know at
1557 <xemacs-beta@xemacs.org>.
1559 *** Screen is updated wrong, but only on one kind of terminal.
1561 This could mean that the termcap entry you are using for that terminal
1562 is wrong, or it could mean that Emacs has a bug handing the
1563 combination of features specified for that terminal.
1565 The first step in tracking this down is to record what characters
1566 Emacs is sending to the terminal. Execute the Lisp expression
1567 (open-termscript "./emacs-script") to make Emacs write all terminal
1568 output into the file ~/emacs-script as well; then do what makes the
1569 screen update wrong, and look at the file and decode the characters
1570 using the manual for the terminal. There are several possibilities:
1572 1) The characters sent are correct, according to the terminal manual.
1574 In this case, there is no obvious bug in Emacs, and most likely you
1575 need more padding, or possibly the terminal manual is wrong.
1577 2) The characters sent are incorrect, due to an obscure aspect of the
1578 terminal behavior not described in an obvious way by termcap.
1580 This case is hard. It will be necessary to think of a way for Emacs
1581 to distinguish between terminals with this kind of behavior and other
1582 terminals that behave subtly differently but are classified the same
1583 by termcap; or else find an algorithm for Emacs to use that avoids the
1584 difference. Such changes must be tested on many kinds of terminals.
1586 3) The termcap entry is wrong.
1588 See the file etc/TERMS for information on changes that are known to be
1589 needed in commonly used termcap entries for certain terminals.
1591 4) The characters sent are incorrect, and clearly cannot be right for
1592 any terminal with the termcap entry you were using.
1594 This is unambiguously an Emacs bug, and can probably be fixed in
1595 termcap.c, terminfo.c, tparam.c, cm.c, redisplay-tty.c,
1596 redisplay-output.c, or redisplay.c.
1598 *** My buffers are full of \000 characters or otherwise corrupt.
1600 Some compilers have trouble with gmalloc.c and ralloc.c; try recompiling
1601 without optimization. If that doesn't work, try recompiling with
1602 SYSTEM_MALLOC defined, and/or with REL_ALLOC undefined.
1604 *** A position you specified in .Xresources is ignored, using twm.
1606 twm normally ignores "program-specified" positions.
1607 You can tell it to obey them with this command in your `.twmrc' file:
1609 UsePPosition "on" #allow clents to request a position
1611 *** With M-x enable-flow-control, you need to type C-\ twice to do
1612 incremental search--a single C-\ gets no response.
1614 This has been traced to communicating with your machine via kermit,
1615 with C-\ as the kermit escape character. One solution is to use
1616 another escape character in kermit. One user did
1618 set escape-character 17
1620 in his .kermrc file, to make C-q the kermit escape character.
1622 *** The Motif version of Emacs paints the screen a solid color.
1624 This has been observed to result from the following X resource:
1626 Emacs*default.attributeFont: -*-courier-medium-r-*-*-*-140-*-*-*-*-iso8859-*
1628 That the resource has this effect indicates a bug in something, but we
1629 do not yet know what. If it is an Emacs bug, we hope someone can
1630 explain what the bug is so we can fix it. In the mean time, removing
1631 the resource prevents the problem.
1633 *** After running emacs once, subsequent invocations crash.
1635 Some versions of SVR4 have a serious bug in the implementation of the
1636 mmap () system call in the kernel; this causes emacs to run correctly
1637 the first time, and then crash when run a second time.
1639 Contact your vendor and ask for the mmap bug fix; in the mean time,
1640 you may be able to work around the problem by adding a line to your
1641 operating system description file (whose name is reported by the
1642 configure script) that reads:
1643 #define SYSTEM_MALLOC
1644 This makes Emacs use memory less efficiently, but seems to work around
1647 *** Inability to send an Alt-modified key, when Emacs is communicating
1648 directly with an X server.
1650 If you have tried to bind an Alt-modified key as a command, and it
1651 does not work to type the command, the first thing you should check is
1652 whether the key is getting through to Emacs. To do this, type C-h c
1653 followed by the Alt-modified key. C-h c should say what kind of event
1654 it read. If it says it read an Alt-modified key, then make sure you
1655 have made the key binding correctly.
1657 If C-h c reports an event that doesn't have the Alt modifier, it may
1658 be because your X server has no key for the Alt modifier. The X
1659 server that comes from MIT does not set up the Alt modifier by
1662 If your keyboard has keys named Alt, you can enable them as follows:
1664 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_L'
1665 xmodmap -e 'add mod2 = Alt_R'
1667 If the keyboard has just one key named Alt, then only one of those
1668 commands is needed. The modifier `mod2' is a reasonable choice if you
1669 are using an unmodified MIT version of X. Otherwise, choose any
1670 modifier bit not otherwise used.
1672 If your keyboard does not have keys named Alt, you can use some other
1673 keys. Use the keysym command in xmodmap to turn a function key (or
1674 some other 'spare' key) into Alt_L or into Alt_R, and then use the
1675 commands show above to make them modifier keys.
1677 Note that if you have Alt keys but no Meta keys, Emacs translates Alt
1678 into Meta. This is because of the great importance of Meta in Emacs.
1680 *** In Shell mode, you get a ^M at the end of every line.
1682 This happens to people who use tcsh, because it is trying to be too
1683 smart. It sees that the Shell uses terminal type `unknown' and turns
1684 on the flag to output ^M at the end of each line. You can fix the
1685 problem by adding this to your .cshrc file:
1688 if ($EMACS == "t") then
1690 stty -icrnl -onlcr -echo susp ^Z
1694 *** An error message such as `X protocol error: BadMatch (invalid
1695 parameter attributes) on protocol request 93'.
1697 This comes from having an invalid X resource, such as
1699 (which is invalid because it specifies a color name for something
1700 that isn't a color.)
1702 The fix is to correct your X resources.
1704 *** Once you pull down a menu from the menubar, it won't go away.
1706 It has been claimed that this is caused by a bug in certain very old
1707 (1990?) versions of the twm window manager. It doesn't happen with
1708 recent vintages, or with other window managers.
1710 *** Emacs ignores the "help" key when running OLWM.
1712 OLWM grabs the help key, and retransmits it to the appropriate client
1713 using XSendEvent. Allowing emacs to react to synthetic events is a
1714 security hole, so this is turned off by default. You can enable it by
1715 setting the variable x-allow-sendevents to t. You can also cause fix
1716 this by telling OLWM to not grab the help key, with the null binding
1717 "OpenWindows.KeyboardCommand.Help:".
1719 *** Programs running under terminal emulator do not recognize `emacs'
1722 The cause of this is a shell startup file that sets the TERMCAP
1723 environment variable. The terminal emulator uses that variable to
1724 provide the information on the special terminal type that Emacs
1727 Rewrite your shell startup file so that it does not change TERMCAP
1728 in such a case. You could use the following conditional which sets
1729 it only if it is undefined.
1731 if ( ! ${?TERMCAP} ) setenv TERMCAP ~/my-termcap-file
1733 Or you could set TERMCAP only when you set TERM--which should not
1734 happen in a non-login shell.
1736 *** The popup menu appears at the bottom/right of my screen.
1738 You probably have something like the following in your ~/.Xresources
1740 Emacs.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1742 Use the following instead
1744 Emacs*EmacsFrame.geometry: 81x56--9--1
1746 *** When I try to use the PostgreSQL functions, I get a message about
1749 The only known case in which this happens is if you are using gcc, you
1750 configured with --error-checking=all and --with-modules, and you
1751 compiled with no optimization. If you encounter this problem in any
1752 other situation, please inform xemacs-beta@xemacs.org.
1754 This problem stems from a gcc bug. With no optimization, functions
1755 declared `extern inline' sometimes are not completely compiled away. An
1756 undefined symbol with the function's name is put into the resulting
1757 object file. In this case, when the postgresql module is loaded, the
1758 linker is unable to resolve that symbol, so the module load fails. The
1759 workaround is to recompile the module with optimization turned on. Any
1760 optimization level, including -Os, appears to work.
1762 *** C-z just refreshes the screen instead of suspending Emacs.
1764 You are probably using a shell that doesn't support job control, even
1765 though the system itself is capable of it. Try using a different
1769 *** XEmacs crashes on MacOS within font-lock, or when dealing
1770 with large compilation buffers, or in other regex applications.
1772 The default stack size under MacOS/X is rather small (512k as opposed
1773 to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
1774 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
1777 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
1780 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
1783 *** Your Delete key sends a Backspace to the terminal, using an AIXterm.
1785 The solution is to include in your .Xresources the lines:
1787 *aixterm.Translations: #override <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7f)
1788 aixterm*ttyModes: erase ^?
1790 This makes your Backspace key send DEL (ASCII 127).
1792 *** On AIX 4, some programs fail when run in a Shell buffer
1793 with an error message like No terminfo entry for "unknown".
1795 On AIX, many terminal type definitions are not installed by default.
1796 `unknown' is one of them. Install the "Special Generic Terminal
1797 Definitions" to make them defined.
1799 *** On AIX, you get this message when running Emacs:
1801 Could not load program emacs
1802 Symbol smtcheckinit in csh is undefined
1803 Error was: Exec format error
1807 Could not load program .emacs
1808 Symbol _system_con in csh is undefined
1809 Symbol _fp_trapsta in csh is undefined
1810 Error was: Exec format error
1812 These can happen when you try to run on AIX 3.2.5 a program that was
1813 compiled with 3.2.4. The fix is to recompile.
1815 *** Trouble using ptys on AIX.
1817 People often install the pty devices on AIX incorrectly.
1818 Use `smit pty' to reinstall them properly.
1822 *** The Emacs window disappears when you type M-q.
1824 Some versions of the Open Look window manager interpret M-q as a quit
1825 command for whatever window you are typing at. If you want to use
1826 Emacs with that window manager, you should try to configure the window
1827 manager to use some other command. You can disable the
1828 shortcut keys entirely by adding this line to ~/.OWdefaults:
1830 OpenWindows.WindowMenuAccelerators: False
1832 *** When Emacs tries to ring the bell, you get an error like
1834 audio: sst_open: SETQSIZE" Invalid argument
1835 audio: sst_close: SETREG MMR2, Invalid argument
1837 you have probably compiled using an ANSI C compiler, but with non-ANSI
1838 include files. In particular, on Suns, the file
1839 /usr/include/sun/audioio.h uses the _IOW macro to define the constant
1840 AUDIOSETQSIZE. _IOW in turn uses a K&R preprocessor feature that is
1841 now explicitly forbidden in ANSI preprocessors, namely substitution
1842 inside character constants. All ANSI C compilers must provide a
1843 workaround for this problem. Lucid's C compiler is shipped with a new
1844 set of system include files. If you are using GCC, there is a script
1845 called fixincludes that creates new versions of some system include
1846 files that use this obsolete feature.
1848 *** On Solaris 2.6, XEmacs dumps core when exiting.
1850 This happens if you're XEmacs is running on the same machine as the X
1851 server, and the optimized memory transport has been turned on by
1852 setting the environment variable XSUNTRANSPORT. The crash occurs
1853 during the call to XCloseDisplay.
1855 If this describes your situation, you need to undefine the
1856 XSUNTRANSPORT environment variable.
1858 *** On Solaris, C-x doesn't get through to Emacs when you use the console.
1860 This is a Solaris feature (at least on Intel x86 cpus). Type C-r
1861 C-r C-t, to toggle whether C-x gets through to Emacs.
1863 *** On Solaris 2.4, Dired hangs and C-g does not work. Or Emacs hangs
1864 forever waiting for termination of a subprocess that is a zombie.
1866 casper@fwi.uva.nl says the problem is in X11R6. Rebuild libX11.so
1867 after changing the file xc/config/cf/sunLib.tmpl. Change the lines
1870 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1875 #if OSMinorVersion < 4
1877 #define SharedX11Reqs -lthread
1881 Be sure also to edit x/config/cf/sun.cf so that OSMinorVersion is 4
1882 (as it should be for Solaris 2.4). The file has three definitions for
1883 OSMinorVersion: the first is for x86, the second for SPARC under
1884 Solaris, and the third for SunOS 4. Make sure to update the
1885 definition for your type of machine and system.
1887 Then do `make Everything' in the top directory of X11R6, to rebuild
1888 the makefiles and rebuild X. The X built this way work only on
1889 Solaris 2.4, not on 2.3.
1891 For multithreaded X to work it necessary to install patch
1892 101925-02 to fix problems in header files [2.4]. You need
1893 to reinstall gcc or re-run just-fixinc after installing that
1896 However, Frank Rust <frust@iti.cs.tu-bs.de> used a simpler solution:
1898 #define ThreadedX YES
1900 #define ThreadedX NO
1901 in sun.cf and did `make World' to rebuild X11R6. Removing all
1902 `-DXTHREAD*' flags and `-lthread' entries from lib/X11/Makefile and
1903 typing 'make install' in that directory also seemed to work.
1905 *** On SunOS 4.1.3, Emacs unpredictably crashes in _yp_dobind_soft.
1907 This happens if you configure Emacs specifying just `sparc-sun-sunos4'
1908 on a system that is version 4.1.3. You must specify the precise
1909 version number (or let configure figure out the configuration, which
1910 it can do perfectly well for SunOS).
1912 *** Mail is lost when sent to local aliases.
1914 Many emacs mail user agents (VM and rmail, for instance) use the
1915 sendmail.el library. This library can arrange for mail to be
1916 delivered by passing messages to the /usr/lib/sendmail (usually)
1917 program . In doing so, it passes the '-t' flag to sendmail, which
1918 means that the name of the recipient of the message is not on the
1919 command line and, therefore, that sendmail must parse the message to
1920 obtain the destination address.
1922 There is a bug in the SunOS4.1.1 and SunOS4.1.3 versions of sendmail.
1923 In short, when given the -t flag, the SunOS sendmail won't recognize
1924 non-local (i.e. NIS) aliases. It has been reported that the Solaris
1925 2.x versions of sendmail do not have this bug. For those using SunOS
1926 4.1, the best fix is to install sendmail V8 or IDA sendmail (which
1927 have other advantages over the regular sendmail as well). At the time
1928 of this writing, these official versions are available:
1930 Sendmail V8 on ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in /ucb/sendmail:
1931 sendmail.8.6.9.base.tar.Z (the base system source & documentation)
1932 sendmail.8.6.9.cf.tar.Z (configuration files)
1933 sendmail.8.6.9.misc.tar.Z (miscellaneous support programs)
1934 sendmail.8.6.9.xdoc.tar.Z (extended documentation, with postscript)
1936 IDA sendmail on vixen.cso.uiuc.edu in /pub:
1937 sendmail-5.67b+IDA-1.5.tar.gz
1939 *** Emacs fails to understand most Internet host names, even though
1940 the names work properly with other programs on the same system.
1941 Emacs won't work with X-windows if the value of DISPLAY is HOSTNAME:0.
1942 Gnus can't make contact with the specified host for nntp.
1944 This typically happens on Suns and other systems that use shared
1945 libraries. The cause is that the site has installed a version of the
1946 shared library which uses a name server--but has not installed a
1947 similar version of the unshared library which Emacs uses.
1949 The result is that most programs, using the shared library, work with
1950 the nameserver, but Emacs does not.
1952 The fix is to install an unshared library that corresponds to what you
1953 installed in the shared library, and then relink Emacs.
1955 On SunOS 4.1, simply define HAVE_RES_INIT.
1957 If you have already installed the name resolver in the file libresolv.a,
1958 then you need to compile Emacs to use that library. The easiest way to
1959 do this is to add to config.h a definition of LIBS_SYSTEM, LIBS_MACHINE
1960 or LIB_STANDARD which uses -lresolv. Watch out! If you redefine a macro
1961 that is already in use in your configuration to supply some other libraries,
1962 be careful not to lose the others.
1964 Thus, you could start by adding this to config.h:
1966 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv
1968 Then if this gives you an error for redefining a macro, and you see that
1969 the s- file defines LIBS_SYSTEM as -lfoo -lbar, you could change config.h
1972 #define LIBS_SYSTEM -lresolv -lfoo -lbar
1974 *** With process-connection-type set to t, each line of subprocess
1975 output is terminated with a ^M, making ange-ftp and GNUS not work.
1977 On SunOS systems, this problem has been seen to be a result of an
1978 incomplete installation of gcc 2.2 which allowed some non-ANSI
1979 compatible include files into the compilation. In particular this
1980 affected virtually all ioctl() calls.
1984 *** XEmacs crashes on startup, in make-frame.
1986 Typically the Lisp backtrace includes
1988 make-frame(nil #<x-device on ":0.0" 0x2558>)
1990 somewhere near the top. The problem is due to an improvement in GNU
1991 ld that sorts the ELF reloc sections in the executable, giving
1992 dramatic speedups in startup for large executables. It also confuses
1993 the traditional unexec code in XEmacs, leading to the core dump. The
1994 solution is to use the --pdump or --ldflags='-z nocombreloc' options
1995 to configure. Recent 21.4 and 12.5 autodetect this in configure.
1997 Red Hat and SuSE (at least) distributed a prerelease version of ld
1998 (versions around 2.11.90.x.y) where autodetection is impossible. The
1999 recommended procedure is to upgrade to binutils >= 2.12 and rerun
2000 configure. Otherwise you must apply the flags by hand. --pdump is
2003 *** I want XEmacs to use the Alt key, not the XXX key, for Meta commands
2005 For historical reasons, XEmacs looks for a Meta key, then an Alt key.
2006 It binds Meta commands to the X11 modifier bit attached to the first
2007 of these it finds. On PCs, the Windows key is often assigned the Meta
2008 bit, but many desktop environments go to great lengths to get all apps
2009 to use the Alt key, and reserve the Windows key to (sensibly enough)
2012 One correct way to implement this was suggested on comp.emacs.xemacs
2013 (by Kilian Foth and in more detail by Michael Piotrowski): unmap the
2014 Meta modifier using xmodmap or xkb, and then map the Meta/Windows key
2015 to the Super or Hyper keysym and an appropriate mod bit. XEmacs will
2016 not find the Meta keysym, and default to using the Alt key for Meta
2017 keybindings. Typically few applications use the (X11) Meta modifier;
2018 it is tedious but not too much so to teach the ones you need to use
2019 Super instead of Meta. There may be further useful hints in the
2020 discussion of keymapping on non-Linux platforms.
2022 *** The color-gcc wrapper
2024 This wrapper colorizes the error messages from gcc. By default XEmacs
2025 does not interpret the escape sequences used to generate colors,
2026 resulting in a cluttered, hard-to-read buffer. You can remove the
2027 wrapper, or defeat the wrapper colorization in Emacs process buffers
2028 by editing the "nocolor" attribute in /etc/colorgccrc:
2030 $ diff -u /etc/colorgccrc.old /etc/colorgccrc
2031 --- /etc/colorgccrc.old Tue Dec 26 02:17:46 2000
2032 +++ /etc/colorgccrc Tue Dec 26 02:15:48 2000
2035 +nocolor: dumb emacs
2037 If you want colorization in your Emacs buffers, you may get good
2038 results from the ansi-color.el library:
2040 http://www.geocities.com/kensanata/color-emacs.html#ansicolors
2042 This is written for the mainline GNU Emacs but the author has made
2043 efforts to adapt it to XEmacs. YMMV.
2045 *** Slow startup on Linux.
2047 People using systems based on the Linux kernel sometimes report that
2048 startup takes 10 to 15 seconds longer than `usual'. There are two
2049 problems, one older, one newer.
2051 **** Old problem: IPv4 host lookup
2053 On older systems, this is because Emacs looks up the host name when it
2054 starts. Normally, this takes negligible time; the extra delay is due
2055 to improper system configuration. (Recent Linux distros usually have
2056 this configuration correct "out of the box".) This problem can occur
2057 for both networked and non-networked machines.
2059 Here is how to fix the configuration. It requires being root.
2061 ***** Networked Case
2063 First, make sure the files `/etc/hosts' and `/etc/host.conf' both
2064 exist. The first line in the `/etc/hosts' file should look like this
2065 (replace HOSTNAME with your host name):
2067 127.0.0.1 localhost HOSTNAME
2069 Also make sure that the `/etc/host.conf' files contains the following
2075 Any changes, permanent and temporary, to the host name should be
2076 indicated in the `/etc/hosts' file, since it acts a limited local
2077 database of addresses and names (e.g., some SLIP connections
2078 dynamically allocate ip addresses).
2080 ***** Non-Networked Case
2082 The solution described in the networked case applies here as well.
2083 However, if you never intend to network your machine, you can use a
2084 simpler solution: create an empty `/etc/host.conf' file. The command
2085 `touch /etc/host.conf' suffices to create the file. The `/etc/hosts'
2086 file is not necessary with this approach.
2088 **** New problem: IPv6 CNAME lookup
2090 A newer problem is due to XEmacs changing to use the modern
2091 getaddrinfo() interface from the older gethostbyname() interface. The
2092 solution above is insufficient, because getaddrinfo() by default tries
2093 to get IPv6 information for localhost. This always involves a dns
2094 lookup to get the CNAME, and the strategies above don't work. It then
2095 falls back to IPv4 behavior. This is good[tm] according the people at
2096 WIDE who know about IPv6.
2098 ***** Robust network case
2100 Configure your network so that there are no nameservers configured
2101 until the network is actually running. getaddrinfo() will not try to
2102 access a nameserver that isn't configured.
2104 ***** Flaky network case
2106 If you have a flaky modem or DSL connection that can be relied on only
2107 to go down whenever you want to bring XEmacs up, you need to force
2108 IPv4 behavior. Explicitly setting DISPLAY=127.0.0.1:0.0 (or whatever
2109 is appropriate) works in most cases.
2111 If you cannot or do not want to do that, you can hard code IPv4
2112 behavior in src/process-unix.c. This is bad[tm], on your own head be
2113 it. Use the configure option `--with-ipv6-cname=no'.
2117 The Mandrake Linux distribution is attempting to comprehensively
2118 update the user interface, and make it consistent across
2119 applications. This is very difficult, and will occasionally cause
2120 conflicts with applications like Emacs with their own long-established
2121 interfaces. Known issues specific to Mandrake or especially common:
2123 Some versions of XEmacs (21.1.9 is known) distributed with Mandrake
2124 were patched to make the Meta and Alt keysyms synonymous. These
2125 normally work as expected in the Mandrake environment. However,
2126 custom-built XEmacsen (including all 21.2 betas) will "inexplicably"
2127 not respect the "Alt-invokes-Meta-commands" convention. See "I want
2128 XEmacs to use the Alt key" below.
2130 The color-gcc wrapper (see below) is in common use on the Mandrake
2133 *** You get crashes in a non-C locale with Linux GNU Libc 2.0.
2135 Internationalization was not the top priority for GNU Libc 2.0.
2136 As of this writing (1998-12-28) you may get crashes while running
2137 XEmacs in a non-C locale. For example, `LC_ALL=en_US xemacs' crashes
2138 while `LC_ALL=C xemacs' runs fine. This happens for example with GNU
2139 libc 2.0.7. Installing libintl.a and libintl.h built from gettext
2140 0.10.35 and re-building XEmacs solves the crashes. Presumably soon
2141 everyone will upgrade to GNU Libc 2.1 and this problem will go away.
2143 *** `C-z', or `M-x suspend-emacs' hangs instead of suspending.
2145 If you build with `gpm' support on Linux, you cannot suspend XEmacs
2146 because gpm installs a buggy SIGTSTP handler. Either compile with
2147 `--with-gpm=no', or don't suspend XEmacs on the Linux console until
2150 *** With certain fonts, when the cursor appears on a character, the
2151 character doesn't appear--you get a solid box instead.
2153 One user on a Linux system reported that this problem went away with
2154 installation of a new X server. The failing server was XFree86 3.1.1.
2155 XFree86 3.1.2 works.
2158 *** On Irix, I don't see the toolbar icons and I'm getting lots of
2159 entries in the warnings buffer.
2161 SGI ships a really old Xpm library in /usr/lib which does not work at
2162 all well with XEmacs. The solution is to install your own copy of the
2163 latest version of Xpm somewhere and then use the --site-includes and
2164 --site-libraries flags to tell configure where to find it.
2166 *** Trouble using ptys on IRIX, or running out of ptys.
2168 The program mkpts (which may be in `/usr/adm' or `/usr/sbin') needs to
2169 be set-UID to root, or non-root programs like Emacs will not be able
2170 to allocate ptys reliably.
2172 *** Beware of the default image & graphics library on Irix
2174 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
2176 You *have* to compile your own jpeg lib. The one delivered with SGI
2177 systems is a C++ lib, which apparently XEmacs cannot cope with.
2180 ** Digital UNIX/OSF/VMS/Ultrix
2181 *** XEmacs crashes on Digital Unix within font-lock, or when dealing
2182 with large compilation buffers, or in other regex applications.
2184 The default stack size under Digital Unix is rather small (2M as
2185 opposed to Solaris 8M), hosing the regexp code, which uses alloca()
2186 extensively, overflowing the stack when complex regexps are used.
2189 1) Increase your stack size, using `ulimit -s 8192' or a (t)csh
2192 2) Recompile regex.c with REGEX_MALLOC defined.
2194 *** The `Alt' key doesn't behave as `Meta' when running DECwindows.
2196 The default DEC keyboard mapping has the Alt keys set up to generate the
2197 keysym `Multi_key', which has a meaning to xemacs which is distinct from that
2198 of the `Meta_L' and `Meta-R' keysyms. A second problem is that certain keys
2199 have the Mod2 modifier attached to them for no adequately explored reason.
2200 The correct fix is to pass this file to xmodmap upon starting X:
2203 keysym Multi_key = Alt_L
2207 *** The Compose key on a DEC keyboard does not work as Meta key.
2209 This shell command should fix it:
2211 xmodmap -e 'keycode 0xb1 = Meta_L'
2213 *** `expand-file-name' fails to work on any but the machine you dumped
2216 On Ultrix, if you use any of the functions which look up information
2217 in the passwd database before dumping Emacs (say, by using
2218 expand-file-name in site-init.el), then those functions will not work
2219 in the dumped Emacs on any host but the one Emacs was dumped on.
2221 The solution? Don't use expand-file-name in site-init.el, or in
2222 anything it loads. Yuck - some solution.
2224 I'm not sure why this happens; if you can find out exactly what is
2225 going on, and perhaps find a fix or a workaround, please let us know.
2226 Perhaps the YP functions cache some information, the cache is included
2227 in the dumped Emacs, and is then inaccurate on any other host.
2231 *** I get complaints about the mapping of my HP keyboard at startup,
2232 but I haven't changed anything.
2234 The default HP keymap is set up to have Mod1 assigned to two different keys:
2235 Meta_L and Mode_switch (even though there is not actually a Mode_switch key on
2236 the keyboard -- it uses an "imaginary" keycode.) There actually is a reason
2237 for this, but it's not a good one. The correct fix is to execute this command
2240 xmodmap -e 'remove mod1 = Mode_switch'
2242 *** On HP-UX, you get "poll: Interrupted system call" message in the
2243 window where XEmacs was launched.
2245 Richard Cognot <cognot@ensg.u-nancy.fr> writes:
2247 I get a very strange problem when linking libc.a dynamically: every
2248 event (mouse, keyboard, expose...) results in a "poll: Interrupted
2249 system call" message in the window where XEmacs was
2250 launched. Forcing a static link of libc.a alone by adding
2251 /usr/lib/libc.a at the end of the link line solves this. Note that
2252 my 9.07 build of 19.14b17 and my (old) build of 19.13 both exhibit
2253 the same behavior. I've tried various hpux patches to no avail. If
2254 this problem cannot be solved before the release date, binary kits
2255 for HP *must* be linked statically against libc, otherwise this
2256 problem will show up. (This is directed at whoever will volunteer
2257 for this kit, as I won't be available to do it, unless 19.14 gets
2258 delayed until mid-june ;-). I think this problem will be an FAQ soon
2259 after the release otherwise.
2261 Note: The above entry is probably not valid for XEmacs 21.0 and
2264 *** The right Alt key works wrong on German HP keyboards (and perhaps
2265 other non-English HP keyboards too).
2267 This is because HP-UX defines the modifiers wrong in X. Here is a
2268 shell script to fix the problem; be sure that it is run after VUE
2269 configures the X server.
2271 xmodmap 2> /dev/null - << EOF
2272 keysym Alt_L = Meta_L
2273 keysym Alt_R = Meta_R
2278 keysym Mode_switch = NoSymbol
2280 keysym Meta_R = Mode_switch
2281 add mod2 = Mode_switch
2285 *** XEmacs dumps core at startup when native audio is used. Native
2286 audio does not work with recent versions of HP-UX.
2288 Under HP-UX 10.20 and later (e.g., HP-UX 11.XX), with native audio
2289 enabled, the dumped XEmacs binary ("xemacs") core dumps at startup if
2290 recent versions of the libAlib.sl audio shared library is used. Note
2291 that "temacs" will run, but "xemacs" will dump core. This, of course,
2292 causes the XEmacs build to fail. If GNU malloc is enabled, a stack
2293 trace will show XEmacs to have crashed in the "first" call to malloc().
2295 This bug currently exists in all versions of XEmacs, when the undump
2296 mechanism is used. It is not known if using the experimental portable
2297 dumper will allow native audio to work.
2301 Recent versions of the HP-UX 10.20 (and later) audio shared library (in
2302 /opt/audio/lib), pulls in the libdce shared library, which pulls in a
2303 thread (libcma) library. This prevents the HP-UX undump() routine (in
2304 unexhp9k800.c) from properly working. What's happening is that some
2305 initialization routines are being called in the libcma library, *BEFORE*
2306 main() is called, and these initialization routines are calling
2307 malloc(). Unfortunately, in order for the undumper to work, XEmacs must
2308 adjust (move upwards) the sbrk() value *BEFORE* the first call to
2309 malloc(); if malloc() is called before XEmacs has properly adjusted sbrk
2310 (which is what is happening), dumped memory that is being used by
2311 XEmacs, is improperly re-allocated for use by malloc() and the dumped
2312 memory is corrupted. This causes XEmacs to die an horrible death.
2314 It is believed that versions of the audio library past December 1998
2315 will trigger this problem. Under HP-UX 10.20, you probably have to
2316 install audio library patches to encounter this. It's probable that
2317 recent "fresh, out-of-the-box" HP-UX 11.XX workstations also have this
2318 problem. For HP-UX 10.20, it's believed that audio patch PHSS_17121 (or
2319 a superceeding one, like PHSS_17554, PHSS_17971, PHSS_18777, PHSS_21481,
2320 or PHSS_21662, etc.) will trigger this.
2322 To check if your audio library will cause problems for XEmacs, run
2323 "chatr /opt/audio/lib/libAlib.sl". If "libdce" appears in the displayed
2324 shared library list, XEmacs will probably encounter problems if audio is
2329 Don't enable native audio. Re-run configure without native audio
2332 If your site supports it, try using NAS (Network Audio Support).
2334 Try using the experimental portable dumper. It may work, or it may
2338 *** `Pid xxx killed due to text modification or page I/O error'
2340 On HP-UX, you can get that error when the Emacs executable is on an NFS
2341 file system. HP-UX responds this way if it tries to swap in a page and
2342 does not get a response from the server within a timeout whose default
2343 value is just ten seconds.
2345 If this happens to you, extend the timeout period.
2347 *** Shell mode on HP-UX gives the message, "`tty`: Ambiguous".
2349 christos@theory.tn.cornell.edu says:
2351 The problem is that in your .cshrc you have something that tries to
2352 execute `tty`. If you are not running the shell on a real tty then tty
2353 will print "not a tty". Csh expects one word in some places, but tty
2354 is giving it back 3.
2356 The solution is to add a pair of quotes around `tty` to make it a
2359 if (`tty` == "/dev/console")
2361 should be changed to:
2363 if ("`tty`" == "/dev/console")
2365 Even better, move things that set up terminal sections out of .cshrc
2370 *** Regular expressions matching bugs on SCO systems.
2372 On SCO, there are problems in regexp matching when Emacs is compiled
2373 with the system compiler. The compiler version is "Microsoft C
2374 version 6", SCO 4.2.0h Dev Sys Maintenance Supplement 01/06/93; Quick
2375 C Compiler Version 1.00.46 (Beta). The solution is to compile with
2379 * Compatibility problems (with Emacs 18, GNU Emacs, or previous XEmacs/lemacs)
2380 ==============================================================================
2382 *** "Symbol's value as variable is void: unread-command-char".
2383 "Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<keymap 143 entries>"
2384 "Wrong type argument: stringp, [#<keypress-event return>]"
2386 There are a few incompatible changes in XEmacs, and these are the
2387 symptoms. Some of the emacs-lisp code you are running needs to be
2388 updated to be compatible with XEmacs.
2390 The code should not treat keymaps as arrays (use `define-key', etc.),
2391 should not use obsolete variables like `unread-command-char' (use
2392 `unread-command-events'). Many (most) of the new ways of doing things
2393 are compatible in GNU Emacs and XEmacs.
2395 Modern Emacs packages (Gnus, VM, W3, efs, etc) are written to support
2396 GNU Emacs and XEmacs. We have provided modified versions of several
2397 popular emacs packages (dired, etc) which are compatible with this
2398 version of emacs. Check to make sure you have not set your load-path
2399 so that your private copies of these packages are being found before
2400 the versions in the lisp directory.
2402 Make sure that your load-path and your $EMACSLOADPATH environment
2403 variable are not pointing at an Emacs18 lisp directory. This will
2406 ** Some packages that worked before now cause the error
2407 Wrong type argument: arrayp, #<face ... >
2409 Code which uses the `face' accessor functions must be recompiled with
2410 xemacs 19.9 or later. The functions whose callers must be recompiled
2411 are: face-font, face-foreground, face-background,
2412 face-background-pixmap, and face-underline-p. The .elc files
2413 generated by version 19.9 will work in 19.6 and 19.8, but older .elc
2414 files which contain calls to these functions will not work in 19.9.
2416 ** Signaling: (error "Byte code stack underflow (byte compiler bug), pc 38")
2418 This error is given when XEmacs 20 is compiled without MULE support
2419 but is attempting to load a .elc which requires MULE support. The fix
2420 is to rebytecompile the offending file.
2422 ** Signaling: (wrong-type-argument ...) when loading mail-abbrevs
2424 The is seen when installing the Insidious Big Brother Data Base (bbdb)
2425 which includes an outdated copy of mail-abbrevs.el. Remove the copy
2426 that comes with bbdb and use the one that comes with XEmacs.
2432 ** A reminder: XEmacs/Mule work does not currently receive *any*
2433 funding, and all work is done by volunteers. If you think you can
2434 help, please contact the XEmacs maintainers.
2436 ** XEmacs/Mule doesn't support TTY's satisfactorily.
2438 This is a major problem, which we plan to address in a future release
2439 of XEmacs. Basically, XEmacs should have primitives to be told
2440 whether the terminal can handle international output, and which
2441 locale. Also, it should be able to do approximations of characters to
2442 the nearest supported by the locale.
2444 ** Internationalized (Asian) Isearch doesn't work.
2446 Currently, Isearch doesn't directly support any of the input methods
2447 that are not XIM based (like egg, canna and quail) (and there are
2448 potential problems with XIM version too...). If you're using egg
2449 there is a workaround. Hitting <RET> right after C-s to invoke
2450 Isearch will put Isearch in string mode, where a complete string can
2451 be typed into the minibuffer and then processed by Isearch afterwards.
2452 Since egg is now supported in the minibuffer using string mode you can
2453 now use egg to input your Japanese, Korean or Chinese string, then hit
2454 return to send that to Isearch and then use standard Isearch commands
2457 ** Using egg and mousing around while in 'fence' mode screws up my
2460 Don't do this. The fence modes of egg and canna are currently very
2461 modal, and messing with where they expect point to be and what they
2462 think is the current buffer is just asking for trouble. If you're
2463 lucky they will realize that something is awry, and simply delete the
2464 fence, but worst case can trash other buffers too. We've tried to
2465 protect against this where we can, but there still are many ways to
2466 shoot yourself in the foot. So just finish what you are typing into
2467 the fence before reaching for the mouse.
2469 ** Not all languages in Quail are supported like Devanagari and Indian
2470 languages, Lao and Tibetan.
2472 Quail requires more work and testing. Although it has been ported to
2473 XEmacs, it works really well for Japanese and for the European
2476 ** Right-to-left mode is not yet implemented, so languages like
2477 Arabic, Hebrew and Thai don't work.
2479 Getting this right requires more work. It may be implemented in a
2480 future XEmacs version, but don't hold your breath. If you know
2481 someone who is ready to implement this, please let us know.
2483 ** We need more developers and native language testers. It's extremely
2484 difficult (and not particularly productive) to address languages that
2485 nobody is using and testing.
2487 ** The kWnn and cWnn support for Chinese and Korean needs developers
2488 and testers. It probably doesn't work.
2490 ** There are no `native XEmacs' TUTORIALs for any Asian languages,
2491 including Japanese. FSF Emacs and XEmacs tutorials are quite similar,
2492 so it should be sufficient to skim through the differences and apply
2493 them to the Japanese version.
2495 ** We only have localized menus translated for Japanese, and the
2496 Japanese menus are developing bitrot (the Mule menu appears in
2499 ** XIM is untested for any language other than Japanese.