ximtool

sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

From reading the forums I see there are many similar questions so I'll apologise now, but I couldn't find any specific hints that would work for me :cry:

I've just installed ximtool on Fedore Core 7 but get the usual error message since my display is set to 24bit. I'm going to ask two questions here if you don't mind!

For the short term I'd like to run in 8-bit mode. I tried "startx -- -bpp 8" but get:

Fatal server error:
Server is already active for display 0

I've tried the suggestions it gives and have had a poke around on the forums but can't get it to work. Any FC9 users out there have any hints to share?

In the long run, I'd like to use the VNC solution I've read about on these forums and elsewhere, but the links to download such software seem to be either broken, proprietary or non-existent. Anyone have a link to share, and some hints with installing?

Thanks in advance, :D

Sam

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Nov 03, 2007

The startx command is probably failing because a graphical login manager has already started the X server. You can switch to another console (something like Alt-F7) and start a second server but you'll need to remember to reset the DISPLAY variable. If you want to use VNC, you can find a HOWTO with some links to clients/servers at http://www.skullbox.net/vncserver.php

Cheers,
-Mike

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sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

Thanks for your quick reply, Mike!

I've decided to go for the second option. Partly because it's best in the longterm and partly because I don't know how to reset the display (I'm an idiot).

I followed your link and installed tightVNC. I managed to get it working fine in 32bit mode, but when I ask it to run in 8 bit (vncserver -depth 8) it continues as normal but only the backdrop of the new session is visible (which is indeed in 8bit, from the looks of it). There are no icons, menus, taskbars or anything. Any ideas?

Thanks again,

Sam

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Nov 03, 2007

VNC is in effect a separate X server, you need to configure it to have its own set of windows, desktop, etc. This is normally done in the $HOME/.vnc/xstartup file that is created the first time to you vncserver. Just edit the file to startup whatever you like, but I'd recommend to run a "simple" window manager like mwm or twm rather than a complete Gnome/KDE desktop, the latter uses a lot more colors and you can minimize colormap flashing without all the colors being eaten by the taskbar icons.

Cheers,
-Mike

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sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

I've tried switching window managers but it keeps opening up in gnome (and i hate gnome!).

I've tried switching the last line in xstartup to "startkde &", "startxfce4 &" and "twm &" but no matter what I change it to it still opens up using gnome as if it says "startx &".
I've tried logging out and restarting my computer to no avail.

Here's what's currently inside xstartup. Can you see anything wrong?

Thanks

/bin/sh

# Red Hat Linux VNC session startup script
#
unset SESSION_MANAGER
exec /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

# Another example of setting up desktop environment
#
 [ -x /etc/vnc/xstartup ] && exec /etc/vnc/xstartup
 [ -r /.Xresources ] && xrdb /.Xresources
 xsetroot -solid grey
 vncconfig -iconic &
 xterm -geometry 80x24+10+10 -ls -title " Desktop" &
 startxfce4 &

[/code]

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sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

Actually I think I've cracked it. Needed to comment out two lines after the first two comments. Just trying to get everything working now.

Thanks for your help - it's very much appreciated :D

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sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

Sorry me again. Got a little further but now I get an error that says:

"Warning: Color name "gray77" is not defined" for many different colours. It ends with "Warning: cannot open /dev/imt1o. Segmentation fault"

This happens in both xfce and twm (I don't even get this far with kde or gnome).

Thanks,

Sam

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Mike Fitzpatrick wrote on Nov 03, 2007

The segmentation fault happens because the /dev/imt1[io] pipes don't exist (this has been fixed already). These pipes are created by the IRAF install script or you can do them by hand using the commands (as 'root' or with a sudo):

# mkfifo /dev/imt1i
# mkfifo /dev/imt1o
# chmod 777 /dev/imt1*

Alternatively, you can just start ximtool using the '-unix_only' flag and the pipes (missing or not) will be ignored.

The missing color messages mean something else has already allocated much of the colormap. Desktop backgrounds, icons, etc can all add to this. You can limit the number of colors ximtool requires (it currently looks for ~200) using a command such as

ximtool -basePixel 128 -maxColors 100 -cmapInitialize True

where this will only request 100 colors starting a colormap cell 128.

Something else to check is the display visual using the 'xdpyinfo' command. Since things are starting I'm assuming you have a PseudoColor 8-bit visual, but sometimes it is necessary to start the vncserver using the option "-cc 3 -depth 8" where the '-cc 3' explicitly sets a PseudoColor visual. Hope this helps.

Cheers,
-Mike

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sw wrote on Nov 03, 2007

The missing colour errors are still there but it seems to load up now. Not sure what's using the colours up though - When I set it to 8-bit pseudocolour, everything goes greyscale and all I can see is a command shell (no icons or anything and the background is just a grey/white pattern), .I wont have time to try it out properly for a couple of days but I seem to be getting somewhere. I'll fiddle with what I've got at the minute.

Thank you so much for your time, Mike!

Sam

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Last post on Nov 03, 2007