shmulevi@haapana.tut.fi (Shmulevich Ilya) (09/18/90)
I have been having some problems with some messages overwriting the screen. They are just like the normal Sun font before you load any window environment. For example, if XRN generates some message like "Bogus newsgroup removed..." it doesn't put it in any window, but just writes it across the whole screen. It is NOT possible to refresh the screen and everything is hidden behind these message, even the pointer. What can I do to cure this problem? Thanx a lot, Ilya Shmulevich shmulevi@tut.fi
mouse@LARRY.MCRCIM.MCGILL.EDU (09/19/90)
> I have been having some problems with some messages overwriting the > screen. They are just like the normal Sun font before you load any > window environment. For example, if XRN generates some message like > "Bogus newsgroup removed..." it doesn't put it in any window, but > just writes it across the whole screen. It is NOT possible to > refresh the screen and everything is hidden behind these message, > even the pointer. What can I do to cure this problem? When you ask a question like this, it would be helpful if you would describe particulars: what version of X you are running, what sort of machine you're running it on, etc.... In this case, I will assume you are on a Sun (because you talk about "normal Sun font"). I will also assume, because it is the simplest explanation for your problem that comes to mind, that your Sun has a cg4 (or functionally similar) display and you're using X11R4. You also, I would say, are starting XRN from a window-manager menu selection, and do not have any console window running. (See what I mean about things you should mention? If my assumptions are invalid, my analysis will also be invalid, and this message probably won't be much help. Of course, you can't know everything that's significant, but try. In this case you're lucky; the problem you describe is, at least on Suns, likely to occur only in the presence of all of the above things, which makes diagnosis easier.) Since XRN is running from a window manager menu selection, its output is connected to /dev/console. Since you aren't running a console window, stuff sent to /dev/console gets plopped onto the framebuffer directly. Since you have a cg4, stuff sent directly to the framebuffer is displayed by writing it into the "monochrome" plane and scribbling on the enable plane to ensure that it's visible. Since you're running R4, the default screen is the color plane (R3 had the mono plane as the default, with the color plane as screen 1). The messages appear "in front of everything" only because "everything" is in the color plane; part of the monitor's method of displaying stuff involves ensuring that in the area of the screen where the message is, the mono plane is "in front of" the color plane. If you refresh screen 1, the messages should go away, but that still won't reset the enable plane to the state you want. To do this, switch screens and then switch back (you may be able to do this by moving the mouse off the left or right edge of the screen; if that doesn't do it and you can't find any other way, drop me a line - I have two programs that might help). As to cures.... One simple thing to do is to start up a console window whenever you are actually on the console of the machine you're using (as opposed to, say, on an X terminal using the Sun remotely). There are other solutions, but they get more complicated. (For example, I wrote a console-output daemon which could be useful in this case.) der Mouse old: mcgill-vision!mouse new: mouse@larry.mcrcim.mcgill.edu
pop@cohesive.UUCP (Steve Tufty) (09/21/90)
In article <1990Sep18.110327.22239@funet.fi> shmulevi@haapana.tut.fi (Shmulevich Ilya) writes: > > >I have been having some problems with some messages overwriting the >screen. They are just like the normal Sun font before you load any >window environment. For example, if XRN generates some message like >"Bogus newsgroup removed..." it doesn't put it in any window, but just >writes it across the whole screen. It is NOT possible to refresh the >screen and everything is hidden behind these message, even the pointer. >What can I do to cure this problem? > It appears that you do not have an xterm which is accepting the output that goes to the console. Try adding the following to your .xinitrc file (or type it in to any window) xterm -C & As for not being able to refresh the screen, look in your .<window_manager_of_preference>rc file to make sure you have a line which causes the "f.refresh" action to occur. pop ------------------------ disclaimer ---------------------------- These views are mine only and do not reflect the opinions of the company for which I work. cohesive!pop@sun.COM ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Steve (let's tee off) Tufty - sun!cohesive!pop Cohesive Network Los Gatos California 95030 (408) 370-4193