[comp.windows.open-look] openwin forgets hostname

weiss@cbnewsd.att.com (edward.j.weiss) (04/03/91)

I've seen the discussion of the openwin script wanting to
have the DISPLAY variable start with a colon.  Well that
is just fine, but I've noticed that after a while the
server forgets what the host is and tells me that it
can't open the DISPLAY (:0.0).  This is really a pain.
It  works for a while, then it stops.  Anybody else seen
this?  Any work arounds (other than forcing the hostname
into the DISPLAY variable)?
-- 

Ed Weiss	   "I thought it was generally accepted, sir, that
att!ihlpf!spock     Vulcans are an advanced and most honorable race."
		   "They are, they are.  And damn annoying at times."

doug@crdgw1.ge.com (Doug Becker) (04/04/91)

    Well that
    is just fine, but I've noticed that after a while the
    server forgets what the host is and tells me that it
    can't open the DISPLAY (:0.0).

What leads you to believe the server has "forgotten" the hostname?  Does
setting DISPLAY to `hostname`:0.0 alleviate the problem, as you implied in
your letter?
   
Symptoms like the ones you describe frequently occur when something or
someone clears /tmp, deleting the X socket; often this is done by a cron
job.  Could this be what's happening at your site?

-- 

Doug Becker
doug@nmri.ge.com
crdgw1!sane!doug

jipping@cs.hope.edu (Mike Jipping) (04/09/91)

> I've seen the discussion of the openwin script wanting to
> have the DISPLAY variable start with a colon.  Well that
> is just fine, but I've noticed that after a while the
> server forgets what the host is and tells me that it
> can't open the DISPLAY (:0.0).  This is really a pain.
> It  works for a while, then it stops.  Anybody else seen
> this?  Any work arounds (other than forcing the hostname
> into the DISPLAY variable)?

Using the ":0.0" form makes OpenWindows use sockets that are kept in /tmp
under ".NeWS-unix" and ".X11-unix".  Using the "<hostname>:0.0" puts the
socket into a different namespace.

We had this problem and ours was the fault of a cron job that deleted
/tmp entries that were older than 3 days.  Hence, our users could remain
logged in and have OpenWIndows up for three days -- then things ran
amuck.  Fixing this cron script fixed the problem. 

      Mike Jipping
      Hope College Department of Computer Science
      jipping@cs.hope.edu  (BITNET: JIPPING@HOPE)

      "If is was so, it might be, and if it were so, it would be.
       But as it isn't, it ain't.  That's logic."
                                              -- Lewis Carroll