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Re: XFree86 problem

At 1:42 AM -0700 6/26/01, Kay Nettle wrote:
Once I start up X, any keyboard input is ignored. I'm running
XFree86 4.1 and I just upgraded to MacOS X 10.0.4. I started the X
server via a terminal window, just to see if there was any useful
output and other than complaining about my not having an .Xauthority,
it doesn't say anything useful. I did build X from the sources, but
I had a working xterm yesterday, so this is a new problem. Has
anyone else had this problem?

This is a common, but intermittent problem on all portables. The standard recipe to get portable keyboards working every time is:

1. If you are running from Mac OS X, Check "Load from file" under the keymapping section of the XDarwin preferences. If you are running from the Darwin console, you should use the "-keymap USA.keymapping" option when starting the X server. The easiest way to do this is to put a file called .xserverrc in your home directory with the line:

X -keymap USA.keymapping

2. The next time you start XDarwin you will notice that the delete key doesn't work in xterm. The keymapping files define the key labelled as "delete" as Delete, not Backspace. Unfortunately the standard settings for xterm use Backspace, not Delete, to go back. This is a classic Unix problem.

My preferred way to fix this is to is to add the following line to your .Xdefaults file in your home directory:

*XTerm*deleteIsDEL: True

You can also toggle this behavior by Control-clicking on the xterm window and selecting "Delete Is DEL" from the menu.

This issue has been confusing for many people so clearly we need to make configuration easier in the future. After the Darwin keymapping is reworked, we will be able to handle this in a more robust way.

I managed to fix my problem by rebuilding and reinstalling X. I'm
not sure if it was the upgrade or something else I did.

This fix is only temporary. Rebooting or putting your computer to sleep and waking up can cause you to get a working keymapping.

Has anyone used a Logitech track ball with a powerbook and gotten it
working with XFree86? I tried using one and while all the mouse
clicks worked, it ignored input from the keyboard. I've since put it
on my Linux box.

Your track ball should work fine. Ignoring input from the keyboard is a separate problem unrelated to the track ball.

--Torrey



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