Cygwin/Xfree & fontpath problems (was Re: XWin --query)

[Hayes Patrick <patrick dot hayes at amecspie dot com>]

>Subject: Re: XWin --query
>From: Harold L Hunt II <huntharo <at> msu.edu>
>Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:34:50 -0400
>Newsgroups: gmane.os.cygwin.xfree
>Reply-to: cygwin-xfree <at> cygwin.com
>Pavel Rosenboim wrote:
>> Greg Freemyer wrote:
>>>I have not installed any new hardware, and both server and client 
>>>machines have only one NIC.  (Both are standard wired NICs.)
>>>
>>>I did update the Linux box with the latest patches recently,
>>>that may be causing the problem, but somehow I think it is the
>>>cygwin/xfree86 end.
>> 
>>Is it possible that kdm configuration got overwritten, and now it 
>>does not allow connections from remote hosts?
>
>I was thinking the same thing.
>
>Greg --- Please check the following FAQ entry for information on how
>to make sure that kdm/gdm/xdm are allowing remote logins:
>
>http://xfree86.cygwin.com/docs/faq/cygwin-xfree-faq.html#q-mandrake-8.1-xdm
cp

Hi everyone,

I'd like to update/correct David's explanation in the FAQ:

> [David Dawson] For whatever reason, certain versions of Solaris
> need fonts that are not provided by Cygwin/XFree86; the result
> is that you may see the Solaris background tile and the hourglass
> cursor, but the XDM login prompt will never appear.

The problem is not with the fonts it is that Cygwin/Xfree currently
dumps core when both local fonts and a font server are used.

I stumbled over a similar bug that Pavel had. I was trying to setup
cygwin/Xfree to connect to my solaris 8 server. I was able to narrow
the bug down to a problem that Xfree has with using both local fonts
& a font server. Xfree works fine using either local fonts or a font
server, but blows chunks when using both.

If only local fonts are used, Xfree will core dump when "xset fp+" is
used to add or reset a font server to the fontpath. Adding local font
directories to the fontpath works OK.

If the fontpath contains only font servers adding other font servers
works but adding any local fonts will cause a core dump.

The specific problem with Solaris is that the dtlogin script Xsetup
runs "xset fp+ tcp/sunserver:7100" for all remote clients by default
in /usr/dt/config/Xsetup.

I assume a that a similar problem is present in Linux but do not have
a box handy to check.

Running "XWin -fp tcp/sunserver:7100" avoids the problem because this
explicitly sets the fontpath so that no local fonts are used but
Xsetup adds the font server a second time anyway.

My workaround was to comment out the xset fp+ line & use only the local
fonts, but the best thing to do would be to track down the reason Xfree
is dumping core & fix it. Until this is done, it might be a good idea to
update the FAQ.

Cheers,
Pat

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