When I switched on my Karmic development laptop the X server reverted back to low-res. Guess its time to start UXA testing. Right now UXA is very unstable and presents strange problem like this one. The fonts are totally messed up in Firefox, Openoffice.org and gedit. Any ideas what might be the problem?
Update: 25 May, 2009 Found that this problem is triggered when I restart the computer from hibernation.
Few hours ago WX notation phonetic keyboard layout for Devnagari(Hindi) has been included into Ubuntu. This closes the ubuntu #274024 and freedesktop-bugs #19753 reported last year. This is a great news for the Wx keyboard users, they can now have this keyboard layout by default in gnu/Linux.
While at University of Hyderabad I had copy the symbols file for the keyboard layout every time a new gnu/Linux system was installed. Its wonderful to see a solution developed for use inside our lab has been contributed back to the gnu/Linux community worldwide.
But building these modules can be a pain, if don't know about the right dependencies like libxt-dev and libxtst-dev .
# Build Fails
cp GUITest.pm blib/lib/X11/GUITest.pm /usr/bin/perl /usr/share/perl5/ExtUtils/xsubpp -typemap /usr/share/perl/5.8/ExtUtils/typemap -typemap typemap GUITest.xs > GUITest.xsc && mv GUITest.xsc GUITest.c cc -c -I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/X/include -Wall -O2 -DVERSION=\"0.21\" -DXS_VERSION=\"0.21\" -fPIC "-I/usr/lib/perl/5.8/CORE" -DNDEBUG -DX11_GUITEST_ALT_L_FALLBACK_META_L GUITest.c GUITest.xs:41:27: error: X11/Intrinsic.h: No such file or directory GUITest.xs:42:28: error: X11/StringDefs.h: No such file or directory make: *** [GUITest.o] Error 1
root@arky-laptop:~/.cpan/build/X11-GUITest-0.21-4tUEBB# less README root@arky-laptop:~/.cpan/build/X11-GUITest-0.21-4tUEBB# make cc -c -I/usr/X11R6/include -I/usr/X/include -Wall -O2 -DVERSION=\"0.21\" -DXS_VERSION=\"0.21\" -fPIC "-I/usr/lib/perl/5.8/CORE" -DNDEBUG -DX11_GUITEST_ALT_L_FALLBACK_META_L GUITest.c GUITest.xs:41:27: error: X11/Intrinsic.h: No such file or directory GUITest.xs:42:28: error: X11/StringDefs.h: No such file or directory
make: *** [GUITest.o] Error 1
# found libxt-dev provides the needed header files
/usr/include/X11/Intrinsic.h libxt-dev /usr/include/X11/StringDefs.h libxt-dev
# install the libxt-dev
$ sudo apt-get install libxt-dev
[sudo] password for arky:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information...
Done
The following NEW packages will be installed: libxt-dev 0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 482kB of archives. After this operation, 1319kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main libxt-dev 1:1.0.5-3 [482kB] Fetched 482kB in 44s(10.9kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libxt-dev. (Reading database ... 145581 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking libxt-dev (from .../libxt-dev_1%3a1.0.5-3_i386.deb) ... Setting up libxt-dev (1:1.0.5-3) ...
## Second built error
LD_RUN_PATH="/usr/lib" cc -shared -L/usr/local/lib GUITest.o -o blib/arch/auto/X11/GUITest/GUITest.so \ -lXtst -lXext -lX11 \ /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lXtst collect2: ld returned 1 exit status # the shared object is provided by libxtst-dev /usr/lib/libXtst.so libxtst-dev
# Install the libxtst-dev
$ sudo apt-get install libxtst-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed: x11proto-record-dev The following NEW packages will be installed: libxtst-dev x11proto-record-dev 0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 20.8kB of archives. After this operation, 156kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main x11proto-record-dev 1.13.2-4ubuntu1 [6022B]
Get:2 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com hardy/main libxtst-dev 2:1.0.3-1 [14.8kB] Fetched 20.8kB in 21s (964B/s)
Selecting previously deselected package x11proto-record-dev. (Reading database ... 145890 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking x11proto-record-dev (from .../x11proto-record-dev_1.13.2-4ubuntu1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libxtst-dev.
Unpacking libxtst-dev (from .../libxtst-dev_2%3a1.0.3-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up x11proto-record-dev (1.13.2-4ubuntu1) ...
Setting up libxtst-dev (2:1.0.3-1) ...
Perhaps I should start this post in V. S. Naipaul style with a dedication 'To Sajith for asking me why' ;). Watching over my shoulder while I was working on my laptop, he asking me why I used this particular command to start the X Window server.
$ openvt startx
As command line junkie I work on linux console most of the time, only starting graphical X server with startx command when needed. The problem with using startx command is that it locks up the terminal by printing numerous warnings and messages while the X server starts and thus making the terminal unusable. Also I limit the number of virtual terminal on my computer to just two instead of standard six on gnu/Linux operation system.
So, the openvt command provided by the console-tools package helps me spawn a new virtual terminal and that's where all the warning and messages are printed leaving me to continue working in peace. Another added advantage to this is that I can do startx from a Emacs shell instance too, this is neat!.
I haven't figured out what went wrong, must be a bug or my disk started to show its age. After couple of reboots and doing file system check everything went back to normal. The issue seems to be that half of modules went missing, Beats me!
When shutdown is initiated from a X window session my old HP Pavilion desktop turns green and barfs all over me. If you know a fix, shout it out.
Update: Mis-spelled word "Unkown" in the title of this post, leaving it uncorrected since it will mess up the url of the post.
A short note about changing your default cursor theme on Debian Sid. Apt-get any one or more of the cursor theme packages below.
Run the update-alternative to set/change the current cursor-theme, when prompted give the number of the theme and press enter.
$ update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
There are 24 alternatives which provide `x-cursor-theme'.
Selection Alternative
-----------------------------------------------
1 /etc/X11/cursors/core.theme
2 /etc/X11/cursors/redglass.theme
3 /etc/X11/cursors/whiteglass.theme
4 /etc/X11/cursors/handhelds.theme
+ 5 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblue_classic.theme
6 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblue_nonanim.theme
7 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblueleft.theme
8 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblueleft_classic.theme
9 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblueleft_nonanim.theme
10 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgray.theme
11 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgray_nonanim.theme
12 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgrayleft.theme
13 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgrayleft_nonanim.theme
14 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreen.theme
15 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreen_classic.theme
16 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreen_nonanim.theme
17 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreenleft.theme
18 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreenleft_classic.theme
19 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalgreenleft_nonanim.theme
20 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalwhite.theme
21 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalwhite_nonanim.theme
* 22 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalwhiteleft.theme
23 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalwhiteleft_nonanim.theme
24 /etc/X11/cursors/crystalblue.theme
Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 23
Using '/etc/X11/cursors/crystalwhiteleft_nonanim.theme' to provide 'x-cursor-theme'.
Always a lightweight desktop fan, my current window manager is Fluxbox. Here is a simple example that allows us to launch multiple programs like my pidgin (formerly gaim) Instant messenger client and Iceweasel (firefox) graphical web browser with a single click of fluxbox menu item.
Here is my flux menu configuration (~/.fluxbox/menu) for your perusal
[begin] (fluxbox)
[exec] (Go) {/usr/bin/pidgin&/usr/bin/iceweasel}
[exec] (xterm) {xterm}
[separator]
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)
[separator]
[exec](About Fluxbox) {fluxbox -info 2>/dev/null | xmessage -file - -center}
[end]
You can read the Fluxbox Menu documentation for further information
