From: eje@irenaeus.mlo.dec.com (Eric James Ewanco)
Subject: HELP! X11R5 gives "couldn't open device"; ultrix DS3100
Keywords: ultrix ds3100 X11R5
Reply-To: ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 21:57:36 GMT


Hi, I need help! I have just installed binaries for X11R5 that I snarfed
from Carnegie Mellon (part of a distribution of ATK which I wish to install
as well).  I am trying to install them on my DS 3100 running Ultrix 4.2
(currently running DEC UWS R4 w/Motif).  I know, shame on me, installing a
renegade system not supported by DEC, and this from someone who works there.
But I need R5 for ATK and I don't want to wait for us to release a stable
version.

I am not yet that familiar with installing my own X system; thus far I've
only used systems that have already been configured, and I do not know
everything about configuring X as manager of my own system.

The problem is I don't think the DEC UWS is standard X.  Anyway, I am trying
to bring up the server and ran into this problem.  First, I wanted to get
rid of the stupid Xprompter program -- I want to log into text mode on the
console, then start X.  I modified my ttys file to turn on the console and
:0 off.  Ok, I log in on console text mode and try to use startx or xinit
with the following options for the X server:

X :0 bc -co /usr/lib/X11/rgb -fp /usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/\
fonts/Speedo/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/75dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc/, \
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi -logo -p 1 -s 10 

(the \ are for your benefit, the real thing is one line.) This is in a
xserverrc file.  The first time I tried this under my own account
(non-root), it started to come up and then gave me this error:

couldn't open device
giving up.
xinit:  Connection refused (errno 61):  unable to connect to X server
xinit:  No such process (errno 3):  Server error.

When I tried as root, it worked.

I checked the file /dev/X0 which I had noticed earlier.  I assumed this was
said device. It is a link to ../tmp/X0.  Unfortunately that file does not
exist.  /tmp/.X11-unix/X0 does, so I changed the link to there.  X0 has rwx
access for all.  (It also reports a zero length and I think a setuid bit,
srwxrwxrwx.  .X11-unix has 777 mode.) The /dev/X0 link however only has a
mode of 755; I assumed this is why I got the error.  When I tried to change
the mode to 777 (as root), it gave me no error but did not change it.
Changing the /dev/X0 link to ../tmp/.X11-unix/X0 did not help at all. Root
worked fine with xinit and startx.

The strange thing is that the /dev/X0 is exactly the way it is set up on
another system I changed running basically what I had before. I do not know
why it is a link to a file that does not exist.

OK so you say I'm an idiot for getting rid of Xprompter in the first place,
no one has any business trying to start X in the way I did.  OK, so I tried
running R5 from Xprompter; the following are the interesting lines from my
ttys file:

console	"/etc/getty std.9600" vt100 	off secure	# console terminal

:0 "/usr/bin/login -P /usr/bin/Xprompter -C /usr/bin/dxsession -e" none on \
secure window="/usr/bin/X :0 bc -co /usr/lib/X11/rgb -fp /usr/lib/X11/fonts\
/75dpi/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/decwin/75dpi/,/usr/lib/\
X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi -logo -p 1 -s 10"

#:0 "/usr/bin/login -P /usr/bin/Xprompter -C /usr/bin/dxsession -e" none on \
secure window="/usr/bin/Xws bc"

(again \ are for your benefit).  (the last line is what existed before the
R5 installation.) This does not give any error messages, but when I log in,
it pauses for eternity, then comes back with the login prompt.  It works
with root, so I assume it is getting the same error.

Now I changed some unrelated things, maybe messed around some more with
/dev/X0 (not /tmp/.X11-unix/X0), rebooted, and now nothing works at all, I
cannot even log in as root (via the Xprompter).  It waits for a while and
returns to the login prompt. Logging in using the old server works fine
(commenting out the last line and commenting the line before of /etc/ttys)
for both users.  (I can still easily log in over a terminal.)

What is this strange X0 device?  Why doesn't it exist on the Carnegie Mellon
machines running the software I downloaded on the machine I have?  Deleting
it solves nothing.  Should it be linked to /tmp/.X11-unix/X0, or to the
non-existent /tmp/X0? Why can't I chmod 777 on it?

X11R4, or UWS, seems to work fine (even with the new R5 utilities installed).

Next question: this distribution defaults the fonts and some other stuff to
directories in /cdrom/pmax_ul4 etc. etc. which looks like it was made for
the distribution I downloaded.  Are these paths in a configuration file or
hardocded in?  Does X use any standard configuration files?  The man pages
have not been a lot of help here. 

CMU wizards: what would happen if I downloaded the startx executable and
tried it?

I think I have some other questions but first things first.  If it is
convenient, please send replies to me directly as well as to the newgroup,
with all the traffic it may be easy for me to miss and this is sorta an
urgent problem.  Thanks for the help.

Eric Ewanco
ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com

--
/=============================================================================\
| Eric Ewanco - Software Engineer     For the rash and outrageous opinions ex-|
| Digital Equipment Corp, Maynard MA  pressed herein I alone am responsible;  |
| ewanco@kalvin.enet.dec.com          they do not belong to DIGITAL(TM).      |
\==============================- 2 Th 2:15 -==================================/

Newsgroups: comp.windows.x,comp.windows.x.motif