X11 versions for OO under OS X

Joe L. · Guest

(Apologies in advance if this is already answered somewhere, but I poked around and could not find anything...)

For running OO under OS X (10.2.7), what are the relative pros and cons of using the X11 release included with the OO installer versus a Fink-based X installation versus Apple's port of X11? The closest I could find to anything that addresses this question is on the Fink FAQ (http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/usage-general.php#x-options), but that does not address OO specifically.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

OPENSTEP · Posted: Fri Oct 03, 2003 9:09 pm Post subject:

OK...the X11 release included in the OOo installer is XFree86 4.3.0. It'll give you a nice graphical way of installing XFree86 (it's the identical installer from the XonX project...I wrote it). It'll also give you a choice of window managers, OroborOSX (kinda looks like Aqua) or windowmaker (kinda looks like OPENSTEP/NeXTSTEP). You need a window manager to do useful things with windows like, oh, move them.

If you use fink to install XFree86, chances are you will need to use a Terminal (send some users running in fright), choose your own window manager to install, and also play around with your xinitrc file to get your window manager working properly. It'll be a much messier way of getting roughly the same things that the OOo included XonX graphical installer puts on your system.

Using Apple X11 will give you better integration with OS X (e.g. a Windows menu for all X11 applications, Dock menu accessibility) but at a price...Apple isn't releasing a final version of Apple X11 for 10.2, and the one that is available (Beta 3) has known bugs that affect OOo 1.0.3 GM (look around for the window creep bug...it's listed in the readme as well...eventually windows will just start opening up off-screen). If you can find Beta 2 or earlier, it will be much happier with OOo.

All of these are of course objective. If all you really care about is using OOo, I'd recommend going with one of the two graphical methods (OOo/XonX, or Apple if you're willing to deal with the bugs in exchange for a better look). If you really want to learn about XFree86 and the terminal and perhaps get some experience to leverage in a Linux/Unix world, you may want to go the Fink method.

Not sure if this answers your question...

ed

Guest · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 12:30 am Post subject:

Well, I'm a relatively experienced Linux user (my current setup is a bit "old school" -- I use twm with XF86 4.3) so firing up an xterm and messing with .xinitrc is not a big deal. But if there is little or no additional functionality from doing it via Fink, then I won't bother (unless I run into a bug I can't live with, or there is some other compelling reason to use it).

Thanks for the info!

-JL

OPENSTEP · Posted: Sat Oct 04, 2003 10:38 am Post subject:

Don't get me wrong, you can still mess with xinitrc and all the niceties with either the XFree86 4.3 or Apple X11 installers. I'm not sure if Apple X11 includes twm in their package, but I know that XFree does, so you can get right back into full-screen twm mode if you want Smile

I've found that Fink also has a large collection of window managers. You can also try finding installable packages from

http://www.osxgnu.org

They tend to produce some nice installers and have been a good source for me in the past.

ed

Ernest · Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2003 4:12 pm Post subject: Isn't it supposed to "just work?"

Well, I tried XFree86 on one G4 running 10.2.8 and Apple's X11 on another G4 running 10.2.8. Thus far I've found the XFree86 less problematic. I was up and running in no time. Apple's X11 cost me a whole morning of fiddling with the machine. At this point, I agree with OPENSTEP.

Joe L. · Guest

Does this morning's official announcement of the 10.3 release (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031008/sfw058_1.html) have any bearing on the recommendations earlier in this thread? From reading over the X11 blurb (http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/x11/), it looks like they've probably revised Apple X11 and hopefully fixed many of the bugs (window creep bug, etc.).

So does this make much of a difference for running OOo, or is the earlier advice based on pre-release developers' versions of 10.3 anyway?

Thanks,

JL

OPENSTEP · Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2003 10:41 pm Post subject:

The earlier advice on which to use is definitely based on the assumption of a user sticking with Jaguar. I wouldn't recommend using Apple X11 on Jaguar as there's no workaround for the bugs and no full screen mode...not to mention no future support for the betas Sad

My comments are based solely on the beta releases and for using Apple X11 Public Beta 3 or earlier on Jaguar. I have no comment yet on 10.3 as it's not final yet, but I'm hopeful it'll help address some of the issues we have with it.

ed