Xtools

FAQ Database Last Updated: Sat Jan 11 22:32:33 2003

The X Window System

1. Is it possible to use a window manager with Xtools?
2. How do I add a window manager to the list of those included with Xtools?
3. Besides the twm and mwm included with the Xtools package, can other window managers be used without difficulty?

Is it possible to use a window manager with Xtools?

While the rootless mode integrates best with other MacOS X applications, it is possible to run Xtools in dedicated (fullscreen) mode and choose a window manager or desktop system. Currently, only mwm and twm come with the Xtools package. Take a look at Chapter 4 of the Xtools User's Guide for more information on using window managers.

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How do I add a window manager to the list of those included with Xtools?

First, you have to make sure the window manager you are trying to use has been ported to OSX, or port it yourself. Once you are sure that you have the right port, follow these instructions for getting it into your Xtools window manager list: 1. Open the Preferences panel and click the Display Tab. 2. Click the "Add..." button. A sheet appears. 3. Specify an appropriate name and the full path to the executable. 4. Hit OK. The sheet closes and you have your new window manager in your list of window managers. 5. Select it and click the "Set..." button. That should do it.

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Besides the twm and mwm included with the Xtools package, can other window managers be used without difficulty?

Yes, Xtools is a very straightforward, pure X Window Server and as such various open source window managers and display managers can easily be added to Xtools.

Mouse Handling

1. I use a standard mouse with only one button. X11 applications sometimes require a right or middle mouse button. Is there a way to emulate the other mouse buttons?
2. I have a two button mouse, but need an emulation for the middle button. I think that using the function key is inconvenient. Is there another way?
3. Does Xtools support 3 button mice?

I use a standard mouse with only one button. X11 applications sometimes require a right or middle mouse button. Is there a way to emulate the other mouse buttons?

The Numberpad keys 1, 2, and 3 emulate the left, middle, and right mouse buttons. The user can also specify which keys function as the mouse buttons in Xtools Preferences:Input.

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I have a two button mouse, but need an emulation for the middle button. I think that using the function key is inconvenient. Is there another way?

Hold down the Command key while clicking either of the mouse buttons. This will emulate the middle button.

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Does Xtools support 3 button mice?

Yes, Xtools will recognize and support any 3 button mouse that is OS X compatible. We use Contour UniMouse mice at Tenon.

Remote Clients

1. Is there a way to display X11 clients running on a remote machine, e.g. from Linux?
2. I am running an XDM session and am able to connect to applications on the remote machine, but I can't seem to open a local xterm, even though I have the box for allowing all hosts to access my machine checked, why is that?
3. I am doing some research that requires me to run some applications on a Sun workstation. Will I be able to use Xtools to remote login to the Sun network with a secure protocol and run programs or edit them with emacs?
4. Someone told me that if I install Xtools I will be able to run Mac OS X applications on my Sun workstation, is this true? I'd really like to be able to run photoshop from my Mac on the Sun.
5. When I try to use xhost + and set the DISPLAY directive to run remote clients, I get the following error in my OS X Console.app and the clients do not display, what gives:
   
   xlib: connection "0.0" refused by server
   xlib: invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
   error: can't open display
6. I added a remote client that does not use secure shell, and it doesn't work.
7. I am running remote clients that I require to have running for quite a long time. However these applications timeout after a certain period. How do I set the timeout length?

Is there a way to display X11 clients running on a remote machine, e.g. from Linux?

First, you have to allow access to the Xtools server. Open the Preferences panel, switch to the Server pane and check the switch marked "Allow xhost access from all remote machines". Then set your Xtools server as the display for the client application, either by specifying the -display option, or by setting the DISPLAY environment variable. For more information about connecting to remote hosts, please see Chapter 3 of the Xtools User's Guide.

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I am running an XDM session and am able to connect to applications on the remote machine, but I can't seem to open a local xterm, even though I have the box for allowing all hosts to access my machine checked, why is that?

When XDM is running, _local_ clients are unable to connect to the X11 server, no matter what the settings of xhost are. Clients are only allowed from the remote host that XDM is querying. SSH might be a solution, but it does something different than XDM does (see chapter 4 and appendix B of the Xtools user's guide for instructions for setting up SSH, and chapter 6 for an explaination of how XDM works).

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I am doing some research that requires me to run some applications on a Sun workstation. Will I be able to use Xtools to remote login to the Sun network with a secure protocol and run programs or edit them with emacs?

Yes, Xtools will allow you to do just that using Secure Shell (SSH). At the present time, the only thing we could forsee as a stumbling block is that some people are having difficulties with the meta key emmulation with certain versions of emacs. Since not everyone is having problems, there is a good chance that it won't affect you. Regardless, we will have a solution to the problems some people are experiencing very soon.

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Someone told me that if I install Xtools I will be able to run Mac OS X applications on my Sun workstation, is this true? I'd really like to be able to run photoshop from my Mac on the Sun.

This is not correct. Xtools will not allow you to run "regular" Mac OS X applications on any other machine. What it will let you do is run/display X11 applications either on your local or remote machine. X11 applications will not run on Mac OS X without an X Window Server (Xtools). For example, you can use your sun to log into your Xtools machine and run an xterm from the Xtools machine, but you cannot run Internet Explorer or Photoshop, etc.

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When I try to use xhost + and set the DISPLAY directive to run remote clients, I get the following error in my OS X Console.app and the clients do not display, what gives:

xlib: connection "0.0" refused by server
xlib: invalid MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 key
error: can't open display

You are using the wrong command to set the display directive. Your options are set DISPLAY..., export DISPLAY..., or setenv DISPLAY... See Chapter 4, page 31 of the Xtools manual for more information.

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I added a remote client that does not use secure shell, and it doesn't work.

When secure shell is not specified, Xtools uses remote shell (rsh) for remote clients. This method is very insecur e, and is not the recommended method to launch remote clients. However if you wish to use remote shell, you will need to take a few extra steps to make it work, if you do not already know how to enable remote shell on your system.
First, you will need to enable the the remote shell daemon in the /etc/inetd.conf file on the *remote* system. You do not need to enable the remote shell daemon on the system running Xtools. Find the line that contains the configuration line for remote shell. It should look similar to the following:

#shell stream tcp nowait root /usr/libexec/tcpd rshd

kill -HUP `ps ax | grep inetd | grep -v grep | sort -n | awk '{print $1}'`

setenv DISPLAY 0.0.0.0:0.0

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I am running remote clients that I require to have running for quite a long time. However these applications timeout after a certain period. How do I set the timeout length?

Currently, there is not a setting to adjust the timeout period for remote clients. However, you can setup a remote client to not timeout at all. You will need to edit the entry for the Client in the Clients Preferences panel. For the Path of the client, enter "nohup" (w/o quotes). Then for the Options, enter the path to the client program and it's arguments. By setting 'nohup' as the Path, we are telling the shell that executes the remote client to not timeout.

General

1. Since I'm new to this whole UNIX thing, I'm not quite sure why I would want Xtools for Mac OS X. Why would I want this if I can do the same thing in Apple's OS X.?
2. Does Xtools support multiple desktop environments, like Sun's CDE?
3. When I open a new xterm, Xtools puts it in the upper left hand corner of the screen, is there anyway I can change the placement and/or the size of the default xterm window?
4. What is the advantage of running in rootless mode over running in rooted mode?
5. I've seen screenshots of Xtools running Netscape Navigator. Where can I download that, I can't seem to find it anywhere on your site.
6. Xtools is telling me it can't start up because it doesn't have permission to access the license file, so my license is expired. How do I fix this?
7. When I open an xterm in Xtools, it puts me in /usr/X11R6/bin instead of my home folder, why is this?

Since I'm new to this whole UNIX thing, I'm not quite sure why I would want Xtools for Mac OS X. Why would I want this if I can do the same thing in Apple's OS X.?

Xtools is an X Window Server. An X Window Server lets you display graphical output from remote applications on a local desktop. So, for example, with Xtools you can display a graphical application running on a Silcon Graphics workstation on the Aqua desktop.

This functionality is NOT in Apple's OS X. (Do not confuse the X in Xtools, pronounced 'X', and the X in Mac OS X, pronounced 'ten'.)

Lots of applications conform to the X Window standard, so having a way of displaying these kinds of applications on the Aqua desktop makes your Maintosh more useful. Many people may choose OS X as their desktop of choice, but may need to access certain applications which do not run natively on Mac OS X.

In addition, Xtools includes the necessary libraries to support porting X client applications to Mac OS X. So it enriches the Aqua environment by helping to bring new applications to Apple's new OS, while at the same time letting you access a multitude of remote applications. Lots of high-resolution 3D-modeling & animation, graphical visualization and image rendering applications are X Window applications. And there are lots of X games as well. http://www.x.org

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Does Xtools support multiple desktop environments, like Sun's CDE?

Not straight out of the box, but if there is software available for XFree86 that provides this functionality that can be ported to OS X, it should work just as XFree would.

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When I open a new xterm, Xtools puts it in the upper left hand corner of the screen, is there anyway I can change the placement and/or the size of the default xterm window?

Yes, in the "options" section of your xterm client configuration panel, where it says "-sb" change it to the following, or something similar: Options: -sb -geometry 80x40+100+100 and click OK. This will create a window tht is 80 units wide and 40 high with a default location of 100 units from the top left corner in both the horizontal and vertical direction. You can tweak these numbers to suit your preferences, and you can also add this -geometry option to other clients as well.

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What is the advantage of running in rootless mode over running in rooted mode?

Xtools only has hardware acceleration when running in rootless mode, even though it uses the same code as rooted mode, we recommend the rootless mode, redraws and anything else graphical are much faster that way. There really is no benefit to useing a rooted desktop.

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I've seen screenshots of Xtools running Netscape Navigator. Where can I download that, I can't seem to find it anywhere on your site.

The pictures you've seen are of Xtools running Netscape from remote machines, currently there is no downloadable version of Netscape for OS X.

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Xtools is telling me it can't start up because it doesn't have permission to access the license file, so my license is expired. How do I fix this?

This usually doesn't happen very often, somehow the permissions on your Xtools license file got changed. To fix the permissions, open an xterm, or the terminal.app and enter the following: sudo chmod a+w /usr/X11R6/lib/tenon /usr/X11R6/lib/tenon/license.info This will reset everything back to their proper permissions.

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When I open an xterm in Xtools, it puts me in /usr/X11R6/bin instead of my home folder, why is this?

In Xtools, the xterm opens to the directory that you are in when you give the command to open it. So if you are using the pull down menu, you can edit the client configuration for xterm so that instead of it containing "/usr/X11r6/bin/xterm" it just has "xterm". If you do this, when you open an xterm (using the clients menu), you will end up in your home directory. In the newest Xtools release, the default xtools client opens into the users' home directory. If you installed a version after 1.0.3 and you are still finding yourself in /usr/X11r6/bin, it is because you have an old preferences file. Preferences are not overwritten on an update, so if you'd like to remove them before installing in the future so that changes like this will take place, simply delete your preference file:

"~/Library/Preferences/com.tenon.Xtools.plist"

Keep in mind that deleting your preferences file will erase all of your settings including customized client configurations.

Other System Issues

1. I heard from a bulletin board recently that the OpenSSH released with Mac OS X 10.0.4 update does not work, is this true? Will I have to install the OpenSSH that comes with Xtools?
2. So I added a window manager to Xtools and now I can't switch back to the Aqua window manager, what gives?
3. I made a mistake while configuring my preferences, now I can't change window managers. How do I return Xtools to its default state?
4. Why did Tenon decide to implement X for Mac OS X? We already have Aqua, why choose to add another interface?
5. How do you successfully start an X application directly from the Terminal window? I always get an error even if Xtools is running.
6. My Xtools menus etc are in German, I'd prefer them to be in English, how can I change the language settings in Xtools?
7. How can I specify the number of lines to retain in the scroll buffer in xterm?

I heard from a bulletin board recently that the OpenSSH released with Mac OS X 10.0.4 update does not work, is this true? Will I have to install the OpenSSH that comes with Xtools?

From the research we've done, it appears that only the server part of Apple's newly released SSH package is broken. The SSH client should be able to connect to versions of SSH other than that included with 10.0.4 with no problems. If you are using SSH on your machine to accept incomming connections, you may want to either refrain from applying the 10.0.4 update until the problem is resolved, or install Tenon's SSH package.

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So I added a window manager to Xtools and now I can't switch back to the Aqua window manager, what gives?

This happens sometimes, it is a very minor bug in Xtools. All you have to do is delete Xtools' preferences file:

~/Library/Preferences/com.tenon.Xtools.plist

Beware, deleteing this file will also clear all of your other preferences settings, including configured clients in your clients menu.

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I made a mistake while configuring my preferences, now I can't change window managers. How do I return Xtools to its default state?

Xtools' preference file is located in: ~/Library/Preferences/com.tenon.Xtools.plist deleting this file will return Xtools to the preferences set up of a default install. Keep in mind, deleting this file will delete all of your clients set ups, XDM server set ups, etc.

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Why did Tenon decide to implement X for Mac OS X? We already have Aqua, why choose to add another interface?

The X Window protocol, developed by MIT, has been around for a couple of decades. Application developers write their graphical interfaces to this specification. This means that they only have to write once for any number of platforms. But more importantly, it means that, by using an X Window Server, you can display the graphical output from an X client application on a remote desktop. This is very powerful and it is a feature *expected* in UNIX. If universities and corporations want to make the Mac OS X Aqua Desktop the "desktop of choice", they need to have a way to work with critical applications on other processors (e.g., HP, DEC, SGI, IBM). Xtools provides that capability. In that capacity, it doesn't detract from the Aqua desktop, but rather extends. Xtools supports rootless X windows on the Aqua desktop. And we make use of popular Aqua features , like letting users minimize X applications in the Dock.

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How do you successfully start an X application directly from the Terminal window? I always get an error even if Xtools is running.

Inside of Xtools, the DISPLAY variable is set to the current display:0. However in Terminal.app, you have to do this yourself. For example, open the terminal and issue the setenv DISPLAY localhost:0 command. You can also give the display parameter to your X11 application, e.g. netscape -display yourmachine:0

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My Xtools menus etc are in German, I'd prefer them to be in English, how can I change the language settings in Xtools?

Xtools (1.0.4 and above) comes with English and German language support. We don't have a preference for selecting the language within the application, it is just set alphabetically based on your language settings control panel.
To reset Xtools to English, first, quit Xtools. Then open your system preferences and select the pane titles "International". It contains a list of languages to look for in application bundles. Most of ours here have "US English, English, Deutsch" each user can customize that list and also rearrange it. You probably have something listed as your first languge other than "English" and Xtools gets confused. If you drag "English" up to the top of the list and then restart Xtools, it should be fixed.

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How can I specify the number of lines to retain in the scroll buffer in xterm?

You can set the number of lines to retain in the scroll buffer by specifying adding the following to the Options field for a Client:

-sl number

xterm -h

Ported Applications

1. I've ported an application to Xtools/Mac OS X, is there a place where I can put it so that others may be free to download it?
2. Does Xtools come with tools for porting applications?

I've ported an application to Xtools/Mac OS X, is there a place where I can put it so that others may be free to download it?

Yes! Please upload zipped or tarred archives to ftp.tenon.com/incoming, you should be able to login as a guest (login:annonymous pw:guest). Then, send information about your port to Stephie@tenon.com along with any installation instructions, version numbers, etc, and we will post it on our resources page, giving credit to the person who ported it, along with a link to their ported applications website (if one exists).

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Does Xtools come with tools for porting applications?

The development tools that you use to port or create applications to Xtools are the OS X development tools that come with OS X. They should be on a seperate CD, make sure you install them onto the harddrive/partition that OS X and Xtools reside on.

Installation

1. My Xtools temporary license has expired, when I pay for Xtools, will I have to do a complete reinstall or just add a new license number to my existing Xtools demo installation?
2. How do I uninstall Xtools?
3. I just installed Xtools for the first time and I can't find it! I am looking in my applications folder, and it's just not there! What gives, do I need to install it again?
4. I downloaded and installed Xtools, but when I opened it, it didn't display anything, did I do something wrong?

My Xtools temporary license has expired, when I pay for Xtools, will I have to do a complete reinstall or just add a new license number to my existing Xtools demo installation?

When you start up Xtools with an expired license, it opens the license panel for you and waits for you to enter a valid license number, once it is entered, the Xtools application will work as normal with no time restrictions.

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How do I uninstall Xtools?

We have a link to instructions for uninstalling Xtools on our website: http://www.tenon.com/products/xtools/uninstall.shtml

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I just installed Xtools for the first time and I can't find it! I am looking in my applications folder, and it's just not there! What gives, do I need to install it again?

This is an apple bug, not a bug with Xtools, Newly copied or installed files will sometimes "disappear" in Mac OS X. You can get them to reappear by searching for them in Sherlock, or opening the folder the file should be located in and creating and then immediatly deleting a new folder. You can also log out and back into your system.

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I downloaded and installed Xtools, but when I opened it, it didn't display anything, did I do something wrong?

As a default, Xtools doesn't open any windows or applications when it starts up. If you want to start an application when Xtools first starts up, you will need to enter the command you use to start the application into Xtools' start up script, it's .xinitrc file. Please refer to the Xtools User's Guide, Chapter 6 for more information about adding things to the .xinitrc file.

Known Issues

1. I can't paste text copied out of some of my Xtools windows into other OS X applications, is this a problem with Xtools, or the application I am trying to paste into?
2. When I try to run one of my applications from a remote machine, I get the following error:
   # X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation) Major opcode of failed request: 91 (X_QueryColors) Value in failed request: 0xff Serial number of failed request: 306 Current serial number in output stream: 306
   What gives?

I can't paste text copied out of some of my Xtools windows into other OS X applications, is this a problem with Xtools, or the application I am trying to paste into?

Copy and paste is broken for some applications that handle their own pasteboard (like Netscape and some motif applications). Normal cut buffer pasting should work just fine.

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When I try to run one of my applications from a remote machine, I get the following error:
# X Error of failed request: BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation) Major opcode of failed request: 91 (X_QueryColors) Value in failed request: 0xff Serial number of failed request: 306 Current serial number in output stream: 306
What gives?

This is the error you get when you try to run an 8 bit application with the current version of Xtools (1.0.3). As stated in the release notes: X11 Clients requiring 8bit Visuals: In this release of Xtools, X11 clients requiring 8bit visuals will not be able to connect to the Xtools server correctly. We are working to fix this problem, it will be included in a new download sometime very soon.

Networking

1. Do I need to have a static IP to remote display an application from a Dec Alpha with a fixed IP, or can I use DHCP?
2. Do I need to set up my Mac's IP address and name in the /etc/hosts file of the remote machine I want to connect to?

Do I need to have a static IP to remote display an application from a Dec Alpha with a fixed IP, or can I use DHCP?

You can display an application using DHCP, but you will need to grab your IP address every time you re-connect to the internet (or whenever your IP address changes) and then you will have to set your display variable with that IP each time. This may be a bit of a pain, so if you'd rather, you can take a look at DHS International's free DNS service for dynamic IP's: http://www.dhs.org/support/dynamic.shtml They might be able to set you up with a DNS entry for your machine thus allowing you to set up Xtools via DNS rather than IP address. This way you could use SSH keys and/or set up a client to set your display variable for you. This service used to be provided by http://www.ml.org/. Contact Tenon's technical support (support@tenon.com) if you need more information about this.

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Do I need to set up my Mac's IP address and name in the /etc/hosts file of the remote machine I want to connect to?

No, you can ssh or telnet into the remote machine as long as you have a log in and password and access to do so.

Secure Shell

1. So I am attempting to use the ssh commands through the xterm. I type ssh to connect to my remote host and I get a "command not found" error. I thought that Xtools supports ssh, what am I doing wrong?
2. I am having trouble setting up the SSH keys as per the instructions in the manual, I follow all the directions, then when I try to use it, nothing comes up, my remote host is using SSH2, does this matter?

So I am attempting to use the ssh commands through the xterm. I type ssh to connect to my remote host and I get a "command not found" error. I thought that Xtools supports ssh, what am I doing wrong?

Xtools doesn't automatically detect where your ssh files are and add them to your UNIX path. In order to use ssh, you either need to type in the full path to the ssh commands (for instance: /usr/loal/bin/ssh) or add the path to your PATH variable.

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I am having trouble setting up the SSH keys as per the instructions in the manual, I follow all the directions, then when I try to use it, nothing comes up, my remote host is using SSH2, does this matter?

Yes, the directions in the manual are meant to serve as an example. They walk you through setting up RSA keys for SSH1. The steps for setting up RSA keys for SSH2 is exactly the same, it just uses different commands. For instance, you call the ssh-keygen command with a -t. For the sake of simplicity and to save a lot of people confusion, we didn't list each alternate command, you can get them easily from the ssh-keygen manpage.

Product Comparison

1. How does Xtools compare to Tenon's XTen product?
2. How does Xtools compared to XFree86?

How does Xtools compare to Tenon's XTen product?

For people who are still using Mac OS, XTen is a robust, high-performance X Window Server built on an invisible Mach-based UNIX execution environment. With Xtools, we didn't have to provide our own UNIX execution environment. Xtools is a completely new implementation, built-from-the-ground-up -- a Cocoa application that uses Apple's CoreGraphics and Quartz, supports the Velocity Engine, multiple processors, and hardware accelerated OpenGL.

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How does Xtools compared to XFree86?

Xtools uses XFree 86 as the underlying foundation. We plan to keep current with the evolving versions of XFree86. The Xtool application itself includes configuration panels that sit on the Aqua desktop to make set up and launching of X client applications very easy. In addition, Xtools adds an Aqua Window Manager and the ability to open rootless X windows directly on the Aqua desktop.

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