comparison etc/PROBLEMS @ 39231:a3c2d52350d6

Document problems with ange-ftp in the Windows port and the Cygwin FTP client.

39230:5c1f4703543c

This file describes various problems that have been encountered
in compiling, installing and running GNU Emacs.

* Improving performance with slow X connections

If you don't need X Input Methods (XIM) for entering text in some
language you use, you can improve performance on WAN links by
configuring Emacs with option `--without-xim'.  Configuring Emacs
without XIM does not affect the use of Emacs' own input methods, which
are part of the Leim package.

If the connection is very slow, you might also want to consider
switching off scroll bars, menu bar, and tool bar.

* Getting a Meta key on the FreeBSD console

By default, neither Alt nor any other key acts as a Meta key on
FreeBSD, but this can be changed using kbdcontrol(1).  Dump the
current keymap to a file with the command

  $ kbdcontrol -d >emacs.kbd

Edit emacs.kbd, and give the key you want to be the Meta key the
definition `meta'.  For instance, if your keyboard has a ``Windows''
key with scan code 105, change the line for scan code 105 in emacs.kbd
to look like this

  105   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta    O

to make the Windows key the Meta key.  Load the new keymap with

  $ kbdcontrol -l emacs.kbd

* Emacs' xterm-mouse-mode doesn't work on the Gnome terminal.

A symptom of this bug is that double-clicks insert a control sequence
into the buffer.  The reason this happens is an apparent
incompatibility of the Gnome terminal with Xterm, which also affects
other programs using the Xterm mouse interface.  A problem report has
been filed.

* Emacs pauses for several seconds when changing the default font

This has been reported for fvwm 2.2.5 and the window manager of KDE
2.1.  The reason for the pause is Xt waiting for a ConfigureNotify
event from the window manager, which the window manager doesn't send.
Xt stops waiting after a default timeout of usually 5 seconds.

A workaround for this is to add something like

emacs.waitForWM: false

to your X resources.  Alternatively, add `(wait-for-wm . nil)' to a
frame's parameter list, like this:

   (modify-frame-parameters nil '((wait-for-wm . nil)))

(this should go into your `.emacs' file).

* Underlines appear at the wrong position.

This is caused by fonts having a wrong UNDERLINE_POSITION property.
An example is the font 7x13 on XFree prior to version 4.1.  To
circumvent this problem, set x-use-underline-position-properties to
nil in your .emacs.

* Building Emacs with GCC 2.9x fails in the `src' directory.

This may happen if you use a development version of GNU `cpp' from one
of the GCC snapshots between Oct 2000 and Feb 2001, or from a released

! #define assert(x)	((void)0)
  
  #else /* debugging enabled */
  

* When using Xaw3d scroll bars without arrows, the very first mouse
click in a scroll bar might be ignored by the scroll bar widget.  This
is probably a bug in Xaw3d; when Xaw3d is compiled with arrows, the
problem disappears.

Cygwin 1.x builds of the ported Bash cannot be interrupted from the
MS-Windows version of Emacs.  This is due to some change in the Bash
port or in the Cygwin library which apparently make Bash ignore the
keyboard interrupt event sent by Emacs to Bash.  (Older Cygwin ports
of Bash, up to b20.1, did receive SIGINT from Emacs.)

* The latest released version of the W3 package doesn't run properly
with Emacs 21 and needs work.  However, these problems are already
fixed in W3's CVS.  The patch below is reported to make w3-4.0pre.46
work.

39231:a3c2d52350d6

This file describes various problems that have been encountered
in compiling, installing and running GNU Emacs.

* Building Emacs with GCC 2.9x fails in the `src' directory.

This may happen if you use a development version of GNU `cpp' from one
of the GCC snapshots between Oct 2000 and Feb 2001, or from a released

! #define assert(x)	((void)0)
  
  #else /* debugging enabled */
  


* Improving performance with slow X connections

If you don't need X Input Methods (XIM) for entering text in some
language you use, you can improve performance on WAN links by
configuring Emacs with option `--without-xim'.  Configuring Emacs
without XIM does not affect the use of Emacs' own input methods, which
are part of the Leim package.

If the connection is very slow, you might also want to consider
switching off scroll bars, menu bar, and tool bar.

* Getting a Meta key on the FreeBSD console

By default, neither Alt nor any other key acts as a Meta key on
FreeBSD, but this can be changed using kbdcontrol(1).  Dump the
current keymap to a file with the command

  $ kbdcontrol -d >emacs.kbd

Edit emacs.kbd, and give the key you want to be the Meta key the
definition `meta'.  For instance, if your keyboard has a ``Windows''
key with scan code 105, change the line for scan code 105 in emacs.kbd
to look like this

  105   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta   meta    O

to make the Windows key the Meta key.  Load the new keymap with

  $ kbdcontrol -l emacs.kbd

* Emacs' xterm-mouse-mode doesn't work on the Gnome terminal.

A symptom of this bug is that double-clicks insert a control sequence
into the buffer.  The reason this happens is an apparent
incompatibility of the Gnome terminal with Xterm, which also affects
other programs using the Xterm mouse interface.  A problem report has
been filed.

* Emacs pauses for several seconds when changing the default font

This has been reported for fvwm 2.2.5 and the window manager of KDE
2.1.  The reason for the pause is Xt waiting for a ConfigureNotify
event from the window manager, which the window manager doesn't send.
Xt stops waiting after a default timeout of usually 5 seconds.

A workaround for this is to add something like

emacs.waitForWM: false

to your X resources.  Alternatively, add `(wait-for-wm . nil)' to a
frame's parameter list, like this:

   (modify-frame-parameters nil '((wait-for-wm . nil)))

(this should go into your `.emacs' file).

* Underlines appear at the wrong position.

This is caused by fonts having a wrong UNDERLINE_POSITION property.
An example is the font 7x13 on XFree prior to version 4.1.  To
circumvent this problem, set x-use-underline-position-properties to
nil in your .emacs.

* When using Xaw3d scroll bars without arrows, the very first mouse
click in a scroll bar might be ignored by the scroll bar widget.  This
is probably a bug in Xaw3d; when Xaw3d is compiled with arrows, the
problem disappears.

Cygwin 1.x builds of the ported Bash cannot be interrupted from the
MS-Windows version of Emacs.  This is due to some change in the Bash
port or in the Cygwin library which apparently make Bash ignore the
keyboard interrupt event sent by Emacs to Bash.  (Older Cygwin ports
of Bash, up to b20.1, did receive SIGINT from Emacs.)

* Accessing remote files with ange-ftp hangs the MS-Windows version of Emacs.

If the FTP client is the Cygwin port of GNU `ftp', this appears to be
due to some bug in the Cygwin DLL or some incompatibility between it
and the implementation of asynchronous subprocesses in the Windows
port of Emacs.  Specifically, some parts of the FTP server responses
are not flushed out, apparently due to buffering issues, which
confuses ange-ftp.

The solution is to downgrade to an older version of the Cygwin DLL
(version 1.3.2 was reported to solve the problem), or use the stock
Windows FTP client, usually found in the `C:\WINDOWS' directory.  To
force ange-ftp use the stock Windows client, set the variable
`ange-ftp-ftp-program-name' to the absolute file name of the client's
executable.  For example:

 (setq ange-ftp-ftp-program-name "c:/windows/ftp.exe")

If you want to stick with the Cygwin FTP client, you can work around
this problem by putting this in your `.emacs' file:

 (setq ange-ftp-ftp-program-args '("-i" "-n" "-g" "-v" "--prompt" "")


* The latest released version of the W3 package doesn't run properly
with Emacs 21 and needs work.  However, these problems are already
fixed in W3's CVS.  The patch below is reported to make w3-4.0pre.46
work.