[DWM] dwm and terms

[qpai]

Hi,

I'm using DWM, and I have some problems with xterm.
As root everything works fine, but as a normal user xterm act really funny.
90% of the times, when I open a new xterm at tiling mode, xterm open and instantly close.
I can see only a flashing window(the window of xterm) and if there are any other windows opened I can hear a beep too).
So I have to "spam" the command "xterm" to finally open it, however xterm works nice at floating mode.

I did some search, and somebody suggested to use strace to reveal the cause of the problem.
I have amd64, so I used ktrace. Here is the kdump result:

$ kdump 
 46099 ktrace   RET   ktrace 0
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/sbin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/bin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/usr/sbin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/usr/bin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/usr/games/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/usr/local/sbin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   RET   execve -1 errno 2 No such file or directory
 46099 ktrace   CALL  execve(0x7fffffffe2f0,0x7fffffffe870,0x7fffffffe880)
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/usr/local/bin/xterm"
 46099 ktrace   NAMI  "/libexec/ld-elf.so.1"

This is the result of an instantly died xterm.
I have no clue what these lines mean, but if I do the same as root, kdump produces a much longer output with nearly the same beginning, plus additional xterm entries.

I have redirecteded the stderr of dwm, and startx to some files:

dwm: missing fontset: ISO8859-1

(EE) LoadModule: Module fbdevhw does not have a fbdevhwModuleData data object. 
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdevhw" (invalid module, 0)
failed to set mtrr: Invalid argument
record: RECORD extension enabled at configure time.
record: This extension is known to be broken, disabling extension now..
record: http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20500
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning:          Type "ONE_LEVEL" has 1 levels, but <RALT> has 2 symbols 
>                   Ignoring extra symbols 
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server

In my opinion these errors have no connection with my problem, but I appreciate any advices.

Again:
As root both tiling and floating mode works.
As normal user only floating works, with tiling I have the problem described above.

I have a freshly upgraded system, and ports.
(uxterm acts the same as xterm)

Best wishes,
qpai

 

[richardpl]

What version of dwm & xterm? I use both just fine.

 

[qpai]

The problem caused, because the font what I have set in my config.h does not available on my X system. I set the font to fixed, and evertyhing works fine now.

 

[andyzammy]

mega bump.

I have the same problem described, root is fine, but users ability to create tiled xterms is intermitent.

I attempted to set font to "fixed", same way as OP did. I followed the example config.h on the suckless website but this hasn't resolved the issue. could someone help me out with this issue please?

 

[andyzammy]

Okay I'm beginning to understand my problem. The terminus font was missing. Why this matters only to user and not root I don't know. Anyway, I have installed it, but I can't tell if dwm can see the font. if xfontsel has the font available to it, does that mean the font is installed and visible to x apps?

 

[TommyB]

I have the same problem, it only occurs when using freebsd FreeBSD's sh as your interactive shell (I tested bash, tcsh and fish), with almost all known terminal emulators (aterm, xterm, rxvt), st from suckless.org seems to work but not every time. The same thing happens in i3, wmii, and probably other tilers.