Xterm revisited

B

balanga

I only just 'discovered' Xterm fairly recently and haven't done much with it recently but for some reason I pressed C-LMB and started looking at the menu options. and after looking around I must have set something and now I can no longer get Full Screen to work when selecting it.

Have I broken something?

I have not edited any of the configuration files.
 
You must understand, there are many variables here which we do not understand or are aware of.

Instead of writing things like "I can no longer get Full Screen," it would be helpful if you could write the specific actual steps you tried, and what occured after.

Some background too might be helpful. FreeBSD, version, window manager, etc.

Do keep in mind that the menu option that your mouse was over before you released the button gets enabled, as shown by a check mark over it, or disabled if it was previously enabled, with no checkmark over it, on the next visit.

You are unlikely to have broken anything from inside that menu.
 
FreeBSD 14.3-RELEASE, LXDE after recently doing freebsd-update and pkg upgrade .

I was just getting familiar with the options available under C-LMB and C-RMB.

Selecting Full Screen does create a check mark although other selections do although they are not retained after restarting Xterm.

Maybe setting some configuration will sort things, but that seems fairly tricky as there is so much to it.

www.unix.com

freebsd xterm man page on unix.com

freebsd operating system manual for xterm section 1 of the unix.com man page documentation.
www.unix.com

I just came across this helpful guide which might point out what I need to set up
 
balanga said:
Selecting Full Screen does create a check mark although other selections do although they are not retained after restarting Xterm.
Click to expand...
Those settings are valid for the current session only, they are not saved in a configuration file. As you might have guessed, all permanent settings must be defined in a configuration file.

It's possible to configure LXDE to open certain applications in full screen.

Create (or drop a pre-configured copy) ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml:
XML: 
<applications>
      
  <application name="xterm">
        <fullscreen>yes</fullscreen>
  </application>

</applications>

Or only certain xterm sessions:
XML: 
<applications>
      
  <application name="xterm" title="Tmux">
        <fullscreen>yes</fullscreen>
  </application>

</applications>

The title can be queried with obxprop:
Code: 
 %  xterm -T Tmux  -e tmux

% obxprop | grep "^_OB_APP_TITLE"
Click the mouse pointer crosshair in the application window.
 
balanga said:
Maybe setting some configuration will sort things, but that seems fairly tricky as there is so much to it.
Click to expand...

Xterm is a pretty basic and low level program. I still recommend it, because it is rock solid and powerful, and configuring it isn't that much of a pain, really. There are many ways to do it, but they all do require config files. If you want something that works out of the box, you would probably be better served by a terminal emulator purpose built for your window manager. But it will be slower and have sometimes random bugs from having to go up and down the stairs all the time. Xterm plugs you into the mainframe direct, as much as that is possible outside a console.

But the thing that bothers me is that full screen functionality should be something that you toggle with your window manager. Xterm offers it because, again, it is pretty low level and is buiilt to function on just a bare X11 instance. But most if not all of those menu options are better set either through your window manager, or a config file.
 
lost_in_c said:
Xterm is a pretty basic and low level program. I still recommend it, because it is rock solid and powerful, and configuring it isn't that much of a pain, really. There are many ways to do it, but they all do require config files.
Click to expand...

Well, there is a huge advantage to configuring via config files: you can check that config file into git and install it with a script on any new machine you log in to.
 
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Code: 
<keybind key="W-A-m">
      <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull">
        </action>
    </keybind>
is what I use in my $HOME/.config/openbox/rc.xml to Maximize any window, whether terminal, browser, or anything else. That should work in LXDE as well. I imagine you could also set a default size in $HOME/.Xdefaults or $HoME/.Xresources though I don't know the specifics.
 
I was not even aware of this possibility, at most I use these menus to change the size.

And no, it is not working in my computer.

For full screen, vertical or horizontal expansion of widgets, I use twm.
 
cracauer@ said:
Well, there is a huge advantage to configuring via config files: you can check that config file into git and install it with a script on any new machine you log in to.
Click to expand...
This is also useful for things like shell init files if you have different machines like $WORK and $HOME
 
Fair point.

But, actually, you can just run it with no config files and it will work. Then you can say for example "hmm I wish the background was black and font white," and google around for the best config file candidate to add that, and boom. And slowly build up.

It's a thing designed for xorg directly, which itself isn't meant to be used directly. So there are many different ways in which it can be integrated, which can produce something of a duanting maze of options.

In my case, for example, I have a very simple window manager. I thus have a .Xresources file in my home directory, with maybe 3 lines that don't even reference xterm directly, but they determine a color scheme that ends up affecting xterm's behaviour.

One of those few cases where random tips and tricks from google will help you more than the man page.

In fact, if I think about it, I may have 3 or 4 config files, none of which are xterm config files, where xterm's behavious is modified. It is meant to work through your xorg setup, not along side it.
 
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