On Fri, 24 Sep 2004, Michael Shell wrote:
I have run into a curious issue when trying to build XFree86 (4.4.0 or 4.4.99.13) from source on my i586 Linux system. I have the sinking feeling that it is an easy problem with an obvious solution, but one that somehow eludes me.
The symptoms are bizarre. After compilation (apparently without errors) and installation (make World, make install, make install.man), several key installed files have zero length - the most critical of which is startx. If the empty startx is replaced with a valid script, X windows can be started, but xrdb is inoperative, and some applications (e.g., xmms) will have "jerky" screen updates - which apparently is caused by the fact that /etc/X11/locale/locale.dir is empty. Some man pages are also empty (e.g., /usr/X11R6/man/man1/Xnest.1x has a zero file length).
Acting on the assumption that all these problems are related, I decided to start by tracking down what was causing the empty Xnest man page. In my build directory (buildxc), the Makefile (in buildxc/programs/Xserver/hw/xnest) contains (around line 1060):
Xnest.$(MANNEWSUFFIX):: Xnest.$(MANSRCSUFFIX) $(RM) $@ sed -e 's/\\$$/\\ /' Xnest.$(MANSRCSUFFIX) | $(RAWCPP) $(MANDEFS) $(EXTRAMANDEFS) | sed -e '/^# ...
(I have removed the tabs and truncated this very long line for readability).
Now, on my system with my own custom host.def (email me if you need to see this), the xnest.man build line becomes:
sed -e 's/\\$/\\ /' Xnest.man | gcc -march=i586 -pipe -E -undef -traditional ...
which FAILS with error "gcc: no input files". Unfortunately, compilation does not stop with this error and the resulting Xnest._man output is empty.
"Custom host.def" indeed. Setting CppCmd to "gcc <anything>" is incorrect. Let it default to /lib/cpp, or simply cpp.
Marc.
+----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Marc Aurele La France | work: 1-780-492-9310 | | Computing and Network Services | fax: 1-780-492-1729 | | 352 General Services Building | email: tsi@xxxxxxxxxxx | | University of Alberta +-----------------------------------+ | Edmonton, Alberta | | | T6G 2H1 | Standard disclaimers apply | | CANADA | | +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ XFree86 developer and VP. ATI driver and X server internals. _______________________________________________ XFree86 mailing list XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86
