[OS X TeX] Re: Leopard, MacTeX2007 and gv

[Martin Costabel]

Eric van der Oord wrote:
> 
> You are right.
> I've reinstalled the Xcode Tools and now "make" and "sudo make install" 
> seem to run perfectly.
> 
> But, alas, I have another problem : X11 does't work !
> 
> [sdpp-01:~] ericvand% gv
> gv: Unable to open the display.
> [sdpp-01:~] ericvand% xterm
> xterm Xt error: Can't open display:
> xterm:  DISPLAY is not set
> 
> A double-click on X11 icon gives nothing.

In principle, on Leopard, setting DISPLAY is not necessary; it is even a 
mistake to set it. On the other hand, the automatic launch procedure for 
X11 now uses system components that require logout/login or in some 
versions even a reboot in order to work correctly. Maybe you should try 
this first.

Another big problem for Leopard's X11 is that it exists in several 
varieties that differ very much in precisely these system components. 
Between the original X11 from the 10.5.0 Leopard system disk, the one 
system-updated to 10.5.2 and then to 10.5.3, the one coming with 
preinstalled 10.5.2, the one from the macosforge/xquartz update until 
version 2.1.4, and the one from the update version 2.2.0 or later (not 
to speak of the 2.3.0-rc4 experimental version), you have at least three 
or four completely different startup procedures that don't mix well. And 
this hits you if you reinstall X11 from your system disk on top of a 
previously updated X11 version.

There are currently two methods of getting back to a clean X11 on Leopard:

1. If you want to remain with the "official" X11, you reinstall both 
X11User.pkg and X11SDK.pkg from your system DVD. Then you download the 
550MB MacOSXUpdCombo10.5.3.dmg from Apple and do a system update (this 
restores a clean 10.5.3 even if you are already running 10.5.3, and I 
would recommend it every time you reinstalled something from the 10.5.0 
system disk on top of 10.5.3), or

2. You download and install the xquartz update version 2.2.3 from
<http://xquartz.macosforge.org/trac/wiki/X112.2.3>. This is a complete 
(well, apart from the deliberately omitted parts) installation of X11, 
including the header files like Xlib.h that normally come with the SDK. 
If you go this route, then you will have to reinstall the latest xquartz 
update after every system software update.

This whole mess was generated so that a "Normal Mac User" doesn't have 
to know about X11, and it "just works" if it is needed. Didn't quite 
succeed so far...

-- 
Martin