tags 179904 + patch thanks
Here is a tested patch to fix the problem. Please apply in the next version of XFree86 for Debian. Having X fail without any error message is a usability problem confusing users and giving university support personel extra work. It would be very nice if this could be fixed on the official packages. I'm not sure where the message_nonl() function is used. It is not used in any of the Xsession.d scripts we got installed, but I added the call to xmessage there as well just in case. :) --- Xsession.orig 2003-04-09 16:50:30.000000000 +0200 +++ Xsession 2003-04-09 17:01:20.000000000 +0200 @@ -9,11 +9,17 @@ message () { # pretty-print messages of arbitrary length echo "$*" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} >&2; + if [ ! -z "$DISPLAY" ] ; then + echo "$*" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} | xmessage -file - + fi } message_nonl () { # pretty-print messages of arbitrary length (no trailing newline) echo -n "$*" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} >&2; + if [ ! -z "$DISPLAY" ] ; then + echo -n "$*" | fold -s -w ${COLUMNS:-80} | xmessage -file - + fi } errormsg () { @@ -24,8 +30,8 @@ internal_errormsg () { # exit script with error; essentially a "THIS SHOULD NEVER HAPPEN" message - message "$*" - message "Please report the package name, version, and the text of the" \ + message "$*\n" + "Please report the package name, version, and the text of the" \ "above error message(s) to <debian-x@lists.debian.org>."; exit 1; }