#2 Cannot start obpager via xinitrc

[Anonymous]

Hey!
Problem: obpager works "sometimes"

I'm running obpager-1.8 with Openbox 3.2 and x11-6.7.0
(release 2).

I start X using "startx" and here's what my .xinitrc
looks like:
# Set background image
xv -root -rmode 5 -max -quit
images/bg-desktop/earth-1280.bmp &

exec gkrellm -g -0+0 &
exec aterm -bg black -fg grey -g +90+30 &

# Openbox
exec obpager &
exec openbox

So, when I start X the pager sometimes appear correctly
but most of the time it just pops up for a half a
second and then terminates (I can see it flicker in the
top left corner for a second when X starts up and then
it's gone).

When I Alt+F1 to check console for errors I see this:

Could not create pager:
src/OBPager.cc:216:connectToXServer:Could not intern X
Atom for 'UTF8_STRING'

Note that it does work starting obpager when X is up
and running by issuing an "obpager" command from an X
terminal...

Regards
Jesper Petersén

jesper.petersen@bredband.net

[Nobody/Anonymous]

Logged In: NO

It's hack but I do this to get around the problem

openbox &
sleep 1
obpager &
exec openbox --replace

[Roy Wood]

Logged In: YES
user_id=24927

OBPager tries to connect to the window manager via a bunch
of X11 "atoms" (internal data structures used by X11 apps to
communicate). If the window manager has not yet set these
things up by the time OBPager tries to get them, OBPager fails.

I should probably have it retry a reasonable number of times
or duration of time, but I haven't bothered to do so yet. I
get around it by putting all my X startup stuff in a
separate script which I call from my .xinitrc file. My
stuff looks like this:

------- .xinitrc -------
xset fp+ ~/.fonts
xsetbg -center ~/Wallpaper/debian036.jpg &
x_startup.sh &
exec openbox
------------------------

------- x_startup.sh -------
#!/bin/sh

sleep 1 ; wmcalclock &
sleep 1 ; wmcube -o /usr/share/wmcube/ball-solid.wmc &
sleep 1 ; cputnik -t 1 &
sleep 1 ; wmnet -w -W eth1 &
sleep 1 ; wmwave &
sleep 1 ; mount.app &
sleep 1 ; wmbatppc &
sleep 1 ; obpager &
------------------------

By the time the last line in the x_startup.sh script runs,
OpenBox has had plenty of time to get up and running.

[sharkeyzoic]

Logged In: YES
user_id=1564157

Slightly more elegantly, you could try something in your
.xsession or .xinitrc like this:

( sleep 1; /usr/local/bin/obpager ) &
/usr/bin/openbox

This way obpager will be run after openbox has a chance to
start up. YMMV.

-----sharks