Emacs 30 w/xaw

jmcunx

Emacs30 linked to gtk3 can still hang X11 on my system when using drop-down menus in Emacs GUI. Toolkit gtk2 worked great, but that option was removed. So I would like to try Emacs30 linked to xaw.

I use to modify options.mk to get it to compile with gtk2, but I noticed this comment in that file:

--with-x-toolkit=KIT use an X toolkit (KIT one of: gtk3, xaw, no)

How would I specify '--with-x-toolkit=xaw' ? I tried this but it aborts:

make --with-x-toolkit=xaw

Thanks

PS, right now I am using package emacs28-28.2nb38 since that seems to work fine with gtk3

rvp

jmcunx Emacs30 linked to gtk3 can still hang X11 on my system when using drop-down menus in Emacs GUI.

Hmm. There's a 4 or 5 sec. lag before the menus drop down, but, there's no hang anywhere. Tried both the binary package and the latest self-compiled source on 11.0_RC2 and -HEAD. (I thought it was just emacs--Eight Megabytes and Constantly Swapping.)

jmcunx How would I specify '--with-x-toolkit=xaw' ? I tried this but it aborts:

That has to be passed to configure. If I'm reading the Guide right (sec. 6.7), add to /etc/mk.conf:

PKG_OPTIONS.emacs= xaw

jmcunx

rvp Thanks

What window manager are you using ? I have seen this happen with ctwm, cwm and fluxbox. But Emacs 30 is much better than the version I used on NetBSD 10.0. That may have been an earlier patch of 30. Most of the time I get the delay. Under v28, no delay.

If you try accessing the menus with the mouse multiple times in a row without delaying or selecting a pick, you may see the freeze.

rvp

jmcunx What window manager are you using ?

The standard one - ctwm.

jmcunx If you try accessing the menus with the mouse multiple times in a row without delaying or selecting a pic, you may see the freeze.

Yah, I noticed that wonkiness (incorrect pointer shapes, for instance), but, no hangs....

jmcunx

rvp

What you suggested, editing /etc/mk.conf to compile Emacs30 with xaw worked great.

FWIW, the Emacs30 w/xaw does not have the Menu issue plus I think the fonts look better than it did when using gtlk3. I wanted v30 because I heard it corrects some issues and 'ew' has been enhanced.

I went looking to see why gtk2 was removed, seems when using gtk2 with Emacs can have a rare security issue.

rvp

jmcunx What you suggested, editing /etc/mk.conf to compile Emacs30 with xaw worked great.

Can you try compiling emacs30 with --without-xinput2 ? (Don't know how to pass this to configure w/o fiddling with the pkgsrc Makefile.)

Removing that almost make the lags go away.

jmcunx [...] plus I think the fonts look better than it did when using gtlk3.

Using a larger default UI font is easy:

$ cat ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
[Settings]
# https://docs.gtk.org/gtk3/property.Settings.gtk-font-name.html
gtk-font-name = Sans 12

$

jmcunx

rvp

I went looking to where to add '--without-xinput2', but the Makefiles are a bit complex for me.

I did not know about file "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini" nor does one exist. I have my fonts for Emacs defined in "~/.emacs". I am using "DejaVu Sans Mono".

But that is one of the annoyances if have with Linux. Seems an application config files can be all over the place, almost like Windows 🙂 So when Emacs is linked to gtk3, you should set the font in "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini" ? When I was using Emacs/gtk3, I had the fonts set in ~/.emacs and that was set by using Emacs' menus.

Anyways thanks for the alternate work-arounds, if I get bored I will take a look at that config option you suggested.

I miss the days of ~/.Xdefaults 🙁

rvp

jmcunx I went looking to where to add '--without-xinput2', but the Makefiles are a bit complex for me.

You could add it here or in options.mk (mebbe even as an env. var. to make).

jmcunx So when Emacs is linked to gtk3, you should set the font in "~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini" ?

Only the interface fonts (menus and such-like). The text font you can still set in ~/.Xresources.

jmcunx

rvp

I did what you suggested, I added this line to /usr/pkg/pkgsrc/editors/emacs30/options.mk as noted here:

`### Support D-BUS
###

CONFIGURE_ARGS+= --without-xinput2

.if !empty(PKG_OPTIONS:Mdbus)
`

Compile went well and ldd does not list xinput2. That does fix the Menu Issues as you indicated. I looked up xinput2 and duckduckgo said:

XInput2 is an extension for the X Window System on Linux that allows for more advanced input device handling, such as touchscreens and tablets

That does not apply for me, so not having XInput2 is fine for me. Now the big question, do I go back to xaw or keep this new version w/gtk3 🙂 For now I will hang on to the gtk3 version.

But I wonder if in the next release of pkgsrc if XInput2 should be changed to an option that can be added to /etc/mk.conf

rvp: again thanks for helping me with this

rvp

jmcunx Jacking up the kernel tick rate with options HZ=1000 also seems to help some (ie. w/o needing to disable xinput2). Don't ask me why!