XQuartz: user / environment when executing xinit? (XMonad, xmodmap, etc.)

x11xquartz

I'm running XMonad with XQuartz on an 11,3 Macbook Prop Retina. My .xinitrc looks as follow:

[[ -f ~/.Xdefaults ]] && xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults
export LANG="en_CA.UTF-8"
xmodmap /Users/xxxxxxx/.xmodmarc
cd $HOME
/Users/xxxxxxxx/Library/Haskell/bin/xmonad

I've noticed that both the LANG export and the xmodmap are being called, but their effects are not persisting. If I throw some env >> tmp.txt in there I can see that it's a different environment than when I finally reach a terminal, and I suspect perhaps even a different user that is calling xinit.

My Questions

what user or environment is actually calling xinit when you startup XQuartz?
where is the appropriate place to put xmodmap so that it's called once, and only once, when XQuartz is started?
How do I get the LANG set once, and only once, as an environment variable when I start XQuartz (I need it for unicode support)

Thank you!

Best Answer

What user/env is actually calling `xinit` when you start XQuartz?

Under Linux, this would be the user that you logged in as; I'd suspect that it's probably the same for Mac OS X. As for the environment, whatever the current environment is when you run xinit, that will be the environment that XQuartz runs with, excepting changes to the environment done within one of the files that XQuartz reads when it starts up.

Where should I put `xmodmap` so that it's called once, and only once, when XQuartz is started?

To create your own custom map/table and store it in a configuration file, run:

xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap

Make the desired changes to ~/.Xmodmap and then test the new configuration with:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

To active your custom table when starting Xorg, that is XQuartz, add the following to your ~/.xinitrc

[ -s ~/.Xmodmap ] && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap # you can also try using `[[ -s ~/.Xmodmap ]] && xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap`

How do I get the LANG set once, and only once, as an environment variable when I start XQuartz (I need it for unicode support)

To set LANG, simply add one of the following to your ~/.xinitrc

[[ -z "$LANG" ]] && LANG=<VALUE> # only sets LANG, if LANG is empty
LANG=<VALUE> # sets LANG regardless of whether it is or is not empty

Related Solutions

MacOS – Using XQuartz for communicating to the Centos server using local graphical user interface

You don't need to switch to runlevel 5, this only means that the server boots into the GUI, not that it's useable. You can use runlevel 3 and launch remote X sessions.

Furthermore, you'll have to use xterm to start the SSH session, not Terminal.app. If you run XQuartz it should open it by default. Then run ssh -X root.website.com to open the session and from this session you can launch the needed applications. If you need the entire desktop, run gnome-session & or your desired VM.

Note that you need to have X11Forwarding yes in your /etc/ssh/sshd.conf.

Inkscape (or other XQuartz) window disappears when using external screen

It seems like the issue is that when I plug the external screen, it messes with the coordinate system of my Mac's screen, effectively shifting the origin of my screen by the resolution of the external screen.

In other words, from the point of view of XQuartz the origin of my Mac's screen changes from 0,0 to 2560,1440 (which is the resolution of my external screen).

This means that if Inkscape is somewhere near origin (0,0) but still associated with my Mac's main screen then it doesn't appear on the external screen nor in my main screen. It is basically in "limbo" between the 2 screens.

The solution is to move the Inkscape window to a new coordinate that takes into account the size of the external screen, and this is where wmctrl comes in useful:

brew install wmctrl
wmctrl -r Inkscape -e 0,2560,1440,1200,700

Of course you need to replace 2560,1440 with your own external screen's resolution and 1200,700 to suit your main screen resolution.

In order to make it more convenient I created 2 alias, to fix the coordinates for my Mac screen and for the external screen, respectively:

alias fixInkscape='wmctrl -r Inkscape -e 0,2560,1440,1200,700'
alias fixInkscapeExt='wmctrl -r Inkscape -e 0,0,0,2560,1300'

Remember that each alias only works for the screen that Inkscape is associated with, you still need to drag-and-drop the window in order to switch screens. wmctrl won't do it automatically, but it certainly helps in "fishing" it from limbo.