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#1 2018-03-17 19:59:26

msi
Member
Registered: 2017-02-04
Posts: 143  

[Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

After reading about X terminal emulators recently, I switched from XTerm to RXVT – rxvt-unicode-256color, to be exact, so that Vim color themes would be displayed nicely.

Now, I was trying to set this as the default X terminal emulator, using update-alternatives:

# update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator
There are 5 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator (providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).

  Selection    Path                 Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/lxterm       30        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/koi8rxterm   20        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/lxterm       30        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/urxvt        20        manual mode
  4            /usr/bin/uxterm       20        manual mode
  5            /usr/bin/xterm        20        manual mode

Press enter to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number:

Number 3 seems to be the right choice here, so I selected it and hit enter. But if I use x-terminal-emulator instead of /usr/bin/urxvt now to start the terminal, the configuration (colors, fonts) in my .Xresources file is being ignored and I'm presented with a small white box containing a bit of tiny text in an ugly font and an ugly scroll bar on the left on top of that.

That's pretty strange, because x-terminal-emulator should do nothing but point to /usr/bin/urxvt, which it does. How is it possible then that I get a fully configured RXVT when running /usr/bin/urxvt directly, but not when running x-terminal-emulator?

I'm on Jessie, FWIW.

Last edited by msi (2018-03-18 00:38:12)

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#2 2018-03-17 22:16:01

catprints
Member
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 145  

Re: [Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

You made me curious. I tried launching with x-terminal-emulator command and got the small font version.No .Xresources version.
Then I launched using xterm command and got the pretty version in my .Xresources. I know nothing about urxvt though. However, I am
on ascii not jessie.

Last edited by catprints (2018-03-17 22:18:32)


"The obstacle is the path."

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#3 2018-03-17 22:46:14

ralph.ronnquist
Administrator
From: Clifton Hill, Victoria, AUS
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 1,106  

Re: [Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

Presumably it's because the WM_CLASS property is different between the two cases, and that the resources for urxvt refers to the differing class tag.

Use xprop | grep WM_CLASS to check.

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#4 2018-03-17 23:16:27

msi
Member
Registered: 2017-02-04
Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

Ok, I checked this.

For the terminal started directly calling /usr/bin/urxvt, the output is:

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "urxvt", "URxvt"

If I run x-terminal-emulator, I get:

WM_CLASS(STRING) = "x-terminal-emulator", "URxvt"

I'm unsure what to make of this, however.

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#5 2018-03-17 23:59:11

ralph.ronnquist
Administrator
From: Clifton Hill, Victoria, AUS
Registered: 2016-11-30
Posts: 1,106  

Re: [Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

By my theory, the desired resources are tagged with urxvt (rather than URxvt), and they are therefore not applicable to a window lacking that tag. The supporting patch would thus be to replace all urxvt with URxvt in the resource definition file(s), and then it all will magically work.

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#6 2018-03-18 00:37:44

msi
Member
Registered: 2017-02-04
Posts: 143  

Re: [Solved] RXVT config ignored when started via x-terminal-emulator

Yes, that fixes it. Thanks a lot!

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