From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Wed Jun 24 2009 - 15:24:32 CDT

Tom,
  I had to change the default behavior because some of the newer Linux
distributions created problems with finding shared libraries when VMD was
launched via xterm as it has been for so many years. These linux distros
basically null out the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment when executing new
processes via 'xterm -e' under the pretense of "increased security",
but really it just breaks things. In any case, you can choose to
get the old behavior with a little shell command aliasing, e.g. (csh syntax):
  alias vmd 'xterm -e vmd &'

Cheers,
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu

On Wed, Jun 24, 2009 at 03:08:07PM -0500, Thomas C. Bishop wrote:
> I noticed that in VMD 1.8.7 that the VMD console is not a separate window .
> Instead the xterm from which I start VMD becomes the new VMD console.
> In earlier versions I always got a new VMD console.
>
> It's not a bug just a difference that affects my VMD habbits.
>
> It appears (see following excerpt from /usr/local/bin/vmd) that the spawing of
> a new terminal has been commented out.
>
> Is there a reason for me to develop new habbits or can I restore to old
> behavior?
>
> THanks
> Tom
>
>
> else
> # # if DISPLAY is set, spawn off a terminal, else use current terminal
> # if ($?DISPLAY) then
> # if ("$VMDWEBHELPER" == "1") then
> ## exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
> ## "$MASTERVMDDIR/$execname" $*
> # exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
> # "env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH $MASTERVMDDIR/$execname" $*
> # else
> ## exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
> ## "$MASTERVMDDIR/$execname" $* &
> # exec $VMD_WINTERM -T "vmd console" $VMD_WINGEOM $VMD_WINOPTS \
> # "env LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH $MASTERVMDDIR/$execname" $* &
> # endif
> # else
> $vmdprefixcmd "$MASTERVMDDIR/$execname" $*
> # endif
> endif

-- 
NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics
Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology
University of Illinois, 405 N. Mathews Ave, Urbana, IL 61801
Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu                 Phone: 217-244-3349
  WWW: http://www.ks.uiuc.edu/~johns/      Fax: 217-244-6078