VMD-L Mailing List

From: John Stone (johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu)
Date: Thu May 27 1999 - 16:00:02 CDT

> Hello,
>
> Having just completed the installation of VMD on my machine (an O2
> running 6.5.3), I find that when I type 'vmd' the winterm and menus
> appear, but no display window.

Are you using virtual desktops?
If so, then this is probably the cause of the problem.
VMD normally places the graphics window at a predetermined location
based on the contents of the .vmd_init file (which will be eliminated
in VMD 1.4 in favor of other mechanisms...)

> I can load a molecule and the terminal
> acknowledges that it been loaded and I can modify the display by typing
> commands in the terminal, but no display of any kind, not even an empty
> display window; no display window at all!

It has got to be there, but you're not seeing it because its showing
up on another screen or is "off the screen".

> Also, how do I get VMD to use the local copy of the vmd_help.html file
> instead of the one at
> www.ks.uiuc.edu/Research/vmd/. Using the internet version when I have a
> local copy seems unnecessary.

The internet version is updated when links or text change (for example, the
links to the users guides and such already changed in the internet
version from what was shipped with VMD 1.3)
I would hope that loading the internet version doesn't pose a significant
delay for you, if it does, or if you're not directly connected to the net
then I can see your point. I'll look into this.

> I probably just missed something during the installation (using the
> configure script and 'make install') . Otherwise, brilliant program!

See if you can find the graphics window hiding on another desktop or
in a task list somewhere, its undoubtably mapped to the X screen
somewhere, but maybe not in a visible area. I've had people report
the same problem on some linux machines. For VMD 1.4 I'm going to
try and eliminate this kind of problem in "default installs" by turning
off the auto-positioning code unless the user really wants it to behave
this way... (for those of us that don't use virtual desktops etc, its
a nice feature, but there are an increasing number of people running into
this problem, so it may be time to find a nicer way of doing this.)

Thanks for using VMD!!
  John Stone
  vmd_at_ks.uiuc.edu 

-- 
Theoretical Biophysics Group   Email: johns_at_ks.uiuc.edu
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