CDE Issues

Compiling Motif Programs

Binary compatibility of existing Motif binaries is not affected. Many parameters in the Motif Application Programming Interface (API) are of type XmString, which is an opaque type. Motif source code that uses char* where the Motif API expects an XmString parameter is always incorrect. Such incorrect Motif code is more likely to core dump when compiled in the Solaris 7 operating environment.

Workaround: Use an older version of Motif.

Supported Y2K Dates Testing Procedure

CDE and Solaris 7 is Y2Kcompliant. Use the date command to modify the system date and clock. If you want the system date and clock to reflect a future date for testing purposes, halt or shut down the system and run in single user mode. You can only modify the system date in single user mode. You can then boot your system and run in multi user mode with the desired test date.

Centralized Calendar Access Swap Rquirement

If you deploy centralized calendar services where users have access to their Calendar from a remote centralized server, then the Calendar requires about ten times the total size of Calendar files in swap space to work reliably.

For example, if users want to have access to Calendar from the same server and the Calendar files' size totals 50 MB, then Calendar requires 500 MB of swap space to work reliably.

If these space limitations are not considered during the installation of Solaris, users may have unreliable access to the Calendar.

Workaround: Increase swap space to enable the Calendar to work reliably.

The Motif Window Manager (MWM) Is No Longer Supported in the Solaris 2.6 and 2.7 Operating Environment

If you are currently using the MWM, upgrade to CDE desktop. The CDE desktop provides superior functionality and the transition is not difficult. The following information is provided if you cannot upgrade from the MWM to the full CDE desktop.

If you have developed applications using the Motif Development kit that shipped with the 2.5 Software Developer's Kit, you can now use dtwm, the Windows Manager, that is part of CDE. The Windows Manager can be used just like the MWM. The Windows Manager also supports resource files for the MWM. The following actions can be taken to make the Windows Manager appear similar to an existing MWM configuration.

Turn off the dtwm front panel using the following settings:

Dtwm*useFrontPanel:      False

This resource can be set in .Xdefaults, or the existing resource can be changed from True to False in the file /usr/dt/app-defaults/C/Dtwm

The dtwm option -name allows the use of most existing mwm resources. The -name option is documented in the dtwm man page.

MWM customers may or may not depend on the following file: $HOME/.mwmrc. There is a dtwm resource config file that can be set to make dtwm read the file $HOME/.mwmrc. This resource is documented in the dtwm man page.

The root menu for dtwm and mwm is not the same. The dtwm root menu is fully configurable. You can make any changes in the root menu. See the man pages for dtwm and dtwmrc.

CDE Mailer Needs Additional Free Memory to Open a Mailbox

The CDE Mailer needs twice the size of a mailbox in free memory to open the mailbox. For example, if you have a 150 MB mailbox, you need at least 300 MB of free memory to open the mailbox.

Workaround: Increase your swap space to enable your mailbox to be opened.