I tried to compile blackbox on OS X(10.4) and after i got thru configure, make, and make install. i tried to run it, when i did that it just gave me an error saying that another window manager was running. I kind of understand why its happening but i dont really know what to do.
That and i had a questions. Does it work on the entire system (replacing finder) or just X11 apps? Do you have to start it every time you start the system or is it just something you do once?

thx.

try starting it via the XTerm command line (NOT the MacOS terminal).

Also, If you run it via X11 it's going to run on top of the Mac Finder. You could run X11 in full screen and run X apps that way with blackbox, but replacing the Finder is generally not that good of an idea (when trying to kill it off).

i did try thru X11 and that is what it gave me. But ill try it again maybe im wrong

You might be able to get into it if you follow these instructions:

1. Open System Preferences
2. Click Accounts
3. Click Login Options
4. Under "Display Login Window As:", click Name and Password.
5. Logout
6. Type ">console" into the username box, leave the password box empty and Login.
7. You should find yourself faced with a black screen with white text. This is Darwin. It should be now asking you for your username. Type it in as well as your password when it asks for it. You should be now faced with a Linux prompt.
8. Now attempt to cd to the directory where blackbox is and run it.

Let me know how it goes.

if i do that will i be able to get back to normal once i log out and log back in or would i need to do something else. If something goes wrong i dont want it to be irreversible

Just rebooting will bring you back into OS X, but if you don't want to reboot, you can type "logout" in the prompt and that will bring you back to the login screen in OS X.

i started all over and recompiled but now i get this error
bt::Display: failed to open display ''
i really think it might hate me

On Mac OS X, there is an X11 window manager that links with Quartz and draws Aqua's borders around the windows (it's called QuartzWM, IIRC). If you want to run another window manager, you'll have to kill it (using killall quartzwm) or tell the other window manager to replace it (usually with the --replace parameter). Note that the other window manager will only manage X11 applications - native Mac applications will continue to appear and behave as they always have.

Also, running X11 from the console doesn't work right away. You have to run the X server first, which will launch the Mac display server (as on Mac OS X, X11 runs on top of Quartz, by default).


Try this before launching blackbox: