Can't connect via gnuclient

[Sean MacLennan]

On Sat, 5 Apr 2008 15:03:20 -0500
skip at pobox.com wrote:

> 
> I've noticed that under certain circumstances I can no longer connect
> to a running XEmacs instance on my laptop using gnuclient (I think
> since I traded in my powerbook for a macbook pro, but I'm not sure).
> list-processes shows that I have gnuserv running:
> 
>     Proc         Status   Buffer         Tty         Command
>     ----         ------   ------         ---         -------
>     gnuserv      run      (none)             /dev/ttys003 gnuserv
> 
> and the xemacs and gnuclient programs are located in the same place
> and are of similar vintage:
> 
>     % type -a gnuclient
>     gnuclient is /Users/skip/local/bin/gnuclient
>     gnuclient is /usr/bin/gnuclient
>     % type -a xemacs
>     xemacs is /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs
>     % file /Users/skip/local/bin/gnuclient
>     /Users/skip/local/bin/gnuclient: Mach-O executable i386
>     % file /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs
>     /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs: Mach-O executable i386
>     % ls -l /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs
>     lrwxrwxr-x  1 skip  staff  15 Mar  3
> 04:17 /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs -> xemacs-21.5-b28 % ls
> -lL /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs -rwxr-xr-x  1 skip  staff  5314052
> Mar  3 04:17 /Users/skip/local/bin/xemacs % ls
> -l /Users/skip/local/bin/gnuclient -rwxr-xr-x  1 skip  staff  23348
> Mar  3 04:17 /Users/skip/local/bin/gnuclient
> 
> but I can't connect.  Here are a bunch of failed attempts with
> different variants:
> 
>     % gnuclient -nw -q
>     gnuclient: No such file or directory
>     gnuclient: unable to connect to local
>     % gnuclient -q
>     gnuclient: No such file or directory
>     gnuclient: unable to connect to local
>     % gnuclient -nw
>     gnuclient: No such file or directory
>     gnuclient: unable to connect to local
>     % echo $DISPLAY
>     localhost:10.0
>     % DISPLAY= gnuclient -q
>     gnuclient: No such file or directory
>     gnuclient: unable to connect to local
>     % unset DISPLAY
>     % gnuclient -q
>     gnuclient: No such file or directory
>     gnuclient: unable to connect to local
> 
> The one thing those failed attempts all have in common is that I
> first ssh'd into my desktop machine at work then ssh'd back into my
> laptop at home.  If I avoid the two ssh commands and just run
> gnuclient from a Terminal window on my laptop gnuclient works just
> fine.
> 
> I can clearly find the gnuclient app, so I presume it's gnuclient
> that can't find some file or directory in the double ssh case, but
> which one?  Is it somehow related to the new way the DISPLAY
> environment variable works on Leopard's X11?  In the no-ssh case my
> DISPLAY is "/tmp/launch-6mb1rV/:0".  I tried changing it to that in
> the double-ssh case but that didn't improve matters.
> 

You didn't happen to ssh in as root did you? I find that once you
access as root, you can't access as another user since a lock file gets
owned by root.

Cheers,
   Sean