3. Problems After Installation

3.1 How do I enable sound in AfterStep?

First, make sure you have compiled the Linux kernel with sound support and that the sound works ; try :

cat [some au file] > /dev/audio

Then, edit  /GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/audio file. You should see (if you don't, add them) lines like these:

         *AudioPlayCmd /usr/bin/showaudio
         *AudioDir /usr/X11/lib/X11/afterstep/sounds
         *AudioDelay 1

If these aren't there, add them. Verify that the AudioPlayCmd is a valid program and that the sounds you want to play are in /usr/share/afterstep/desktop/sounds/ (or set it to the appropriate directory).

Below that section, you sould see many lines like this:

         #*Audio startup gong.au

Simply remove the comment (#) from the beginning of the line and if you wish, set the startup event to some other au file. The format is:

       Audio [event] [sound]

Do that for the rest of the Audio events, and as one AfterStepper put it, you'll literally add new bells and whistles to AfterStep.

Note that some people still have a few problems with audio. If you are still having trouble, and you've read this and followed the instructions carefully, you might want to ask questions on the mailing list.

3.2 I grabbed TkStep and Tcl7.6 and tried to install TkStep, but it doesn't work

TkStep still doesn't work with Tcl7.6. Try Tcl 7.5. [A question: has anyone tried this recently?] There is a version of TkStep for Tk8.0; see below for more information about TkStep.

3.3 Why doesn't ASCP run on my system?

ASCP needs TkStep, a version of Tk implemented by Alfredo Kojima (kojima@inf.ufrgs.br) (and now maintained by Oliver Graf and Steve Murray) that gives Tk the NEXTSTEP look-and-feel, and implements a few new widgets, like font and color choosers. You can download it from : http://www.fga.de/~ograf/TkStep.shtml; see below for information about ASCP. ASCP does not yet work with the new configurations anyway (i.e. post 1.2), so you might not need to worry about this. It may not work with the latest versions of TkStep, either.

A new version of ASCP which will not depend on TkStep (but on something more standard) is on work.

3.4 I don't want so many desktops in version 1.4.x or later; I want to change feature xyz in version 1.4.x or later.

Just edit the relevant file under  /GNUstep/Library/AfterStep. See the section on configuration for details.

3.5 I keep losing things on the desktop; the desktop is bigger than my pager indicates.

This is a known bug. So far, no-one has figured out what the problem is.

3.6 I'm running Solaris, and have had problems with the alphasort() function.

There are still a few problems with AfterStep and Solaris, but this one has been patched. You can find the patch in the mailing-list archives. You should also check the information in the README.Solaris file, and see : http://www.primate.wisc.edu/software/imake-stuff/.