Chimera on Mac OS X using X windows

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Chimera on Mac OS X using X windows

Chimera for Mac OS X is available in X windows and native Aqua versions. We recommend the X windows version because of the many problems with the current port of the Aqua Tk window toolkit.

Requirements

Chimera runs on Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) and 10.4 (Tiger), but not on older versions of the Mac OS.

An X server must be installed and running for Chimera to start. We recommend Apple's X server (X11). It is reliable and provides hardware OpenGL acceleration. Version 1.0 of X11 comes with Mac OS 10.3 as an optional component (standard location /Applications/Utilities/X11) and is also available from the Apple Web site. For Mac OS 10.4, see below.

Chimera on Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger)

On Mac OS 10.4, Chimera version 1.2121 or later must be used. Versions prior to 1.2120 will not start because of incompatiblities with system jpeg and tiff libraries. Version 1.2120 starts but crashes on ribbon display due to an Apple OpenGL driver bug. Chimera 1.2121 and later versions include work-arounds for these problems.

Chimera uses the X11 Window System. If you had X11 installed on OS X 10.3 and upgraded to Tiger, it should still be installed. If you bought a new Mac or did a fresh install of Tiger, X11 is not installed by default. To see if X11 is installed properly, try running X11.app in /Applications/Utilities. If the application is missing or does not run, you will need to install it by the following procedure:

insert the Tiger installation disc,
double-click on Optional Installs.mpkg at the top level,
get to the Installation Type step,
expand the Applications section,
select X11, and
click Install.

Problems downloading Chimera

If you experience difficulty downloading the distribution, try this link as a simple test to see if the size of the Chimera distribution is causing problems. The link should download a small Python program to your computer. The only difference between this and the Chimera distribution download is the size of the file, so if the link works then something in your environment is blocking the downloading of very large files.

If this test download does not work, then something in your environment is blocking the download of any binary file (the download is sent using the http content type of "application/octet-stream").

You can try downloading the Chimera distribution to a different computer or from a different network that you are sure does not make use of a proxy web server.

Installation

To install Chimera, open the disk image file you downloaded. This will put the Chimera application on your desktop. This may have happened automatically when you downloaded.

If more than one person will be using Chimera, the Applications folder is a good place to put it. Moving it to that folder requires administrator privileges. If it is only for your use, putting it in your home Applications folder or leaving it on the desktop are reasonable choices.

Deinstallation

To deinstall Chimera, drag it to the trash.

Starting Chimera

The usual method of starting Chimera is by double-clicking the icon. Chimera can also be started from the command line, with the following executable:

	Chimera.app/Contents/MacOS/chimera

The DISPLAY environment variable must be set and the X server must be running for Chimera to start. Starting Chimera (versions 1.2304 and newer) will automatically start the X server if it is not already running.

X windows settings

Clicking to activate windows. Two X11 preference settings help avoid extra mouse clicks when using Chimera dialogs. When you move the mouse from one Chimera window to another you can automatically have the new window activated without requiring a mouse click. Set this "focus follows mouse" preference by typing the following command in a Mac Terminal window:
```
	  defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_ffm -bool true
```
The default behaviour of the Quartz window manager from the Apple X server 1.0 release is to require you to click on each window before you can type to it or press buttons. The wm_ffm setting only effects X applications, not Aqua applications, so it only has an effect when an X window currently is active and you move the mouse to another X window.
When you are using a native Mac application (not X windows) and then click on a menu within the Chimera window the mouse click does not bring up the menu. It just activates the Chimera window and another mouse click is needed to show the menu. To make this work with a single mouse click, use the Mac X server wm_click_through preference by typing the following command in a Mac Terminal window:
```
	  defaults write com.apple.x11 wm_click_through -bool true
```
Normally Mac OS swallows window-activating mouse events. This preference causes a window-activating mouse click on an X window to also be processed by the application.
Enabling stereo. Sequential stereo is a rapid flickering between left-eye and right-eye views that produces a three-dimensional effect when viewed with special synchronized glasses. Sequential stereo in Chimera requires a workstation-class graphics card and a graphics driver configured for stereo. To tell X11 to take advantage of stereo visuals, type the following command in a Mac Terminal window:
```
	  defaults write com.apple.x11 enable_stereo -bool true
```

X11 must be restarted after any of these settings are changed. The settings are saved in your ~/Library/Preferences directory, so they will apply to future sessions. Reissuing the commands with "false" instead of "true" will restore the default preference settings.

Problems with X windows Chimera

Bouncing icon. The Chimera icon will continue to bounce in the Dock for about a minute after Chimera has been started. One way to avoid this visual annoyance is to turn off bouncing icons by switching off "Animate opening applications" in Dock preferences (under the Apple menu). This behaviour results from Chimera being an X windows application instead of a native Aqua application.