Linux $DISPLAY problems

[Ian Knopke]

I'm having a little trouble here...

Just installed a new version of Linux recently and now I'm trying to get
PD working again. I'm using a recent copy of Linux-Mandrake with a
Soundblaster Live card. Sound and MIDI both work using independent
programs. If I start PD from within X-windows it works but no sound or
MIDI. If I attempt to start it from a command line I get an error that
looks something like the following:

Application Initialization Failed: no display name and $DISPLAY not set

When I went through the installation routine my monitor choice was not
available so I chose the custom option and filled in my own values
(which seem to work fine). The DISPLAY variable is not present in my
env. My guess is that PD is looking for the DISPLAY variable to be set
to something in the .bashrc or .bash_profile files which the custom
option didn't add, but I don't know enough about the internal workings
of Linux to determine what or where this should be set exactly. Haven't
found any documentation on how these files are set up either. GEM is not
installed yet.

Does anyone know how to fix this? Do I have to change something in the
make files and re-compile PD (although it seems like a Linux problem not
a PD problem)? I'd really hate to switch back to the Windows version...

Ian Knopke
iknopk at po-box.mcgill.ca