hi everybody,

in simple terms, inkscape doesn't want to open anymore, whereas it worked fine until recently (well, i only used it for a couple days). i've installed the latest Mac OS package, the latests Quartz package etc but to no avail. nothing works. i'm reaching very quickly my imcompetence zone here!!!

would anyone have any input as to why it stopped working and how i could get it to work again?
thanks in advance
fred

I know nothing about Macs, but if this were a Windows problem I would be asking for clarification of "doesn't open anymore". In the Windows world that would be a very vague statement that is impossible to provide an answer for.

So, what else can you tell the Mac users among us? How are you opening the program? What happens or what doesn't happen? Are there error messages?

hi, thanks for the reply.

i'll try to clarify

i double click on the inkscape app icon. it opens the X11 "thingy" and that's it. i go to the dock and see the inkscape icon there. if i click on it, nothing happens... no error message, no hidden window anywhere... nothing. the surprising part being that it worked fine before. and i'm not aware of any change to the computer that would explain the glitch. since the glitch, i have updated my system, installed the corresponding version of X11, reinstalled inkscape etc but nothings seems to do it...

i guess a Windows equivalent would be: double clicking the icon, see the hour glass for a while, maybe see the app splash screen and then nothing...

hope it helps
thanks again
fred

Did you try, first open X11, and then double click on Inkscape icon?

hi and thanks for ur replies.
yeah, i tried that too and nothing...

i have the same Problem, but i have no Error-Messages. System 10.5.2.
And now i get a new and REAL Shock: other X11-Soft like OpenOffice and Gimp does not works too! This must be produced by the new Inkscape-Version.
What is going on here on my Machine? i could cry, my last Backup is at home (and two Weeks old).

Have a look at your .xinitrc file.
Inkscape may have altered that file,
preventing the launch of your window manager.
You may try to launch the window manager "by hand"
after starting X11. Open a terminal and type something
like: exec quartz-wm &
or: exec /usr/X11R6/bin/quartz-wm

You may also try to:
-- move the .xinitrc to .xinitrc-old and see if X11 is starting as expected.
-- reload some .xinitrc from a backup, before the X11 problem occured.
-- locate the default X11 initrc (probably /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc) and copy it as your .xinitrc.

hi bert,
did what u offered and still doesn't work
thanks though
fred

Hi,
I passed the non-starting Inkscape by doing this three steps:

1. open a xterm window

2. go to Inkscape binary in the application folder


3. Start Inskape and ignore warnings


After a while Inkscape seems to have the font-cache rebuild and starts. Then the app can be started directly from "desktop" again. This worked for me...


Cheers, Daniel

edit: Yesterday, I tried Danji's solution twice and nothing changed, Inkscape didn't run and X11 didn't start. This morning I tried my luck again, and X11 immediately started when I started Inkscape, and an Inkscape window appeared. I don't know if it is due to the solution offered by Dani or due to something else, but my Inkscape works just fine now. Sorry to bother everyone and thanks for the help.

Tycho

original post:

Hi,

I'm having the same problem as Danji describes. I downloaded Inkscape, copied it to Apps and ran it. It warned that it had to start x11 and start the font caching or something (I didn't pay attention at the time, stupid of me!) All I know is that I thought it was taking too long, and quit X11 while the caching wasn't done yet.
Later the same day I decided to retry running Inkscape. It gave the 'have to start X11' warning, the icon in the dock started bouncing, but when I clicked OK it just stopped. X11 didn't start. I tried leaving the warning open, but X11 gave no sign. Nothing happens when I run Inkscape with X11 already running. Most annoying of all, OpenOffice doesn't work anymore, which probably means something is wrong with X11 rather than Inkscape.

My problem is, I am a novice Mac user and have no experience with anything other than MS Windows. Terminals sound really fun to me, but I have no idea how to properly type a command or anything. I tried to execute the solution provided by Danji, but it doesn't do anything at all, or so it seems.

Can anyone please explain to me how to get X11 working again so that I can run both OpenOffice and Inkscape?

Thanks in advance!

Tycho

I too am a mac novice. I'm running 10.5.2. A coworker pointed me to this http://trac.macosforge.org/projects/xquartz I deleted Inkscape from my Applications directory. Ran this XQuartz update and then reinstalled Inkscape. Upon clicking on Inkscape the app. ran. I didn't need to launch any X11 windows. This was handled for me. However, within in minutes Inkscape crashed on me twice. Then after successfully running it for a while (10 min.) it has become incredibly slow. I'm taking a "old" G4 for a test-spin to become familiar w/ OS/X so it could have to do with the dated hardware.

Jim

Remember this isn't a support forum--although you are welcome to discuss issues here. If the Mac users among us believe there is a bug, check the launchpad site and perhaps log the issue if it hasn't already been logged.