Re: Sanest way to make emacs behave on a Solaris OS

[Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com>]

Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> writes:

> Harry Putnam <reader@newsguy.com> writes:
>
>> I hope there may be a longtime emacs on Solaris user in the house who
>> can tell me the sanest way to make emacs behave on that OS.
>>
>> I'm running a recent install of openindiana (one of the offshoot
>> solaris OS's) and its been a good long while since I've run Solaris. 
>>
>> The biggest problem is that the M (alt) key is not recognized on
>> solaris and so one must use the Esc key which is really awkward.  And
>> it seems I vaguely recall some other problems too, but right now that
>> Esc key thing is such an absolute pain I haven't got that far.
>>
>> I realize I can do some key re-assignments but I seem to remember
>> there being some drawbacks to that too.  So anyway, someone who has
>> run emacs on Solaris will maybe know a comprehensive solution I can
>> try. 
>
> Haven't had my hands on Solaris for a while, so from memory:
>
> Are you running under X or in a terminal?
>
> I'm going to assume you are running under X.
>
> Under X you want the left alt key to emit Alt_L.
> Use xev to see what the key emits.
>
> Alt_L should show up as mod1 when you display modifiers.
> Use the command:
>
> xmodmap -pm

Thanks for the input.
Running X yes, but will also use emacs in terminal mode.

xev reveals Alt is Alt_L:
  KeyRelease event, serial 133, synthetic NO, window 0x4000019,
      root 0x101, subw 0x400001a, time 64504583, (255,507), root:(952,559),
      state 0x8, keycode 64 (keysym 0xffe9, Alt_L), same_screen YES,
      XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
      XFilterEvent returns: False

xmodmap -pm reveals that Alt_L is mod1:
  shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
  lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
  control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x6d)
  mod1        Alt_L (0x40)
  mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
  mod3      
  mod4        Meta_L (0x73),  Meta_R (0x74),  Super_L (0x7f),  Hyper_L (0x80)
  mod5        Mode_switch (0x5d),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x71),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)

By the way, xev reveals the following for the Esc key on emacs

  KeyRelease event, serial 133, synthetic NO, window 0x4000019,
      root 0x101, subw 0x400001a, time 64689391, (457,441), root:(1154,493),
      state 0x0, keycode 9 (keysym 0xff1b, Escape), same_screen YES,
      XLookupString gives 1 bytes: (1b) "
  FilterEvent returns: False

From your post it appears you are saying if Alt emits Alt_L and Alt_L is
mapped to mod1... I should be good to go.  Is that right?

Because it appears that Alt does emit Alt_L and Alt_l is mapped to mod1
but it is not recognized as M in emacs.. as in such commands as 
M-x whatever RET

What I get when I press the Alt key in emacs is "A-x is not defined." So
have to press Esc x to run M-x. 

I mentioned it is an antique version of emacs:
  GNU Emacs 23.1.1 (x86_64-pc-solaris2.11, X toolkit) of 2012-09-23 on
 oidev0
If that makes a difference.

-------        ---------       ---=---       ---------      -------- 

Gack... I just noticed that the Windows key (Meta_L acts like M (alt)
key to emacs.

xev shows this for Windows key:

  KeyRelease event, serial 134, synthetic NO, window 0x4000019,
      root 0x101, subw 0x400001a, time 66248204, (504,302), root:(1197,383),
      state 0x40, keycode 115 (keysym 0xffe7, Meta_L), same_screen YES,
      XLookupString gives 0 bytes: 
      XFilterEvent returns: False

xmodmap -pm shows it as Mod4
  xmodmap:  up to 4 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):

  shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
  lock        Caps_Lock (0x42)
  control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x6d)
  mod1        Alt_L (0x40)
  mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
  mod3      
  mod4        Meta_L (0x73),  Meta_R (0x74),  Super_L (0x7f),  Hyper_L (0x80)
  mod5        Mode_switch (0x5d),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x71),  ISO_Level3_Shift (0x7c)

At least that key is way better than the escape key.