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MKS X/Server 8.0
MKS X/Server 8.0 is a rebranded and updated version of the latest
version of SCO XVision Eclipse. It includes several performance
enhancements and introduces several new features.
Windows Vista Compatibility
MKS X/Server 8.0 has been validated on Windows Vista Release Candidate
2. As with all beta operating systems, implementations are subject to
changes which can cause code that worked on the beta to fail to work on
the final release. For this reason, MKS will revalidate and release a
version with full Vista support within 30 days of the formal general
availability date. This is the date for release to the general public
as opposed to the date for release to MSDN.
IPv6 Support
MKS X/Server features full support for the Internet Protocol version
6 (IPv6) in addition to support for traditional IPv4. This ensures
that MKS X/Server is ready to match the future needs of corporate IT
infrastructures.
64-bit Support
In addition to a 32-bit version, MKS X/Server also features a
native 64-bit version for the x64 platform.
The smart MKS X/Server installer automatically senses
the platform on which it is being installed and selects the
appropriate binaries to be installed on that platform.
On x86 and Itanium systems,
the 32-bit version of MKS X/Server is installed. On x64 systems,
the 64-bit version of MKS X/Server is installed.
AF_UNIX Protocol
MKS X/Server now supports a fast local transport called AF_UNIX.
When working with MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers, you can
port X11 applications to Windows which will use the AF_UNIX transport
to communicate with MKS X/Server for added performance.
Of course, such applications can also remain on UNIX and be rendered
using IPv4 or IPv6 connections.
Windows Installer
MKS X/Server uses Windows Installer technology to ensure secure,
bulletproof, compliant installs that work every time. In addition,
this technology gives you the ability to perform silent,
administrative, and customized installations on one or all
of the machines in your network.
In addition to correctly installing the components for your platform,
the MKS X/Server installer automatically detects incoming X11
connections and lets you configure the Windows firewall to allow
these connections.
Minor updates and fixes to MKS X/Server are delivered in Windows
Installer patch format and can be applied to administrative images
or delivered in an automated fashion.
All MKS X/Server installation files (and delivered binaries)
are digitally signed for your peace of mind. You always know that
they came from MKS unmodified and are the genuine, virus-free packages.
After installation, you can run the UNIX application wizard. This
wizard guides you through your first and subsequent connections to UNIX
servers and lets you select UNIX applications on those servers to
be added to your Windows Start menu.
Performance
MKS X/Server increases the performance of ported X11 applications
by allowing faster transport of pixmaps through shared memory
(MIT-Shm).
During installation, MKS X/Server configures itself to deliver
the highest performance for each PC. The installer runs the
graphics optimizer to benchmark several different drawing methods
and recommends the best one.
Visual Styles
MKS X/Server applications have a professional and modern appearance.
Additionally, these applications feature a fully skinnable user
interface. Using standard msstyles theme files, you can customize
the appearance of each MKS X/Server application.
Several popular visual styles and themes are included.
To select a new skin for the user interface, pick:
Start > Programs > MKS XServer > Configuration > MKS X Server Configuration
from the Start menu and select Choose Skins from the
Manage menu.
Hardware and Software Requirements
- Windows compatible x86 PC
- Windows® Vista
- Windows® 2003 Server
- Windows® XP
- Windows® 2000
- Windows Compatible x64 PC
- Windows® Vista x64
- Windows® 2003 Server x64 edition
- Windows® XP x64 edition
- Windows® 2003 Server Itanium edition is supported with the
32 bit X Server.
- Typical installation requires 40 Mb of disk space.
Installing MKS X/Server
If you have SCO XVision Eclipse, you must
uninstall
it, or install MKS X/Server on another machine.
When installing MKS X/Server you must install from an account
with local or domain administrator privileges. You do not need to
be an Administrator, but your login ID must be a member of the
local or domain Windows Administrators group before you can install.
All MKS X/Server products share a common installer. If you are
installing from a CD, insert the MKS X/Server distribution CD; the
installer should start automatically. If you are installing from
an electronic distribution, run the self-extracting installer.
To install MKS X/Server, click the Install X/Server button
and follow the instructions on the dialogs that appear.
Note: You should turn off all virus protection software
before installing MKS X/Server. Such software can sometimes cause
the installation to be interrupted and rolled back. Once you have
installed MKS X/Server, you can turn virus protection back on.
For step-by-step installation instructions and an installation FAQ,
see http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/install.asp.
Silent and Administrative Installations
For step-by-step installation instructions and information on
administrative and silent installations for MKS X/Server see
http://www.mkssoftware.com/support/install.asp.
Uninstalling MKS X/Server
Uninstalling MKS X/Server
To uninstall MKS X/Server, use the following procedure:
- From the Control Panel run Add/Remove Programs.
- Remove MKS X/Server.
You must reboot your system before reinstalling MKS X/Server.
Uninstalling SCO XVision Eclipse
- From the Control Panel run Add/Remove Programs.
- Remove SCO XVision Eclipse. (This is only necessary if the
XVision X server is installed. This X Server was normally only
installed with previous versions of MKS Toolkit for
Interoperability and MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers.)
You must reboot your system before reinstalling MKS X/Server.
Known Issues
The following known issues exist in MKS X/Server:
- Setup.
- Before upgrading any version, you should shut down
the X Server.
- MKS X/Server.
- On Windows 2000, if you use "Focus Follows Mouse" with
the "Leave Windows In Place" policy, you will see strange
focus behavior when using MS-DOS Command Prompt windows.
- On Windows 2000, if you use "Focus Follows Mouse" with
the "Leave Windows In Place" policy, an Explorer window
will have a corrupted title bar when you move the pointer
out of the window. This does not affect the window itself.
The window title is restored when the window receives
focus again.
- XRemote and RPS.
- If you wish to use Remote Program Starter (RPS) to
start X clients over XRemote, you must manually set the
display name for the RPS command to match the XRemote proxy
server display.
- XVSpy.
- Do not use a font server while recording an X session.
- Terminal Emulators.
- When using an embedded emulator in-place, only a limited
implementation of the emulator toolbar support is available.
- When using an emulator in an ActiveX document container
application, the emulator's printing facilities are not
available.
- When using an embedded emulator in-place in Microsoft Word,
or in an ActiveX document container application, the emulator's
context help does not work.
- To upgrade desktop VT320 applications, the VT420 emulator
must be installed.
- Vision Resume.
- To use Vision Resume with XRemote, you must disable
host access control for MKS X/Server.
- When used with Vision Resume, Netscape might display
"Sequence lost". You can safely ignore this message.
- Some SCO UNIX X clients, such as scocal and scocolor,
work with Vision Resume when MKS X/Server is using a
PseudoColor display but not when it is using a TrueColor
display.
These clients will fail with third-party X servers when
running with Vision Resume, unless the following lines are
appended to the server's rgb.txt file (for example,
/usr/lib/X11/rgb.txt):
203 203 192 scoBackground
11 0 113 scoForeground
255 240 248 scoTopShadow
255 206 137 scoActiveBackground
43 45 49 scoActiveForeground
254 222 255 scoActiveTopShadow
172 186 204 scoAltBackground
0 0 255 scoHighlight
If you have problems starting a Resume session, ensure
a link has been made between /usr/bin/xresume and
/usr/local/xserver/bin/xresume
(see the Help topic 'Configuring Vision Resume on UNIX'
for more details).
- If on starting a Resume session you see the error
message "Cannot relocate your Resume session to that
display" this may be caused by a network naming problem.
Try displaying an X client from the UNIX host that you
run the proxy server on to your Vision X Server, using the
X Server's full DNS name (for example,
xclock -display myPC.myCO.co.uk:0).
If this reports "Cannot open Display" then you have a naming
problem—try adding the full DNS name to
/etc/hosts.
- Multiuser Windows environments.
- MKS X/Server Printing does not work on Windows 2000
or Windows Terminal Server running in multi-user mode.
You can use LPD Printing in these environments.
- MKS X/Server 3D.
- Restrictions
- Backing store shouldn't be used with
the GLX extension.
- OpenGL extensions are not available.
- Notes
- The GLX extension is disabled by default. The
GLX extension can be re-enabled using the MKS X/Server
Configuration program.
- On true color displays, GLX color index visuals
are only available using the Pseudo Color default
visual class.
- If you experience problems with colors when
running OpenGL applications on a 256 color display,
setting the X/Server default visual class to TrueColor
may improve the situation.
To do this, choose:
X/Server Properties > Color tab > Let me specify a particular default visual class.
- Matrox Millennium video cards running in 16-bit
color can prevent some OpenGL applications from
running or displaying correctly. Matrox has been
informed of this problem.
- MKS X/Server Skins.
- When an MKS X/Server skinned application is minimized on
Windows XP, some applications (for example, Windows Media
Player) fail to re-paint themselves properly. The source
of this bug (skinning libraries, Windows XP, or Windows Media
Player) is currently unknown. It is known that the
minimizing application remains in the Z-Order (through the
WM_PAINT message in the lower application) queried
from Windows. Hence, if there is no check to see if the window
is iconic, the application can believe it is obscured by the
higher window which is, in fact, iconic. This is being
investigated. The simple workaround is to minimize and restore
the application that did not repaint itself.
- XDMCP Start menu items.
- When the default profile in use is not set for single
window mode, an XDMCP session launched from an XDMCP Start
menu item will come up in multi-window mode. You should set
"prompt for profile" to use XDMCP Start menu items and be
able to pick a profile set for single window mode.
- Windows Vista RC2 Issues.
- When you attempt to add access to a new UNIX program by
either selecting New Unix Program from the Start
menu or New > Unix Program from the context menu while
viewing any Explorer window (including the desktop), the Unix
Application Wizard will launch and as it tries to save the
remote program start file at the very end of the wizard, you
will see a dialog about "Server busy". At this point, the file
you are creating is inaccessible to any program until Windows
Explorer is restarted. Your only recourse is to log off and
log on again and delete the
.rps file. A bug
report will be filed with Microsoft. The workaround is to run
Start > MKS XServer > Accessories > Program Starter
and save the file to the desktop or to a folder.
- During uninstall you may see a dialog about needing to
stop several programs—including MKS X/Server Services
and MKS X/Server Database Services. If you acknowledge this,
you may see a dialog claiming that MKS X/Server Database
Services has stopped responding and needs to be stopped. Even
if you stop this program, the MKS X/Server Services program
remains running after uninstall. In any event, you should log
out and log in again before reinstalling MKS X/Server.
Customer Support
Contact MKS customer support at:
Additional MKS Interoperability Resources
There are several other sources for additional information
about our MKS Interoperability products.
We have general product information, including technical
specifications, detailed utility listings, and datasheets at:
We offer a resource kit including example scripts, additional
utilities, more tutorials, and a wide variety of other useful
information at:
We have several additional articles, tutorials, and white
papers about using features of MKS Interoperability products at:
Through the years, we have accumulated a lot of technical
details about the MKS Interoperability products and have put this
information in a searchable database at:
Our customers commonly ask certain questions. These questions
and their answers are in our Frequently Asked Questions pages at:
Known installation issues are listed at:
Fixed Problems
Several problems were fixed in MKS X/Server 8.0.
These are listed at:
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