Window Maker doesn't display properly on a MacBook 4,1

[Slater91]

Hello.

I have been trying to run Window Maker on an old MacBook 4,1 which has an Intel Core 2 Duo T8100 CPU and an Intel GM965 GPU. Unfortunately WM doesn't seem to work correctly. After logging in, the screen appears to freeze, as it keeps on showing the login screen. If I click in the top-right corner, then the WM preferences window opens, but its text is garbled and missing some characters. I can then drag the window and this "cleans" the screen.

I have tested this on multiple distributions, to no avail. The following screenshot was taken on KDE neon (based on Ubuntu 22.04), but the same happens on Ubuntu 22.04 itself and on Window Maker Live (based on Debian 12).

I have tried to look into the Xorg logs, but there seems to be nothing wrong there. I would appreciate any help in finding the cause for this behaviour and in fixing it.

Thank you!

[HexagonWin]

Wow, what a coincidence. I use the exact same laptop (4,1, T8100) and run WindowMaker, everything is flawless for me.
I've used FreeBSD 12, 13, Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 10, 11, and am now using Slackware 15.0. I have never encountered anything similar.
Maybe can you try doing this on Debian 11/Devuan 4 or Slackware? I think this might also be due to a faulty ram, as I've seen similar garbled screens on other machines with bad ram.
Also, are other WM/DEs and programs working fine?

[Slater91]

I've tried on Arch Linux, no difference. All other DEs I've tried (KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Budgie, LXQt, Enlightenment) work without issues, so I have given up on WindowMaker entirely as that's the only one that is problematic.

If someone can point me towards any way to find where the issue lies, I would be happy to provide logs or do tests.

[HexagonWin]

I've tried on Arch Linux, no difference. All other DEs I've tried (KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, Budgie, LXQt, Enlightenment) work without issues, so I have given up on WindowMaker entirely as that's the only one that is problematic.

If someone can point me towards any way to find where the issue lies, I would be happy to provide logs or do tests.

Did you install an additional driver or use a display manager (like xdm, lightdm)?
If you can, try installing Slackware 15.0 as I have no issues with it at all.
Alternatively I suggest testing if your rams are bad..

[Slater91]

I have just completed two cycles of memtest86+ and RAM works just fine, so that's not the issue it seems.

I used SDDM as well as lightdm. Bear in mind, though, that the issue was there even with a live session on Window Maker Live, which is built around Window Maker and, being it a live session, it's not to do with configuration on my part. It also happens with a brand new user on Ubuntu, Debian and Arch. So it looks like this is not an issue with bad configuration nor with the specific distribution (all distributions behave the same).

This is why I opened a bug report here: all the clues point to the issue being with Window Maker, considering that it is the only thing in common with all the cases (basically, it's the only thing that doesn't change, whereas everything else does).

As for Slackware, I honestly have no interest in dealing with it. I wanted to try Window Maker because I like it and it's very lightweight, but I have already spent too much time trying to make it work without any results. For the time being, I have settled on LXQt which works really well. I am happy to do tests and provide logs, but I have no intention of doing further distro hopping (and especially not Slackware: I want to spend my time using this machine, rather than dealing with software configuration).

[HexagonWin]

I have just completed two cycles of memtest86+ and RAM works just fine, so that's not the issue it seems.

I used SDDM as well as lightdm. Bear in mind, though, that the issue was there even with a live session on Window Maker Live, which is built around Window Maker and, being it a live session, it's not to do with configuration on my part. It also happens with a brand new user on Ubuntu, Debian and Arch. So it looks like this is not an issue with bad configuration nor with the specific distribution (all distributions behave the same).

This is why I opened a bug report here: all the clues point to the issue being with Window Maker, considering that it is the only thing in common with all the cases (basically, it's the only thing that doesn't change, whereas everything else does).

As for Slackware, I honestly have no interest in dealing with it. I wanted to try Window Maker because I like it and it's very lightweight, but I have already spent too much time trying to make it work without any results. For the time being, I have settled on LXQt which works really well. I am happy to do tests and provide logs, but I have no intention of doing further distro hopping (and especially not Slackware: I want to spend my time using this machine, rather than dealing with software configuration).

Are you using git master? Try an older version like 0.95.9 rather than the latest.

[Slater91]

Neither work.