*BSD News Article 96866


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From: Byron Brummer <byron@thrush.omix.com>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: XTERM Problems
Date: 31 May 1997 12:31:52 GMT
Organization: INTERNET AMERICA
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Michael Park <mpark@corp.idt.net> wrote:
> i am running freebsd 2.2.1 ,.
> X is running the afterstep wm.
> when i have 7 or less xterm windows open, i can view all the man pages for
> anything i want.. however when i open an 8th xterm window, i can view some
> man pages but for most, i get the following error message.
> Cannot fork
> Error executing formatting or display command.
> system command exited with status 512
> has anyone else experienced this problem? if so does anyone know of a
> solution?

	The stock (GENERIC) kernel config is trash.  Every man you run
	sparks some 8 or so processes so you'll fill up the max number of
	children you can make fast. -All are spawn under the X server.
	You need to recompile your kernel with:

		options CHILD_MAX=128

	or similar settings.
	Also, maxusers should be set to at least 5 (I do 10).  Why the hell
	this isn't set the GERERIC kernel is beyond me...

-- 
-Byron
 byron@omix.com