how to use 4.0.6 & 4.2.0 simultaneously

[purslow at sympatico.ca]

041004 Brian J. Tarricone wrote:
> 041004 Philip Webb & Jasper Huijsmans discussed:
PW> i don't seem able to get any of 4.2 except the splash screens.
JH> They cannot be installed in paralel.
PW> i have KDE 3.2.3 & 3.3.0 happily installed alongside one another:
JH> If you don't set up your environment so it runs xfce 4.2,
JH> we cannot do anything about that.
PW> so how shd i go about "setting up my environment" for 4.2 ?
PW> i'm not complaining (smile), but you're not responding to the problem.
> i'd bet you have your kde versions installed
> to something like /usr/kde/3.2 and /usr/kde/3.3, right?

yes, that's where they are (Gentoo).

> it _is_ possible to install 4.0.x and 4.2.x in parallel,
> but _only_ if you do not install either of them to a normal system prefix,
> like /usr (and /usr/local on some systems).

no question it's possible: they are both installed !
4.0.6  was installed by a Gentoo ebuild, 4.2 by (Benny's?) installer: eg

  root: usr> d /usr/lib/xfce4   #   that's 4.0.6
    mcs-plugins  panel-plugins
  root: usr> d /usr/local/lib/xfce4   #   that's 4.2
    mcs-plugins  modules  panel-plugins  splash  xffm  xfprint-plugins

> i suppose it _is_ possible to install them both,
> but that probably involves hacking a good number of the makefiles
> and possibly the .pc files to make sure that the library search path
> is specified in a certain way on the gcc link lines.

apparently that's not necessary, as the above shows.

the actual problem is that 4.2 doesn't start beyond the splash screen:
there's a silver line at the bottom of the desktops
& the exit screen is 4.2 , but everything else remains 4.0.6 .

i start from a non-X (real) terminal with '/usr/local/bin/startxfce4':
shdn't that say to itself "look for libs, bins etc in  /usr/local 
& look for his config stuff in  ~/.config ", then get things going
to the point where it first needs my config material,
when it shd say "hey, he doesn't have anything "xf.." in  ~/.config ,
so i'd better create a default for him"; that shd result in a 4.2 desktop,
where i shd find a 4.2 settings manager & 4.2 desktop menus,
mb even some 4.2 default icons in the panel etc.

in practice, none of that happens: it creates a new  ~/.xfce4 
(i moved the regular one out of the way) & gives me a 4.0.6 desktop.

something seems to be wrong w the 4.2 material created by Benny's installer.
one big defect of that installer is that it tells you absolutely nothing
re what it has done: there's no mention of a log file or anything else.

i can try BT's installer, which sounds more user-friendly,
or i can try doing it by hand from the regular bz2 tarball,
but there's no point in either if i simply get the same null result.

further recommendations welcome ...

*** OK hold it: big PS !! ***

i just had another look at  /usr/local/etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc ,
all of whose 'xf..' binaries have no  $DIR  prefix,
st the 4.0.6 binaries wb used following my normal  $PATH .
surely, this is a big bug:
in a context where there mb  > 1  version installed,
all such paths sb properly prefixed to select the correct version.
it wb easy to do this w an environment var  XFCE4PATH ,
which the user cd define when starting up: eg

  XFCE4PATH=/usr/local startxfce4

i can hack  xinitrc  for 4.2 & try things out,
but perhaps shd wait for further reactions from those more knowledgeable.

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