# gtk warning "cannot open display" ??



## michaeljh2000 (Dec 30, 2005)

When I try to start ethereal or xtraceroute from within a terminal, I receive the message "GTK Warning..Cannot Open Display". I know that ethereal needs X11 in order to run. So I have already download the X11 package and tried to install it, but when I do, I receive a message that "it cannot be installed on this volume, newer software already exists" I searched for X11.app but cannot find it. 

OSX 10.4 and I have installed SDK

What do I need to do in order to run these apps? Thanks.


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## boyfarrell (Dec 30, 2005)

Should be here \Applications\Utilites\X11.app

Have you got your display variable set? Try putting 'export DISPLAY=:0' in your .profile .

PS - Put in you installation CD to get X11 if it's not installed.


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## michaeljh2000 (Dec 30, 2005)

X11.app is not in the utilities folder like it should be. It does not matter if I try to install X11 from the cd or the one that can be downloaded, I get message that 

"it cannot be installed on this volume,  a newer version already exists" 

So, not only is it not there and cannot find it anywhere, I am unable to install too. 

I am not sure if understand the question with regard to the display variable. Can you elaborate. Sorry, newbie here.


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## boyfarrell (Dec 30, 2005)

Hmmmm maybe somebody that's more or a unix nut than I can help, I'm a newbie to it all too. I don't understand the that error message that your getting - that's sure weird.

.profile is the name of a txt file that lives in your home folder. When X11 starts up I think it will look in the .profile to see if there is anything that it should do. unix is full of various variables that control the system, one of which is the DISPLAY variable (it's case sensitive). Sometimes this variable doesn't exist or is empty, so you need to fill it. Setting it to :0 worked as a default value for me. You set it by typing export DISPLAY=:0 in the terminal.

Cheers, Dan.


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