Greetings.  As the subject says, I've encountered a problem using 
Mathematica on a system running Scientific Linux 4.4.  I can't tell if 
the problem relates to X-windows (xorg vs. XFRee86), or to changes in 
Mathematica, or ...  Hence, this may be wildly off-topic, and, if so, I 
apologize.

The issue has to do with executing Mathematica on a remote system and 
getting the display on a local system via X-windows.  Mathematica uses 
its own fonts for its GUI.  If those fonts are missing, the front-end 
(GUI) is, for practical purposes, not usable.

We have Mathematica available on a bunch of SL 4.x boxes in our 
classroom.  I'd like to be able to connect via ssh to one of the 
classroom systems from my office, run Mathematica on the classroom 
system, and display the results on a SL 4.4 system in my office.

We're currently using SL 4.4 on our classroom systems and the system in 
my office.  The version of Mathematica is 5.2.

In the not-too-distant past I've been able to do this combination of 
remote execution/local display by using the cheap, but, if I understand 
correctly, entirely legal trick of installing the Mathematica fonts, and 
no other part of Mathematica, on my local computer in exactly the same 
location in which the fonts are located on the remote system.

I.e., if I do:

   local#  mkdir -p /usr/local/Wolfram/Mathematica/5.2/SystemFiles/Fonts

then put all the Mathematica fonts in that local directory, then I have 
been able to do:

   local$ ssh -X remote

   remote$ Mathematica &

and have the full Mathematica front-end appear on local.

Note that this worked without my having to modify any X-windows 
configuration at all!  No "mkfontdir", no "xset fp+", etc., etc.

Now what happens is that I get the input window, but I don't get the 
associated "palette", which contains all the integral signs, square-root 
signs, etc.  At some level Mathematica DOES seem to be finding the 
fonts, because if I take a quasi-command-line approach and start typing 
things into the input window, the function names are in bold, the 
brackets and parentheses are automatically highlighted and matched, and 
if I type something like:

     Integrate[Sin[x^2], x]

I get legibly-formatted output with Pi's and square-root signs looking 
more or less the way they look in math books.

If you know where the palette went, or if you have any other words of 
wisdom about this, please let me know.  Thanks.

					- Mike

-- 
Michael Hannon            mailto:[log in to unmask]
Dept. of Physics          530.752.4966
University of California  530.752.4717 FAX
Davis, CA 95616-8677