Problem with using the a hostname for display variable

[ToddMRoy]

In HPUX 11.11, for recent versions
of display and ImageMagick, specifically 5.5.7-34 and 6.4.0
setting the display variable to the hostname:0.0
combo results in an error.

[manitoba] /nfs/manitoba/home/tmr
$ display maskhead.gif
display: unable to open X server `pcx6249:0.0'.

while
setting DISPLAY=130.1.6.249:0.0 (the equivalent IP address for PCX6249)
display works.

Note that for an old version of ImageMagick, specifically 5.2.5,
even recompiled today, a hostname:0.0 works.

A recent version on a Gentoo Linux workstation works normally.

[magick]

Not sure what the problem could be. ImageMagick simply passes the display string to the X11 XOpenDisplay() method. It only fails if XOpenDisplay() returns an error.

[ToddMRoy]

Yup, its a puzzler all right. The funny thing was the old version newly compiled
works - which seems to indicate that its not a versioning problem with X headers.

[mi]

while setting DISPLAY=130.1.6.249:0.0 (the equivalent IP address for PCX6249)
display works.

In all likelihood, there is a (possibly -- occasional) problem with name-resolution on your network. X11 is asking for the IP-address of "PCX6249" and does not get a correct answer...

[ToddMRoy]

sigh. That's not it either. I mean I can ping pcx6249 and nslookup works.
Other X programs work as well.