I've customized (and saved) my mode-line using customize-face. Here's what's in my .emacs: (custom-set-faces ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom -- don't edit or cut/paste it! ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance. '(mode-line ((t (:background "navy" :foreground "yellow" :box (:line-width -1 :style released-button)))))) If I start up a new Emacs window (under X11), that initial window contains a correctly-customized mode-line, and if I examine the values via customize-face, they are correct: [X] Foreground: Value Menu Color: yellow (sample) [X] Background: Value Menu Color: navy (sample) The problem is that *only* that initial window contains the correct mode-line customizations. If I open any other X11 windows, the mode-line customizations are lost. In such a window, if I examine the values via customize-face, they are incorrect: [X] Foreground: Value Menu Color: #000000 (sample) [X] Background: Value Menu Color: #ede9e3 (sample) I can change the values to what they should be (yellow and navy, respectively), which will reset the window in question, but the same thing happens if I open another window. This behavior is new with Fedora Core 5. Furthermore, from experimenting, the problem actually follows the X server, not Emacs. That is, all versions of Emacs (FC4, FC5, RHEL4, et. al.) exhibit this behavior when displaying on my FC5 X server. On any other platform's X server (e.g., FC4, RHEL4), no version of Emacs displays this behavior. So, it would appear to be that there's some quality to the FC5 X server that Emacs doesn't like. Unfortunately, I don't know what that would be, or how to fix it. :( $ rpm -q emacs xorg-x11-server-Xorg emacs-21.4-14 xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.0.1-9.fc5.1.1
Created attachment 131391 [details] My .emacs file.
Created attachment 131392 [details] My xorg.conf file.
This is fixed in emacs-22.0.990-2.fc7 and xorg-x11-server-Xorg-1.3.0.0-8.fc7, in F7. This problem was actually a new (but broken) feature: Emacs was trying to ensure that only the Emacs window which had the focus had color decorations on the mode line; non-active windows had a grey mode line. But something was broken; Emacs would never color the mode line on any other window but the first one which was opened. At any rate, this works properly in F7; the Emacs window with the focus honors the color customizations for the mode line; non-active windows are grey. (There's probably a way to disable the "only the window with the focus gets color" feature, but I don't mind it.)