thanks fanoush. here's what xterm printed:
"fatal signal: segmentation fault (sdl parachute deployed)"
this was the last message. First came:
"warning: can not find theme config file 'modern.ini'!
and,
"warning: could not initialize your preferred theme, falling back to classic style!"
..... (can't type all - RSI)
"Found BASS..."
and then like 15 of this entry - with different byte amounts:
"Warning: unable to read 10819 bytes from datadisk (0 bytes read).

Some of these messages are normal, I guess?
How about the "unable to read" and fatal signal messages?
ty in advance. I will play around with it too.