Odd bombs from PyOpenGL

[J Storrs Hall, PhD]

Here it is in a nutshell:

. python
Python 1.5.2 (#1, Oct  2 2000, 11:20:58)  [GCC 2.7.2.3] on linux2
Copyright 1991-1995 Stichting Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam
>>> from OpenGL.GL import *
>>> from OpenGL.GLUT import *
>>> glutInit('foo')
XIO:  fatal IO error 0 (Success) on X server ":0.0"
      after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

The corresponding C program shows that glut itself is
working and runs with no error:

#include <GL/glut.h>

int
main(int argc, char **argv)
{
 int n = 1;
 char *x[1];
 x[0] ="foo";
  glutInit(&n, x);
}

anybody seen this?