getting xpdf etc. to display (a bit urgent)

[steve%prd.co.uk@localhost (Steve Blinkhorn)]

I run a network of NetBSD machines, and until today accessed them by way
of a VNC server accessed through a Windows 10 VNC viewer on a big screen.
This afternoon we had a long thunderstorm and two power cuts, and the Windows
machine won't reboot.

So I configured an amd64 NetBSD 9.0 machine to run the stock out-of-the-box
X11R7 server, but I find that applications like xpdf and gv just sit there,
nothing of the document appears on screen.  It has to be to do with the X11
server, because those application on this same machine worked perfectly when
accessed through the Windows machine over VNC.  I'm under some pressure,
because i have tax returns to file, and I can't read the PDF invoices that
need entering into accounting software.

I imagine this is something very obvious I'm missing in X11 configuration -
suggestions please.

-- 
Steve Blinkhorn <steve%prd.co.uk@localhost>