When attempting to run xfig, you may be given the following error message:

Either you have a very old app-defaults file installed (Fig), or there is none installed at all. You should install the correct version or you may lose some features. This may be done with "make install" in the xfig source directory.

The correct way to troubleshoot this problem is to put the following line in your .Xdefaults file:

*customization: -color

Then run this file by typing: xrdb ~/.Xdefaults