** When you compile Emacs with the Motif widget set, Motif handles the
F10 key by activating the menu bar. To avoid confusion, the usual Emacs binding of F10 is replaced with a no-op when using Motif.

If you want to be able to use F10 in Emacs, you can rebind the Motif menubar to some other key which you don't use. To do so, add something like this to your X resources file. This example rebinds the Motif menu bar activation key to S-F12:

Emacs*defaultVirtualBindings: osfMenuBar : ShiftF12