Adding new window managers

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: Adding new window managers
started by: maybrick

Posted by maybrick on Feb. 27 2004,02:07

Fluxbox is quite good. I like it a lot. It is small and fast.
However, I would like to have another small windowmanagers, like IceWM and WindowMaker, because they are more suitable for some of my presentations. They look better, to tell you the truth.

But I don´t know how to make them work. Even if I installed them with apt-get, I still don't know how to make them to work. It would be even nicer if I could switch the managers on the fly.

I have installed DSL on my hard drive, so I have space for the extra window managers.

Any ideas?

Posted by hasty on Feb. 27 2004,18:47

You should probably look at another distro then which will have the necessary libs and dependencies included.
Remember that DSL is seriously cut down and restricted to fit in under 50 mbs.

Why not try the full knoppix live CD and experiment with the different window managers it provides

Posted by maybrick on Mar. 10 2004,21:56

I don't want to switch to another distro. Knoppix is quite good, but I don't have the space available it needs. I'm very limited on space and my work takes almost all space available on my laptop. I can't run any livecd distro for many time from the CD because it is not in a very good shape and stops reading when it becomes hot. And I don't want to run neither KDE nor Gnome, but Windowmaker and icewm.

I installed both, and when I load it from fluxbox, each one works. But I need to do it again each time I need another desktop. Because I'm not a linx savvy, and I don't like windows at all, I need someone to help me to figure out how I can switch desktops, either on the fly or at boot up.

Posted by Scout on Mar. 13 2004,23:49

I'm not particularly Linux saavy either, and I too, would like to know how to use a different window manager than Fluxbox. I know the startx script (somehow, I looked and couldn't find anything in it that looked editable) calls fluxbox. I've installed a couple of other window managers, and if I start X via xinit (which isn't too viable because it loads at a crappy resolution, and some other issues), and use the console given to run the window manger (aewm++ and ion, for example, work), it'll run. I'm baffled, however, by how to switch window managers in the middle of the fluxbox session, or set it to use a different window manager.

Posted by roberts on Mar. 14 2004,18:48

Starting with 0.6.x you can edit the file .xinitrc in the home directory. The last line calls the window manager. So, if you have several installed. You exit X either from the menu or by ctrl-alt-backspace, then change fluxbox to another one that you installed, then type startx.

Posted by Scout on Mar. 15 2004,22:28

I'm using an older version of DSL off the HD; I'll burn a copy of the newest version and try that. Thanks.

Posted by gui on Aug. 21 2004,01:53

It really works!!!!!!!!!!!
Tks!

Posted by gui on Aug. 21 2004,02:55

mmmmmmmmmmm I did it!
It works........but.........
I've loosed the sylpheed and the firefox configuration
and when I chat with ymessenger said me that can't write to /home/dsl/temp1

Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 22 2004,18:36

I haven't tried your wmaker extension yet, but I'm just looking in the archive now.
My preference is for Fluxbox, but I'm particularly interested in how your package was put together....I tried building a wmaker.dsl a few weeks ago, and I couldn't get it working.

Just for future reference, there are some things that could have easily been removed to save quite a bit of space.
The docs are around 200k...most of them (apart from the copyright) can be removed.
The locale directory (1.4mb) and locale menus aren't really necessary in a distribution which is (i assume) something like 100% English. I could be wrong about that, so feel free to correct me.
Including a 141k wallpaper isn't really necessary for a "damn small" distro.
Man pages are typically removed from extensions...they can be found in countless places online.

I don't mean to be picky...just trying to help, as ke4nt has helped me. :;):

Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 22 2004,19:12

I normally pull these out when I rebuild them..
In this case, I wanted to test it before breaking it up..
Certainly the locale files and the man pages can go.
Some programs WANT to see some help files to run properly...
After my initial testing , it seemed to be missing quite a few things.
( exit out of X to see many failed file seek attempts. )
So, seeing that, I felt the docs may be helpful in troubleshooting this for now.

73
ke4nt

Posted by Fordi on Sep. 10 2004,07:35

Ok, dunno about KDE, but here's the process of install for GNOME.

First off, you need a harddrive install with a sane build environment and apt (see the DamnSmallManual 4 DamnSmallLinux)

Press ctrl-alt-backspace.

Next: (optional)
update your x-server to the latest version

apt-get install xserver-xfree86

Next, install gnome:

apt-get install gnome

Finally, adjust your .xinitrc. Comment out the while file and add the line, "gnome-session"

type "startx", and you're in your shiny new GNOME environment. Have fun, and don't tease the penguin.