On Sun, 9 Sep 2001, Clarence Verge wrote:
> As suspected, I could not run X without a window manager.
I can't help you with that one. I've never done it
either. I'm pretty sure Steven has though.
> I couldn't even remember how I changed WMs in the past. :((((
Some wm's have clicky-thingies that allow you to
change on the fly. Maybe menu options to exit wm,
restart, or switch? If yours doesn't, then there are
several files which you might check. This part gets
fuzzy because it changed from RH5.x to RH6.x. I can
only tell you what I have and how it works in 6.x...
and even then, I sometimes have to scratch my head
a few times before I figure out the path these things
follow. The spaghetti contained in the whole startx
process seems quite astounding at first. Don't try
to read and understand this unless you are reading
it from Linux, and can follow along.
I've created different wm startups for different
users as I've tried to get a handle on what works
when, and why.
You may have to read this 3 or 4 times, and play
around with different files and settings before it
becomes somewhat clear.
First, startx merely calls xinit, so the $HOME/.xinitrc
file (if it exists) will be the first configuration
file checked. .xinitrc merges in $HOME/.Xclients.
steve has an .Xclients file, but there is no specific
wm called from that. Instead, it calls
.Xclients-default, which is a bash script which checks
for a .wm_style file. If that exists, and it is one
of the "valid" wm's then that is the window manager
that will run. (if you have an .Xclients-default,
look at the code to see which wm's are valid in
.wm_style)
If .wm_style doesn't exist, then .Xclients-default
will run whichever of these it finds first:
Fvwm95, fvwm2, fvwm, or twm
crow has only .Xclients, .wm_style and .xinitrc.
.xinitrc says to look for .Xclients. If that doesn't
exist, then run fvwm or twm.
Here, .wm_style is ignored because there is no
.Xclients-default to call it, so the explicitly
called wm in .Xclients is used. For easy switching,
there are several wm's included. Just uncomment
whichever one you want to run.
I think this is the most straightforward way to run
in 6.x. I don't recall if it's also the easiest in
5.x.
#!/bin/bash
# (c) 1999, 2000 Red Hat, Inc.
# this is /home/crow/.Xclients
# check to see if the user has a preferred desktop
#PREFERRED=Fvwm95
. $HOME/.bash_profile
xsetroot -solid '#056'
xset m 7 2
xterm &
exec icewm || exec xterm
#exec twm || exec xterm
#exec 9wm || exec xterm
ginger has no .Xclients but does have .xinitrc,
and an old .wm_style left over which has WindowMaker
in it.
When ginger runs startx, fvwm95 is started, even
though it's mentioned nowhere in any of her files.
What happens here is that .xinitrc merges the system
.Xclients file at /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients, which
goes through this sequence:
1) check for $HOME/.wm_style - ginger has one, but
the window manager is no longer installed. An error
message is generated.
2) If AfterStep exists, run that. (It doesn't)
3) If fvwm95 exists, run that. (bingo!)
So, ginger runs fvwm95 basically because she doesn't
have any valid wm specified in any of her home X files.
raven has no X specific files at all, except .wm_style.
She starts as fvwm95 too, even though .wm_style is
something different. Reasoning similar to ginger.
xinit falls back to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc
'man startx'
'man xinit'
> There seemed to be no way to get out of Afterstep without also
> getting out of "X". I don't remember using the xConfigurator
> to change WMs before - but this is all part of my problem -
> once I get lucky enuf to get SOME part working, the ordeal was
> so long and complicated (to me) that I'm unlikely to remember
> how to do it again unless I do it again immediately. :(
> Maybe I should write this stuf down as I do it:
> (Turn on computer - wait for Lilo boot - type Linux <enter> - ....)
>
> Since it has been more than 2 weeks, I'm SOL right now. <g>
I started a file called LOG. Whenever I figure
out how to do something tricky, I write it there.
Then when I need to do it again 6 months down the
road, I open it with pico, hit CTRL-W and enter the
keyword, and there it is. :-)
I also enter all my username/password combos for
all the online services I register for.
> So, please Steve, where do I go from here ? <G>
$ pico LOG
I'd offer to send you mine, but I'm sure 90% of it
would be unintelligible. ;-)
- Steve
