On Fri 23 Feb 2018 at 09:57:12 (-0600), Richard Owlett wrote: > On 02/23/2018 09:12 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: > >On 02/23/2018 05:46 AM, Richard Owlett wrote: > >>History > >>I run MATE, but to paraphrase a restaurant - "I want Debian MyWay" ;) > >>It was suggested that I wanted what KDE calls "activities". > >>It looked promising. I installed it. It suffers from featuritis. > >>fvwm-crystal was also suggested. When installed it was in some > >>sense "cleaner" but still too busy. Launched fvwm which had been > >>installed by the fvwm-crystal package. > >> > >>The problem > >>It had "inherited" configuration items from fvwm-crystal. The > >>web pages I had read spoke of a default 1st run display. I could > >>not figure out how to get that to appear. > >> > >>Having adequate space available I used netinst to do a base > >>command line only install to a new partition. It was followed by > >>doing "apt-get install fvwm". > >> > >>I rebooted expecting a minimal fvwm display. I got a command line. > > > >To clarify I got a console command line (Whole screen is one > >window with no graphical ornaments !) > > > >>I found that though a "/home/richard/.fvwm" directory had been > >>created, it was empty. I couldn't find copies of what files > >>should have been there on initial first run. Only > >>instructions/examples for adding this or that doodad. > >> > > > >It was suggested that > >>So to get you kick-started, > >>just create a file named "config" in your /home/richard/.fvwm > >>consisting of this one line: > >> > >> Read /usr/share/fvwm/default-config/config > >That did not solve my problem. > > > >I copied the file at > >http://www.einval.com/~steve/debian/fvwm2rc.example to > >/home/richard/.fvwm2rc . > >I then executed `fvwm2 -f "FvwmM4 .fvwm2rc"' > >The result was " [fvwm][main] <<ERROR>> can't open display > > > >Reasoning by analogy with use of startx I had tried "fvwm" at the > >command line and received "can't open display". > > > >I tried issuing "startx" itself and received "command not found". > > > >When I had initially done "apt-get install fvwm", should some > >portion of the Xsystem been installed? > > > >TIA > > I just did "apt-get install xorg". > Now typing "startx" at command line does give me a fvwm screen. > However typing "fvwm" at command line gives > >[fvwm][main] <<ERROR>> can't open display > > What's still to be installed/configured? > Would this be a bug against the fvwm package for not installing and > configuring xorg?
>From https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2018/02/msg00794.html As mentioned in another thread just now, I run X with startx. I've always stuck to the Debian Way™ which means using ~/.xsession rather than ~/.xinitrc. Stripped down to the essentials, my ~/.xsession consists of: #!/bin/sh exec /usr/bin/fvwm >| $HOME/.fvwm-stdout 2>| $HOME/.fvwm-stderr & WMPID=$! xterm … xterm … swisswatch -title local -noshape xconsole -name console -file /dev/xconsole -exitOnFail xclock -strftime "%a %d" # and so on # wait for the window manager in the background to die wait $WMPID IOW you run it in your ~/.xsession as X starts up, not from the command line. Cheers, David.
