Trouble installing fvwm2

[Louis LeBlanc]

On 11/23/05 10:36 AM, Mike Jeays sat at the `puter and typed:
> On Wed, 2005-11-23 at 16:03 +0100, ivan.roth at free.fr wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I just compiled/installed fvwm2 from ports on my 6.0. But I don't know how to
> > run it.
> > 
> > I have gdm launching gnome 2.12 by default and fvwm2 does not appear in the list
> > in gdm.
> > 
> > I am such a newbie, that I can't imagine you don't know what's wrong :)
> > 
> > Thanks by advance.
> > 
> > Regards, Ivan.
> > _______________________________________________
> > freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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> 
> FVWM2 is a different window manager, and can't, to the best of my
> knowledge, be run from GDM, or from KDM for that matter.
> 
> The easy way to try it is to kill gdm, or stop it from starting up at
> boot time, and then create a file called '.xinitrc' in your home
> directory.  It should contain one line 'exec /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm2'.
> Then run "startx" from your home directory.

No Mike, this isn't true.  I just switched to kdm so I could play with
KDE, but I still have the option (and am currently using it) of using
my old Fvwm2 config.  You CAN also run Fvwm from gdm.

It should be noted that gdm is NOT a window manager, but a display
manager, as is kdm and xdm.  They launch window managers for you.  Kdm
and gdm are just designed to cater to their respective session
managers (which is also different than the window managers).  Gdm
gives you the option of using several window managers (like IceWM,
enlightenment, etc) on top of the session manager.  Fvwm CAN run with
the gnome session manager (and at one time could easily be built with
the gnome session manager support build it IIRC).

It's been a long time since I even had gdm installed, much less run
Fvwm off it, but I know for a fact it can be done.  You just have to
read the docs to see how to specify your window manager.  It may even
be possible to swith to Fvwm on the fly through the default WM menus.

Ivan, I do know that with kdm, I had to link my ~/.fvwm/fvwm2rc file
to ~/.fvwm2rc in order to have it recognized when starting from kdm.
Starting it from xdm didn't seem to require that, but for whatever
reason, kdm did.  Perhaps this might be useful when setting up the
~/.xsession as suggested by Mike?  Fvwm2 has a -f parameter that lets
you specify the config file explicitly, but remember that any files
you read from there should include fully resolvable paths.

Good luck, and sorry I couldn't provide more detailed help on this.

Lou
-- 
Louis LeBlanc                          FreeBSD-at-keyslapper-DOT-net
Fully Funded Hobbyist,                   KeySlapper Extrordinaire :)
Please send off-list email to:         leblanc at keyslapper d.t net
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