I recently installed Slackware with fvwm2, and I can't seem to be able to set the color of the window titles and borders. They are just light gray whether focused or not. If I comment out the Style "*" lines, is is dark gray when unfocused.

I also wonder if it is possible to have the window focus when clicked, but not rise above other windows unless clicked on the title?

Here is my .fvwm2rc file:

Which fvwm are you using? On a quick look, I don't see any problem in your config file.

Mmm, this seems to be incompatible with your use of the SloppyFocus policy. Mind that when using SloppyFocus the window will be focused as soon as you move the cursor inside of it. There's no need to click anything.

The default policy anyway already does what you want, if I remember correctly. When you don't have a config file, if you click an application you give it the focus, but only clicking on the title bar will raise it.

You have a typo there, "Destroy". I suggest you giving FvwmButtons+FvwmIconMan a try. It's much more configurable and powerful than FvwmTaskBar

2.4.20

I thought that it is SloppyFocus by default, maybe this is because Slackware has a lot of .fvwm2rc files in /etc/X11, maybe they are interfering.

I don't think i have heard of FvwmIconMan before.

Any reason not to upgrade? That's like ancient. It's been long since I used 2.4 at all. I can no longer remember what the differences are between versions, but it's perfectly possible that your config file, that's 2.5.x compliant, is incompatible with fvwm 2.4.x

In fact, if my memory serves correctly, the colorset handling is *completely* different, look at the FvwmThemes module which is the way to handle colorsets in 2.4 I think. That syntax you are using is for 2.5.

Most of the tutorials and stuff you find on the net will only work for 2.5 as well. So you might really consider upgrading.

I can't be sure what the default was in 2.4, it's perfectly possible that SloppyFocus is the default, but in any case, you are enforcing it explicitly in your configuration.

The config on your home should always prevail over any other configuration file. The order of precedence is detailed in the man page though, in case you want to make sure. I don't have 2.4.x installed.

So, do you want SloppyFocus or ClickToFocus?

Probably because of the reasons above.

Well, i'm just using what came with Slackware64 13.0.

I will see if I can get a newer version.

On the fvwm.org website, it says that 2.4.20 is the newest stable release.

Should I just get the new unstable one?

Regardless of the classification, 2.5 is just as stable (well, I can't say I've tested every feature, I don't think anyone has). My guess is that they haven't pushed to 2.6 yet just because there are goals that have not yet been achieved, but otherwise I haven't suffered any stability problem so far.

I ran this:

and the compiled the new fvwm with the usual:

but now startx doesn't work!

I tried manually as root deleting all the files and folders with "fvwm" in the name, and then running make install. still nothing. startx would only work as root.

So I am writing this message in the links command-line browser, because startx did not work as a regular user.

I hope someone helps fast!

P.S. I am very, very glad that Slackware does not have a graphical login screen, this way I can use the command line when my GUI is completely screwed up.

So, it should show an error message telling you the cause of your problem. For the look of it, it can't run fvwm, this might be due to a problem in your fvwm configuration, since as root it works.

Can your user reach the fvwm binary at all? Note that, first, fvwm2 doesn't exist any longer, so if you are using that on your .xinitrc, change it to just "fvwm".

In any case, try to run

as a user, and see if it can find fvwm in your path at all.

whereis fvwm does return a path, I don't remember it.

I searched for xinitrc, there were a few files in a directory that I also forgot (it was /etc/X11/<something...>), and there were a few xinitrc.<windowmanager> files, but not for FVWM. There was some xinitrc file hilighted red with an @ symbol on the end, I am not sure what's the deal with that. I also think that I forgot the dot in the beginning, I will check again.

I hardly remember what I did because it is so difficult and frustrating to get links to log into LQ.

I just logged into Ctrl-Alt-F2 and checked again, and there is no .xinitrc file in /etc/X11/xinit.

ls says there is a xinitrc file (no dot), but cat and vim say it is not there.

The xinitrc for your user is in $HOME/.xinitrc, it's hidden. That's the file which controls what's going to be loaded when you use "startx", and it's the second candidate when looking for errors when starting X (the first would be xorg.conf, which is not relevant to the case because X works for root).

In the past, fvwm 2.x was called "fvwm2", but that binary was renamed to simply "fvwm", without the "2". So, if you $HOME/.xinitrc file contains "fvwm2" if needs to be changed to "fvwm", otherwise you are pointing to a non-existing binary.

I don't have such a file in my home directory.

I see that that xinitrc file that I have in /etc/X11/xinit is actually a link to a file xinitrc.fvwm2 in the same directory, that does not exist.

Than I have no idea how are you starting fvwm at all.

The startx script usually has something similar to this on it:

So, you must have at least one of these files. If not, it will default to "$defaultclient", which is usually set to xterm. In any case, if $HOME/.xinitrc doesn't exist, then look at /etc/X11/xinitrc/xinitrc, and see what's in there.

Alternatively, just create your $HOME/.xinitrc, and launch fvwm from there, simply this will work:

The log file will be useful when debugging problems with your fvwm configuration.

Then you need to create one. No wonder it doesn't start. You don't need a global file there, as said, if you create .xinitrc in your home dir it will take precedence and should be used instead.