I downloaded and tried to install every IceWM RPM from ftp.suse.com but when I would it said, "IceWM requires IceWM-bin". This was for the RPMs for IceWM , not the themes or prefs or anything else, just the IceWM main RPM. So I tried the lite RPM, the GNOME RPM and the IceWM RPM with a different verion. All failed because of missing "IceWM-bin" (which is provided by the RPM I am installing).

So , I used yast to force the RPM install and it does it, creates the dirs in /etc/X11 and a lot of other files but no icewm exec to run (I tried from the console and did a search).

So , I uninstalled the IceWM RPM and when I reinstall it there is no error about IceWM-bin BUT I still don't get the icewm exec.

Any thoughts ?

This is a kind of shot-in-the-dark, but your post reminded me of a binary called starticewm which under some circumstances supposedly...starts icewm.

Do "which starticewm" and see if it exists. If it's in your path, try the command--it's unlikely to hurt anything. If it's not in the path, try giving the command including its full path and see if it does anything.

As I recall, I could never get it to do anything.

I use icewm 99% of the time, and have had various problems installing it when I would upgrade my distro. But it always gets going eventually. I have a feeling you have installed all the files you need but there's some linking between them that's lacking.

You might also try installing from the tar package available from www.icewm.org and see how that goes. Last time I did that, it was with the latest version of icewm, and it wouldn't run on my system, which included the version PRIOR to that on its distribution discs. That prior version ran OK and is the one I'm using at this moment.

Thanks for the reply. I finally got it up but shortly after reinstalled.

I had to FORCE install icewm-gnome (contains icewm-bin) because seeing as suse 9.1 personal doesnt come with gnome i didnt have the dep's naturally. However from there I had to shut down the X server (init 3) and do a song and dance to bring icewm up.

I'm about to give it another swing now on this reinstall.

Thanks for the help if I have that trouble again I'm going to try your tips.

Rory

Good luck. If it's any consolation, I just spent two hours completely reinstalling Mandriva 10.1 due to not being able to access X as a normal user. Google search of the error message led to nothing but guesswork and blind alleys. Finally I messed everything up so much I had to reinstall.

I played with KDE and found it MUCH nicer than the last version I used. But I went back to IceWM. I always come back to it.