Upgrading Fluxbox (two versions at once)
 

I'd like to upgrade the version of fluxbox I'm using now (0.1.14) to the newest devel release (0.9.12). Since this is such a big change (I assume so at least since it's going from 0.1 to 0.9), I'd like to keep the version I'm running around so I can go back if things don't work out. Would there be any problems with installing 0.9 without removing 0.1 first, and just changing the "exec fluxbox" in my .xinitrc to the specific path to 0.9, or is it not that easy? What do I need to consider when upgrading? If anyone uses a recent version of fluxbox, what are the major differences between thse versions? Thanks.

Well, the dual nstall should work fine if you just do it without make install, and run it from the compile idrectory.. That can get tricky tho.. Also a not-so-basic ./configure --prefix could do the trick..

Slack 10.1 uses 0.9.12 by default, so id say its pretty safe to ditch the older one infavor of it.. Im running 0.9.12 under 10.1 and its a smooth deal..

Th major changhes I noticed rightaway were the major upgrades in pseudo transparency.. Other than that, I havnt noticed, but its been a long time since I used 0.1.14 so no wonder.. But definately worth the upgrade.. strongly recommended.. (:

Hmm ok. I guess I'll just upgrade and I can always download and install the old version if things don't go well. I'm just a little wary doing that with something as major as a window manager. Do I just remove the fluxbox slackpkg I'm running now and go make install the new one (and all the .fluxbox settings will be retained)? That seems to be how upgrading works for every other piece of software but just thought I'd confirm for this one. Thanks again.

yeah, thats about it.. As long as you dont del the .fluxbox dir in your home, all should be allright.. There might be a slackpack on linuxpackages.net for older versions of slackware, atleast there was one for 10.0, but I cant check as their site seems to be down.. ):

Just did it from source and all is well (after changing the .xinitrc to "exec fluxbox"). There are lots of new features now (remember, layer, transparency, .fluxbox/apps and related options, new things in the configure menu, etc.). Thanks!

Since there are new/different configuration options in fluxbox 0.9.12, you could also create a separate config directory for it.

For example, if you create $HOME/.fluxbox-0.9.12 and put apps, groups, init, etc into that, you can start fluxbox-0.9.12 with the command
/path/to/new/fluxbox -rc $HOME/.fluxbox-0.9.12/init

Just make sure to change the paths for your configs in the new init file.