How to install alternate WM in FC2?
 

Hi everyone,

I'm wondering how I'd go about installing and using an alternate window manager. That is, instead of using a full desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE, using just Fluxbox or WindowMaker. I tried installing the WindowMaker RPM but nothing seems to have happened. I don't get an option to load WindowMaker at the graphical login screen nor is there a Desktop Switcher utility in the Red Hat menu. Will I have to tinker with XFree86 configuration files? How would I switch back?

I did it the hard way, on fedora core1
1) edit /etc/inittab to start in console text mode ( change default runlevel from 5 to 3 )
2) After login in console mode I type "xinit /usr/X11R6/bin/fluxbox

If I forgot where the Fluxbox binary is, I type "which fluxbox "

I tried to install a windows manager selector named selectwm but it doesn,t work
I had to use another windows manager on 1 of my rigs because I updated both of my 2 systems to KDE v3.2 and had problem with KDE v3.2one system after the upgrade.

fyoi ,there is a desktop switcher in Fedora1: Redhat menu->system settings->more system settings->desktop switching tool.

yum install fluxbox
switchdesk fluxbox

I'm always in runlevel 3 so I don't know what it would do at runlevel 5.

You'd have to write an xinitrc.<wm> for it. FC2 comes with XFce RPMs, you could try that. I got it to work on FC1

I tried switchdesk but fluxbox is not in the choices list.

Redhat 7, 8, and 9 used a .Xclients config file, does Fedora uses that file too ?

Thanks, but is there anyway to change window managers without messing with XFree86 configuration files? I want to be able to easily switch back to GNOME if something goes wrong.

yum fluxbox handles setting gui login
 

Hi,

When i used yum to get fluxbox, it automatically updated the gui login menu to include fluxbox, along with gnome, kde, failsafe, etc.....

So, you still have a choice among them.

Unfortunately, yum installed the stable version (0.1.14 or something like that), which I find to be unusable. I installed 0.9.9 or something, which works well...did so through source code. I then needed to do a little tweaking of X files, and went back to run level 3, but if you do a search on the forum here and at justlinux.com, you can see which files to look at. It's not that hard to figure out what to change, and what to change back if you don't like it.

Didn't know xfce can with fedora, on the CD's?

If your yum.conf doesn't have a repository with fluxbox, I will post mine.

I tried making an .xinitrc file for the XPde desktop in my $HOME directory but nothing happened when I rebooted. In the file it has the line: /usr/src/xpde/bin/startxpde

And I can't seem to get yum to work. Whenever I type (as root of course) yum install <packagename>, the program hangs.

EDIT: I got XPde to run but only if I go into runlevel 3 and type startx.

Also, I actually got WindowMaker to run from the GDM login screen by using "switchdesk WindowMaker".

But is there any way to get them on the Sessions menu on the login screen?

my yum.conf
 

Here is the /etc/yum.conf file I use. I think I was able to install fluxbox 0.14 with it in its current state. If you are not able to do so, uncomment-out the freshrpms site and the dag site, but then comment out the stable and livna sites. I have heard they don't work well together.



# $Id: yum-fd.conf 378 2004-04-30 16:33:52Z dude $

[main]
cachedir=/var/cache/yum
debuglevel=2
logfile=/var/log/yum.log
pkgpolicy=newest
distroverpkg=fedora-release
gpgcheck=1
tolerant=1
exactarch=1

[core]
name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - core
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/core

[updates]
name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - updates
baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/updates

#[freshrpms]
#name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - freshrpms
#baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/freshrpms

#[tupdates]
#name=Fedora Linux $releasever - $basearch - testing updates
#baseurl=http://ayo.freshrpms.net/fedora/linux/$releasever/$basearch/tupdates

[livna-stable]
name=Livna.org Fedora Compatible Packages (stable)
baseurl= http://rpm.livna.org/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/yum/stable
#gpgcheck=1

[fedora-stable]
name=Fedora.us Extras (Stable)
baseurl=http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora.us/fedora/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://fedora.quicknet.nl/fedora/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://mirrors.usc.edu/pub/linux/fedora/fedora/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://fedora.mirror.sdv.fr/fedora/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
http://download.fedora.us/fedora/fedora/$releasever/$basearch/RPMS.stable
#gpgcheck=1

[macromedia.mplug.org]
name=macromedia.mplug.org - Flash Plugin
baseurl=http://macromedia.mplug.org/apt/fedora/$releasever
http://sluglug.ucsc.edu/macromedia/apt/fedora/$releasever
http://ruslug.rutgers.edu/macromedia/apt/fedora/$releasever
http://macromedia.rediris.es/apt/fedora/$releasever
#gpgcheck=1

#[dag]
#name=Dag APT Repository
#baseurl=http://dag.freshrpms.net/redhat/fc$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
# http://ftp.heanet.ie/pub/freshrpms/pub/dag/redhat/fc$releasever/en/$basearch/dag
##gpgcheck=1