I am running Red Hat 9.0 with GNOME and want to increase system performance (on a 200mhz Dell). I downloaded windowmaker complied it, ran wmaker.inst and now what? how do i actually start it?

Thanks
If there are better Window Managers out there please feel free to say so.

Thx Lotmr

you need to edit your xinitrc file to read "exec wmaker" instead of "gnome-session", or whatever it says now.

It should be in /etc/X11/xinit/ , or in ~/xinitrc.

It seems my xinitrc will take a bit more than some simple text editing....

#!/bin/sh
# (c) 1999-2002 Red Hat, Inc.

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
userxkbmap=$HOME/.Xkbmap

sysresources=/etc/X11/Xresources
sysmodmap=/etc/X11/Xmodmap
sysxkbmap=/etc/X11/Xkbmap

# merge in defaults
if [ -f "$sysresources" ]; then
xrdb -merge "$sysresources"
fi

if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then
xrdb -merge "$userresources"
fi

# merge in keymaps
if [ -f "$sysxkbmap" ]; then
setxkbmap `cat "$sysxkbmap"`
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi

if [ -f "$userxkbmap" ]; then
setxkbmap `cat "$userxkbmap"`
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi

if [ -z "$XKB_IN_USE" -a ! -L /etc/X11/X ]; then
if grep '^exec.*/Xsun' /etc/X11/X > /dev/null 2>&1 && [ -f /etc/X11/XF86Config ]; then
xkbsymbols=`sed -n -e 's/^[ ]*XkbSymbols[ ]*"\(.*\)".*$/\1/p' /etc/X11/XF86Config`
if [ -n "$xkbsymbols" ]; then
setxkbmap -symbols "$xkbsymbols"
XKB_IN_USE=yes
fi
fi
fi

# xkb and xmodmap don't play nice together
if [ -z "$XKB_IN_USE" ]; then
if [ -f "$sysmodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$sysmodmap"
fi

if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then
xmodmap "$usermodmap"
fi
fi

unset XKB_IN_USE

# run all system xinitrc shell scripts.
for i in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/* ; do
if [ -x "$i" ]; then
. "$i"
fi
done

# The user may have their own clients they want to run. If they don't,
# fall back to system defaults.
# set up ssh agent environment if available.

if [ -f $HOME/.Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent $HOME/.Xclients || \
exec $HOME/.Xclients
elif [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients || \
exec /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients
else
# failsafe settings. Although we should never get here
# (we provide fallbacks in Xclients as well) it can't hurt.
xclock -geometry 100x100-5+5 &
xterm -geometry 80x50-50+150 &
if [ -x /usr/bin/netscape -a -f /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html ]; then
netscape /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html &
fi
if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm2 ]; then
exec fvwm2
else
exec twm
fi
fi


Can i get some Guru backup on this one?

# out:

if [ -f $HOME/.Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent $HOME/.Xclients || \
exec $HOME/.Xclients
elif [ -f /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients ]; then
[ -x /usr/bin/ssh-agent -a -z "$SSH_AGENT_PID" ] && \
exec ssh-agent /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients || \
exec /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients
else
# failsafe settings. Although we should never get here
# (we provide fallbacks in Xclients as well) it can't hurt.
xclock -geometry 100x100-5+5 &
xterm -geometry 80x50-50+150 &
if [ -x /usr/bin/netscape -a -f /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html ]; then
netscape /usr/share/doc/HTML/index.html &
fi
if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm2 ]; then
exec fvwm2
else
exec twm
fi
fi




and add: "exec wmaker"




What runlevel are you in? If it is graphical, you may not want to do it the way I told you. You'd want to make a seperate xinitrc file (its just a text file) for WindowMaker and then execute it using your Display Manager. Instructions are different for each one though.


If you are running in level 3, then you can just make a new file like:

#!/bin/sh
# $XConsortium: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.4 91/08/22 11:41:34 rws Exp $

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

# Start the window manager:
exec /usr/local/bin/wmaker


and then you can do:

"startx /path/to/that/new/file"

In future, you may want to just download the .rpm instead of compiling. I don't know a lot about RH but under Debian I just create a symlink: /etc/alternatives/x-window-manager -> /bin/wmaker.

I think I finally figured this out (works for me at least!.) In your home directory, create (or edit if it already exists) a file called ".Xclients-default" put in 'exec wmaker' as the last/only line in the file.

If the file is pre-existing and it has if statements in it, just change the line after the 'else' statement to read 'exec wmaker'

For me, this .Xclients-default file looks for a file called .Xclients-$HOSTNAME$DISPLAY in the $HOME$ directory. I didn't have one of these so I just left it in there. If you do have one, I'd suggest looking at that file and see whats in it and put in an 'exec wmaker' line in there where it appears appropriate.

Now when you boot up, if your runlevel is 5 and you get the GDM login screen, select Default in your sessions menu and schazam! you're in WindowMaker!

its kinda the other way around in redhat....the .Xclients file looks for the .Xclients-default file....the default file is not looking for what you are saying it looks for....and just a little tid-bit for you, if you would have made a file called .xinitrc, it would have loaded from this file first....but in redhat its just as easy to add to the .Xclients-default file..and replace whatever WM is being executed in it..