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Funnily enough I was just looking at windowmaker. I was trying to fix the firefox small icon issue that seems to exist on the stock x86_64 slackware version.
I found this https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=371974 which sounds like it fits. I noticed that it had been applied to the wm_0_92 branch on the hg.windowmaker.info repos about 5 weeks ago, so I grabbed a copy of that branch and re-jigged pat's slackbuild script to build it (the mmx patch has also been applied to that branch so that was no longer necessary either). Unfortunately, it doesn't appear to have fixed the issue with the small app icon for firefox.
I might have to give one of Carlos' versions a try. I'm glad to see some activity around windowmaker again, but it's a little concerning that it seems to be fragmenting. Many distros including the *bsds all seem to be maintaining their own patch sets for it, and Carlos is taking his version in a Linux only direction(due to the inotify stuff) which is fair enough as that's what he wants to do, but... Will the real WindowMaker please stand up! It's all getting a little confusing.
Still, I suppose it's better than having a completely dead project.
Thanks for posting your slackbuild w1k0. You might want to consider using $LIBDIRSUFFIX to keep it 64bit friendly, like Pat's original
update: Well, that icon fix appears to have solved the problem with displaying the 'dolphin' application icon under windowmaker. The Firefox icon is still tiny, but I've worked around that by explicitly pointing it at the 50px xpm version rather than leaving it to try and find one itself, so it'll do for now.
Distribution: Slackware (personalized Window Maker), Mint (customized MATE)
Posts: 1,309
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GazL
Still, I suppose it's better than having a completely dead project.
I share all yours opinions including the above one. Window Maker is great window manager. I use it exclusively since 1998 or 1999. Before I used AfterStep. Similar idea but worse performance. I'm worrying when I see results of such polls: What Desktop Are You Using with Slackware 13?. Window Maker with its 0.88% is squeezed out by the other light window managers. This is the price of four years of stagnation and one year of hidden development. Each project needs publicity. Window Maker hasn't any.
As for Firefox icon -- why you don't change it on your own?
Thank you for the tip with $LIBDIRSUFFIX. I updated my SlackBuild.
WindowMaker is definitely overlooked by a lot of people and I think some people just find it a little too 'different'.
As you said, the project being stalled for so many years hasn't helped. The interesting thing I find though is that while it's a good 10-12 years old, it doesn't seem to have dated as much as some of its competition.
Like you, I started using it when the choice was between it, afterstep and fvwm. I'll certainly continue to use it for as long as it remains viable.
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Originally Posted by w1k0
As for Firefox icon -- why you don't change it on your own?
Yep, that's what I ended up doing in the end. I was just hoping I wouldn't need to.
There is still activity in the official branch of wmaker, but not as much as in Carlos' branch. We have had some trouble with the fellow who took over maintenance of wmaker not being very responsive -that is he takes a long time to apply submitted patches, etc. He seems to be busy with other projects. Anyway, I've managed to get quite a few submitted patches accepted and applied and I'm going to keep submitting them. The maintainer and I both are trying to pick and choose patches from those going into Carlos branch and 'port' those into the official tree.
Carlos branch is doing some things that will not go into the official tree -breaking compatibility with non-Linux-2.6 and GCC are just two of them. He is also applying large patches which add very experimental features. Even though he has a testing branch, features are being applied to his main branch with almost no testing done.
I never use anything but wmaker and have worked out nifty ways of making it look and act very different from 'normal' wmaker or from anything else. I also maintain and use the wdm display manager, the WMSound suite, and over 100 DockApps.
The official branch of wmaker is still pointed in the direction of producing a stable 1.0 release, before moving on to more significant changes.
Yes, that should be the current main branch -if I usnderstand correctly, wm_92_0 is the 'stable' branch and the default is the 'tip' -kinda like testing. In all honesty, the mercurial repo is a bit of a mess -with several branches, none of which agree with each other.
I still hope that John Robinson begins to respond a bit better to the submitted patches -I'm getting a batch ready to submit/resubmit, so we'll see.
Your SlackBuild should work without changes except for the URL, but these options are no longer valid: '--enable-gnome --enable-kde'
Distribution: Slackware (personalized Window Maker), Mint (customized MATE)
Posts: 1,309
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Upgrade to the current version of Window Maker
Quote:
Window Maker is a window manager for the X Window System that is relatively fast and small, feature rich, easy to use, with a simple and elegant appearance reminiscent of the NeXTSTEP(tm) graphical user interface.
This post contains SlackBuild for the current development version of Window Maker. The goal of developers is to produce stable release of Window Maker.
If you prefer a branch including experimental features look above at the post #15.
Last stable Window Maker version 0.92.0 was released over four years ago. Slackware 13.0 uses over three years old 20060427cvs version. Meanwhile Window Maker is intensive developed since over one year. The current version of Window Maker is available here: http://hg.windowmaker.info/wmaker/.
I decided to write SlackBuild for the current version of Window Maker. If you’d like to install it in the system you need:
# HOW TO EDIT THIS FILE:
# The "handy ruler" below makes it easier to edit a package description. Line
# up the first '|' above the ':' following the base package name, and the '|'
# on the right side marks the last column you can put a character in. You must
# make exactly 11 lines for the formatting to be correct. It's also
# customary to leave one space after the ':'.
|-----handy-ruler------------------------------------------------------|
windowmaker: Window Maker (a fast and elegant window manager)
windowmaker:
windowmaker: Window Maker is a window manager for the X Window System that is
windowmaker: relatively fast and small, feature rich, easy to use, with a simple
windowmaker: and elegant appearance reminiscent of the NeXTSTEP(tm) graphical
windowmaker: user interface.
windowmaker:
windowmaker: Window Maker is part of the official GNU project.
windowmaker:
windowmaker:
windowmaker:
Put wmaker-default.tar.gz, slack-desc and windowmaker.SlackBuild files in the same directory, change windowmaker.SlackBuild file mode bits to executable and run as root the script ./windowmaker.SlackBuild. Finally to upgrade Window Maker run the command upgradepkg /tmp/windowmaker-*.tgz.
The SlackBuild will work also with the future versions of wmaker-default found on http://hg.windowmaker.info/wmaker/. You have only to increase the build number at the beginning of the script:
Distribution: Slackware (personalized Window Maker), Mint (customized MATE)
Posts: 1,309
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Originally Posted by gnashley
In all honesty, the mercurial repo is a bit of a mess -with several branches, none of which agree with each other.
I agree. A few branches in the mercurial repository and a few git forks make a mess. In result the project falls apart into a lot of weak subprojects. I understand Carlos R. Mafra. He’d like to present to the users new version of Window Maker. I don’t understand John H. Robinson, IV. He ignores completely the publicity (see: http://windowmaker.org/) though he wrote here August 27, 2008: “The website is up. Expect regular updates”. Without the publicity and without one even unstable official version of the program a year the project is dead.
Quote:
Your SlackBuild should work without changes except for the URL, but these options are no longer valid: '--enable-gnome --enable-kde'
There are a few tiny differences so I decided to publish experimental and current versions’ SlackBuilds separately.
Thank you wik0. Compiling now.... Windowmaker was the first wm I used when I first started trying BSD and Linux. I had FreeBsd 4.3 (I think that was the version number) on an old IBM 766XD. Then I tried Slackware (either 7 or 9, don't recall). I currently am using xmonad but I like to try a few.
This will be fun... Thanks for the build and the post.
[Edit] Works great! Now I am hunting down configuration stuff and such.
Last edited by jkirchner; 10-01-2009 at 05:16 PM.
Reason: Success!
Distribution: Slackware (personalized Window Maker), Mint (customized MATE)
Posts: 1,309
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If you're interested in dockapps don't omit gnashley's repository. I also put a bunch of dockapps into SlackBuilds.org (Desktop category) but it's merely a dozen or so of applications I use with Window Maker.
Thanks. Quick question regarding wmakerconf. I checked out the page and it seems like it is just an enhanced version of the windowmaker preferences that is already in Windowmaker. Or have I missed something. The existing tool seems pretty good to me EDIT: I got the program; I see why now...very nice.
Thanks for the link for the dockapps; I will check them out.
Distribution: Slackware (personalized Window Maker), Mint (customized MATE)
Posts: 1,309
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Originally Posted by linus72
is windowmaker as configurable as fluxbox?
meaning can I just edit the file in /homr/user or what?
Window Maker is very configurable. It creates in user's home GNUstep directory including a few configuration files. You can edit them manually or use WPrefs or wmakerconf. The latter is a separate program. You'll find it in SlackBuilds.org.
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is windowmaker in debian same as window maker in slack?
Debian uses the same version as Slackware -- 0.92.0. Maybe it's somewhat patched but basically it's the same version. Newer versions are those recommended in posts #15 and #24 above.
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