Hi, I've been using KDE for the last months and it is a great DE but I wanted to go more minimal, something more simple.

I've been using dwm but my questions are not all about dwm. Since I am a complete noob I have no idea what is the best way to do what I want. The issues involve migration (KDE -> minimal WM) and how would I be able to do what I was doing before. A few things:

1)I have two usb pendrives, one cellphone and a dvd recorder (which I don't use that often, but still). In KDE, whenever I connect them I receive a notification and I can click on it and mount it. Is there a way to setup something like that? I was thinking something running in background and whenever one of them is plugged it gets mounted on a defined path and when it is unplugged it gets unmounted.

2)How do I setup mail? I just got aware of its existence and the /var/log/spool/$USER file. I mean, it is a blank file what am I supposed to do with it?

3)Is there a way to keybind terminal commands? e.g press Ctrl Mod4 A would launch scrot with a set of parameters so I could take a screenshot.

Thanks and sorry for my nooby ways.

You can use any one of the window manager/desktop environments that come with Slackware and your KDE applications will continue to work, so long as the KDE libraries are still in place. Note that window manager commonly do not provide any applications--all they provide is an interface to X.

When you connect a USB device, you won't receive a notification directly to the desktop, for example, but you will get a notification in Konqueror (my preferred file manager) or Dolphin on the sidebar.

From the terminal, before you startx, you can run xwmconfig to change your window manager.

Of the GUIs that Slackware includes, my favorite is Fluxbox; I also quite like E17, which does not come with Slackware. I'm using Flux right now on Slackware --Current. I long ago abandoned KDE for having far too many bells and whistles that keep ringing and whistling even though I have no interest whatsoever in the clamor they make.

Fluxbox allows you to create a quite attractive interface, though it is very plain out of the box. It also allows for keybindings, auto-start of desired applications such as xscreensaver, conky or gkrellm, wicd-client, and much more. It also has a mininal system tray function that can be expanded via add-ons, if you wish (I don't).

Setting up a text email client is a whole nother story. I suggest that you get used to your new window manager before you tackle a command line email program. You will be able to continue using whatever email client you are currently using.

I been using Mutt on a couple of computers recently (and I do quite like it), because I wanted to learn how to set up email. Here are two good links:
http://www.calmar.ws/mutt/
http://docs.huihoo.com/gentoo/resour...e-to-mutt.html

Hmm I don't need a notification, I just wanted a way to mount them automatically, regardless of the DE or file manager, since KDE does that automatically. And I will take a look at Mutt, thanks.

Just a footnote: KDE does not mount your devices, udev does. KDE just tells you about it.

FluxBox is about the best minimal WM/DE you can use. It's layout is very Xfce-like but still fairly modern in usage and benefits.

Of course you could go to Xfce is you need something lighter weight than KDE.

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Creating your own environment from selected tools is one of the most satisfying things you can do IMO.
Even if I spend hours getting some basic tools to replicate the effect of one thing that a full DE does, I feel inordinately proud of myself

For mounting devices, it depends on what program you want to use to interact with them.
e.g. if you're going to use Thunar, there is thunar-volman that takes care of the automounting. If you're going to use commandline tools, there are plenty of options such as pmount, udisks, autofs, /etc/fstab with `mount'...

Likewise, binding commands to actions/scripts is generally done by the window manager, so with dwm you would do it through the dwm/config.h file while fluxbox uses the ~/.fluxbox/keys file.

Have fun!

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I'd like to recommend xmonad.
Sure you have to install ghc and etc., but it's very keyboard driven. Some file managers will "notify" or allow you to "click to cd and mount" hotplugged devices. worker is an example of one. The thing I dislike about Fluxbox, is that for whatever reason, it's menus list items i don't even have installed. That really bugs me. Maybe there's a quick fix someplace...
Anyway, never having to think about decorations or "themes" is very refreshing!

Yes. And +1 for worker: I always install it first, alongside geany.

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Hmm what would I use to mount them as I would do in the terminal? Like, instead of typing "mount /dev/x /path -parameters" it would do it automatically?

EDIT:I am searching for 'udev automount' I guess that is right?

EDIT2: I remember someone saying if your hardware doesn't change much you wouldn't need udev for this, right? I think someone here does it without udev, 50200 guy if I am not mistaken

Automatically, if you like, manually, if you prefer. And if listed properly in /etc/fstab:

• the mount point registered there will be used by worker
• you'll be able to mount the device manually just typing "mount <mount point>" as a regular user

No need to change udev's configuration.You won't need an udev rule to mount the removable devices you own if you populate /etc/fstab with these devices, but you still will need udev to populate /dev, of course.

But using fstab to do it automatically it would assume the devices are already plugged, no? At boot time.

No.The devices having the option auto or defaults in the fourth field of /etc/fstab are mounted at boot time, but if instead the option noauto is used, the device, not mounted at boot time, will be booted automatically by worker (if you accept) as soon as it detects that this device has been plugged-in. No tweaking of another configuration file is needed. Also, even if the device is not listed in /etc/fstab, worker will propose you to mount it when it's plugged in. The only difference is that then worker will choose itself a mount point that it will create.

Add the noauto option to the fstab line for that device, this way it will not be tried to mount at boot. Also, if you want different devices be mounted to different mountpoints you will have to use UUIDs or filesystem labels to determine the device.

automount is for auto mounting things
(man autofs for details)

udev can be used by using it's exec on event mechanism but automounter is made for that

Maybe something like this https://github.com/LemonBoy/ldm (never tried it myself)