Subject: FVWM: fvwm2: basic customisation questions

From: "A.Sulaiman" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 14:17:58 +1100 (AEDT)

Hi [email-masked]

I have newly changed to fvwm2 on Linux-Pc (RedHat 6.2) and had just
subscribe to this mailing list.

I was used to the Motif type environment before moving to Linux a few
months ago and after checking out other alternatives, fvwm's motif-like
windows is the best for me.

Getting to the point, How do I customise my desktop such:

1. I'd like to move the Pager to the top-left corner of
   the screen, resize it to make it slightly bigger and change 
   it's color

   By the way, what is "Apps" which is next to "Desk". Can I do
   away with it? Can I also remove xload on it's left.

2. How do I change the icons used for xterms, rxvt, netcscape etc
   to smaller icons or to icons I create myself?

3. How do I change the background color of the icon labels? Currently
   when out-of-focus, the icon labels are black on darkish grey
   background and is a bit hard to read.
     Can I also change the fonts.

4. Can I make window titles left-justified.

5. For some reason xbiff appear without any title or borders. What
   can I do to make it appear like other windows?

I hope these are all simple questions. Obviously I haven't got a clue
where to start. I've not been able to get very far looking at manpages
or at fvwm.org website.

Thank You for your help
Asri Sulaiman
*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

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---

From: "Thomas A. Gardiner" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 07:57:59 -0500 (EST)

Hi, 

I might be able to help out a bit...

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, A.Sulaiman wrote:

First point.  The source files for the AnotherLevel package are at
/etc/X11/AnotherLevel/ and are named "fvwm2rc._____.m4".   To modify them
on a person by person basis it is suggested that you copy the particular
file of interest to your home directory and prepend a ".", i.e.
".fvwm2rc.___.m4".

>   away with it? Can I also remove xload on it's left.

The file of interest is fvwm2rc.modules.m4
Look at the top of this this file and you will find that if you look
through the FvwmButtons section that it swallows the FvwmPager.
Furthermore you will find a line like this:

define(`FVWM_BUTTONS_WIDTH',eval(50 + 50 * NUM_DESKTOPS))
*FvwmButtonsGeometry FVWM_BUTTONS_WIDTH`'x50-0-BOTTOM_EDGE

which controls the geometry, i.e. location of the pager.  The BOTTOM_EDGE
is set to different values depending on whethe or not you are running
FvwmTaskBar.  The size is essentially controled by the hard coded number
50 in the above lines.

If you look a little further down (the next section) you will find the
configuration commands for FvwmPager where you will find this:

*FvwmPagerLabel 0 Desk
*FvwmPagerLabel 1 Apps

These are simply names; set them how you will.

>   to smaller icons or to icons I create myself?

The file of interest is fvwm2rc.defstyles.m4
If you want to adhere to the m4 philosophy of being able to choose icons
or no icons then you would make the following changes...

ifdef(`NO_ICONS', `', `
Style "*xterm*"		Icon 	xterm.xpm
Style "*shell*"		Icon 	xterm.xpm

# You add more here...

Style "*netscape*"      Icon    myicon.xpm
')

I'm going to defer the solution to the last 3 to someone else out there,
as I'm not sure of the answer and would need to read the man page...

T.

---

From: Mikhael Goikhman <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 7 Feb 2001 18:40:00 -0600

>    background and is a bit hard to read.

Colors of icon titles are the same as colors of your window titles (unless
you played with TitleStyle) and have the same background as window borders
(unless you played with BorderStyle or BorderColorset). All of these
colors are defined by commands similar to:

  # unfocused
  Style "*" ForeColor   rgb:00/00/30, BackColor   rgb:80/80/78
  # focused
  Style "*" HilightFore rgb:00/00/30, HilightBack rgb:C0/C0/B4

Actually the last line is for 2.3.x only. In 2.2.x you should use the
following global command instead:

  HilightColor rgb:00/00/30 rgb:C0/C0/B4

>      Can I also change the fonts.

Yes, IconFont 7x13.

> 4. Can I make window titles left-justified.

TitleStyle LeftJustified

>    can I do to make it appear like other windows?

A window may use several types of hints to convince FVWM to draw partial
decorations. You may take a look at the man page how to disable some hints
on per window basis.

But I don't think xbiff uses decoration hints. It is more like your
configuration file has something like:

  Style XBiff NoTitle, NoHandles, BorderWidth 0

Remove any such line in your configuration or add this line at the end:

  Style XBiff Title, Handles

Regards,
Mikhael.