Subject: FVWM: Newbie question - getting started with fvwm

From: Doug Dunston <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 12:26:24 -0700

I have successfully installed XDarwin's rootless version on top of 
Xfree86 on my Mac running OS X v. 10.1, and I have also installed Fink 
to help me with future installations.  I would like to try out fvwm, and 
I think (!) I have installed it.

When I type fvwm2 at a prompt in a window of XDarwin, I get:

[FVWM][CatchRedirectError]: <<ERROR>>  another WM is running

I suppose this means 1) I did install fvwm, and 2) I need to find a way 
to have it run instead of the default window manager.

How should I proceed?  Was it a waste of time to install XDarwin (is it 
the window manager I'm NOT going to use?

Thanks in advance for any assistance; this is all new to me!

Doug Dunston

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From: Marcus Lundblad <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 23:50:25 +0100 (CET)

> to have it run instead of the default window manager.

Yes, since there is an executable named "fvwm2" in your PATH$ it means
it's installed.

> the window manager I'm NOT going to use?

You say "root less" does this mean that it does not run in "full
screen" or run X inside a big Mac window?
So it uses MacOS windows to "map" to X's windows? Is this correct?

If this is the case, I believe technically there is alreade a window
manager running, so X tells fvwm2 there is no screen for it to manage.

//Marcus

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From: Ross Hamilton <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 13 Nov 2001 17:27:13 +1100

On Sunday, November 11, 2001, at 06:26 AM, Doug Dunston wrote:

> to help me with future installations.  I would like to try out fvwm, 
> and I think (!) I have installed it.
>

Probably you are correct on both counts. If you are able to resize 
windows in X, then you are already running with a window manager.  Like 
every other version of xfree86 I've seen, XDarwin ships with twm as the 
default. Likely that is what you're looking at (Hint: it's minimal, 
ugly, somewhat counter-intuitive and you're window borders are probably 
green).

> the window manager I'm NOT going to use?

No, it sounds to me like you're doing OK so far, but you may need to be 
aware of some differences from the kind of set-up to which you may be 
accustomed. Remember that X(Darwin) is a display server, capable of 
supporting a large number of different client window managers (but, 
sensibly, only one at a time!). On Windows and MacOS, the functions of 
window-server and window manager are usually combined, hence perhaps 
some confusion.

To switch the default WM, you need to edit the file: 
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to reflect your preference (at least, that's 
where it lives on my 10.0.4 box). Try changing "twm" to "fvwm2", save 
the file, then restart X. Get back to us with any problems.

-R.