Subject: FVWM: FVWM and Linux SuSE

From: Lucio Chiappetti <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 10:57:09 +0200 (MET DST)

I'm a newcomer to FVWM (version 2.5.10 under SuSe Linux 9.2, i.e. the
version which ships with the SuSE distribution). My background was mainly
the one of a mwm and CDE (although with a peculiar look !) user under DEC
OSF 3.2 and 4.0.

I successfully managed to customize fvwm starting from the .fvwm2rc
distributed with SuSE.

However I note that my .xsession-errors contains the following messages

FvwmTheme is obsolete, see the Colorset section of the fvwm(1) man page
Cannot parse color "dtcolor5"
couldn't create gradient
Cannot parse color "dtcolor5"
couldn't create gradient
WARNING: '/etc/xdg/menus/suse-screensavers.menu' does not exist
WARNING: '/etc/xdg/menus/applications-kmenuedit.menu' does not exist
/bin/sh: susewmif: command not found

I believe the first bunch of messages derives from this group of
statements in the original .fvwm2rc which I did not dare to delete.

# 0 = Default colors
# 1 = Inactive windows
# 2 = Active windows
# 3 = Inactive menu entry and menu background
# 4 = Active menu entry
# 5 = greyed out menu entry (only bg used)
# 6 = module foreground and background)
# 7 = hilight colors
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 0 fg black, bg rgb:6f/a1/dc
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 1 fg black, bg rgb:a1/b2/c8
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 2 fg black, bg rgb:70/a2/dd
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 3 fg black, bg rgb:c8/d3/e5, VGradient 100 dtcolor5 rgb:c8/d3/e5
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 4 fg black, bg rgb:91/ae/d6
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 5 fg rgb:d2/bf/a8, bg rgb:b4/aa/94
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 6 fg black, bg rgb:b4/aa/94, VGradient 100 dtcolor5 rgb:b4/aa/94
*FvwmTheme: Colorset 7 fg black, bg rgb:94/ab/bf

# run FvwmTheme before anything else is done
ModuleSynchronous Timeout 5 FvwmTheme

The last message should derive from the second line of InitFunction.
Apparently this "susewmif" is neither installed nor documented on my
system.

AddToFunc InitFunction
# +"I"   Module FvwmBanner
 + "I"   Exec susewmif xmessages

I can't trace the two warnings (about non existing menu definitions) in my
.fvwm2rc.

In any case :

 - can I assume the above messages are harmless ?
 - can I just comment out the statements which generate them ?
 - any other hint ?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lucio Chiappetti - INAF/IASF - via Bassini 15 - I-20133 Milano (Italy)
For more info : http://www.mi.iasf.cnr.it/~lucio/personal.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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---

From: Thomas Adam <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 11:43:48 +0100

> I'm a newcomer to FVWM (version 2.5.10 under SuSe Linux 9.2, i.e. the

Welcome.

> version which ships with the SuSE distribution). My background was
> mainly the one of a mwm and CDE (although with a peculiar look !) user
> under DEC OSF 3.2 and 4.0.

*cough* -- there's nothing strange about the CDE/Motif -- it is my
preferred window style under Fvwm.  :)

> I successfully managed to customize fvwm starting from the .fvwm2rc

My hat goes off to you -- SuSE's idea of Fvwm configuring is archaic at
best --  not so much in terms of style, but because the maintainer has
failed to keep up with the changes to fvwm, and as you have seen, the
configuration options lag as a result.

> FvwmTheme is obsolete, see the Colorset section of the fvwm(1)

It's true.  FvwmTheme's components were merged into the core of Fvwm,
such that the module is obsolete -- but the information in the man page
for it is very much relevant.

> *FvwmTheme: Colorset > 7 fg black, bg rgb:94/ab/bf

>  - can I assume the above messages are harmless can I just comment   ?
>  - out the statements which generate them any other hint             ?

What you need to do, is simply remove the FvwmThemes definition such
that you just apply the colour changes directly, i.e.:

Becomes:

Colorset 0 fg black, bg rgb:6f/a1/dc

... in your .fvwm2rc file.  Then in your Style definitions, you'll want
to check that you apply at least two of the colorsets for Active windows
(those with focus) and inactive windows (those without), hence:

Style "*"   Colorset 0
Style "*"   HilightColorset 1

As an example.

I can't comment about the SuSE menus, alas.  The last time I used SuSE
was at version 6.4.  If you want to know more about colorsets, then see:
"man fvwm" and perhaps more pertinent:  "man fvwmtheme".  If you want
config ideas, then see:

http://www.fvwmwiki.org/cgi/moin.cgi/FvwmMWM

Hope That Helps.

-- Thomas Adam

--  
"One of us is a cigar stand, and one of us is a lovely blue incandescent
guillotine" -- Stephen Malkmus, "Type Slowly" from "Brighten The Corners"
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---

From: Harshwardhan Nagaonkar <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 12:11:06 -0700

Lucio Chiappetti wrote:
<snip/>
> I can't trace the two warnings (about non existing menu definitions) in my

Well, I run Novell Linux Desktop which is based on Suse. Here are my 
relevant menu lines that I use to get the SUSE/NLD system menu:
-----------------AddtoMenu section-------------------
+                ""              Nop
+                "&S. SUSE menu"             Popup xdg_menu
+                ""              Nop
-----------------end AddtoMenu-------------------

and another section does this to enable it:
------------------------------------
#System generated menu
PipeRead 'xdg_menu --charset UTF-8 --format fvwm2'
------------------------------------

My xdg_menu binary is located at:
------------------------------------
harsh@tinsan:~> which xdg_menu
/usr/bin/xdg_menu

harsh@tinsan:~> rug se xdg

S | Channel             | Name                   | Version
--+---------------------+------------------------+---------
i | nld-9-i586          | opendesktop-kdexdgmenu | 1-0.7
i | nld-9-i586          | xdg-menu               | 0.2-45.2

------------------------------------

Hope that helps,
-- 
Harshwardhan Nagaonkar
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT - 84602