Subject: FVWM: system.fvwm2rc in Red Hat Linux 5.x

From: Neil Zanella <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1998 21:19:21 -0330 (NST)

Hello,

I would like to know how I can configure the default configuration
file for Fvwm2 under Red Hat 5.0. I have tried copying my ~/.fvwm2rc
to the global system.fvwm2rc file but that alone did not work.

I don't want to have to place a dotfile in /etc/skel or in the users' home
directory and I want fvwm2 to run by default (instead of Kde etc...)
when a user logs in.

How do I do this?

Thanks in advance,

Neil
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From: David Shochat <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 20 Dec 1998 07:22:14 -0500

> to the global system.fvwm2rc file but that alone did not work.
First of all, I have RedHat 5.2, so there may be some differences, but I
think 5.0 (which I had briefly before 5.2) was similar. At least it also
used fvwm2 by default.

I suggest you begin at the beginning, namely by studying
/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc and then everything it triggers directly or
indirectly. I'll give a brief summary of what happens with 5.2 (default
setup) in case your situation is similar:

1. xinitrc invokes Xclients (same directory).
2. That checks for ~/.wm_style and invokes /usr/X11R6/bin/RunWM --Fvwm95
   Note this is a script which you can look at.
3. This (if it doesn't find ~/.fvwm2rc.m4, invokes fvwm2 in m4 mode
using the command:
   fvwm2 -cmd FvwmM4 -debug /etc/X11/AnotherLevel/fvwm2rc.m4
   You won't see that literally, but if you evaluate the relevant
variables, that's what you're 
   getting. Also, if you do a ps after things are running, you will see
the complete command.
4. Since you are at this point running fvwm2 in its m4 mode, if you want
to stick with 
   that, you should learn a bit of the m4 macro language (info m4).
Anyway, if you study
   /etc/X11/AnotherLevel/fvwm2rc.m4, you will see that it reads in a
whole slew of m4 include files 
   which are also in /etc/X11/AnotherLevel. 

So if you are basically going to keep the AnotherLevel multi-file
structure in place, then what you want to do as sysadmin is edit those
m4 files in /etc/X11/AnotherLevel. Of course you don't have to use this
scheme at all. You can rewrite /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc and do anything
you want, including running fvwm2 in its non-m4 
mode, where everything is handled through a single configuration file
and you can forget about learning m4.

> directory and I want fvwm2 to run by default (instead of Kde etc...)
Of course some of your users may want to customize things for
themselves. If so, again assuming the AnotherLevel scheme is maintained,
they would copy the files from /etc/X11/AnotherLevel as for example,
~/.fvwm2rc.defines (note: initial '.' added, final '.m4' removed).
However, if they want to write their own replacement for the top-level
m4 file, they copy it to the name ~/.fvwm2rc.m4, *with* the '.m4'
suffix. This inconsistency is annoying and something it took me a while
to uncover. However, typical user customizations would be in the
subsidiary files. One other thing: A lot of the menu configuration is
done using wmconfig on the fly. So some of the menu content is set up
via the files in /etc/X11/wmconfig. Users can customize this by having
~/.wmconfig and creating files there for custom menu items. In short,
the default RedHat 5.2 setup has window manager configuration splattered
all over the place.

-- David