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How to Change Window Manager


How-to Change Window Manager 

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 What is a WM?
WM means "Windows Manager".
'Windows Manager' + 'File Manager' = 'Explorer' in Win XP

The windows Manager that comes with Puppy 1.0.5 is called JWM. Personally I prefer another WM called IceWM (available as a DotPup), which is very easy to use. FVWM95, the default WM prior to version 1.0.5, is now available as a PupGet package. The behaviour of WM is steered by configuration files, e.g. for jwm this is /root/.jwmrc. They are loaded once the graphical desktop boots up. So if you make changes to these files, you may need to restart the WM (e.g. by Start -> Shutdown -> Restart...)

 IceWM
Install:

All modifying can be done by editing the config files 
in /root/.icewm (hidden).

Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/keys (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'. See a sample file here.
Set Preference:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/preferences. Use the search function of any text editor to find the item you want to change.
  • Example: # ShowTaskBar=1 # 0/1 this entry means that task bar is shown by default, to hide the task bar, change the line to: ShowTaskBar=0 # 0/1 symbol '#' is used to comment out the line, you need to remove it after making any changes.
  • More
Window Options:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/winoptions
  • Example: mozilla-bin.dTitleBar: 0 = don't show Mozilla's title bar
  • More
Start Menu:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/menu
  • Example: prog Bubbles ballorange16 bubbles.tcl below the line menu Games face-win24 { will add a program called "Bubbles" in the Games sub-menu, with the icon "ballorange16" (located in /usr/local/lib/X11/mini-icons). Click on the entry will execute "/usr/local/bin/bubbles.tcl"
  • More
Usage:
  • Press 'Ctrl+Esc' to bring up the Start Menu. Move the menu and sub-menus up and down by rolling the mouse wheel.
  • Press 'Ctrl+Alt+Space' to get a quick command line in task bar
  • To put an icon on the right side of the task bar: right-click a window's title bar and select Tray Icon.
  • If you don't want IceWM set the background, exit to the prompt (Ctrl+backspace) and restart X by typing "startX icewm"
Themes:
  • If the theme is available as a DotPup, install it like you would with any DotPup. If you downloaded a theme.tar.gz file from somewhere else: 1. From the start menu select "Utilities --> guiTAR archiver" (or TkZip) 2. Open the downloaded file 3. Extract the file. It extracts to a new folder. 4. Move the whole folder to: /root/.icewm/themes 5. Your new theme will appear in the 'Themes' menu of the start menu.
  • Create your own theme
 Jwm
Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit /root/.jwmrc (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'.
  • For example, adding this line: <Key key="F1">exec:dillo /usr/share/doc/index.html to root/.jwmrc, Puppy help pages will popup when you press F1.
  • To run rxvt by pressing Ctrl+F2 you can use <Key mask="C" key="F2">exec:rxvt
  • C is the modifier to use Ctrl+ key combinations. Other alternatives would be: "S" shift+key, "M" alt+, "SC" shift+control+key
  • More explanation
  • Since Puppy 1.0.5 we now has a GUI configuration tool, jwmConfig. Launch from the menu: Start -> Control Panel -> JWM configuration.
 Fvwm95
Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit root/.fvwm95rc (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'.
  • For example, adding this line: Key F1 A A Exec dillo /usr/share/doc/index.html to root/.fvwm95rc, Puppy help pages will popup when you press F1.
  • If you configure your keys here, they can not be used in applications. So you might want to setup more rarely used keys. To run rxvt by pressing Ctrl+F2 you can use Key F2 A C Exec rxvt
  • See the difference to the example above ? C is the modifier to use Ctrl+ key combinations. Other alternatives would be: "A" single key, "S" shift+key, "M" alt+, "SC" shift+control+key, ... see the .fvwmrc95rc for other examples.
 XFCE
Install:
  • Download it from this page. Click to install. See the page for more information.
  • You also need to download the xinitrc.pup from the same page. This will ask you to overwrite .xinitrc, click on ok.
  • Please reboot before and immediately after installation.
  • To start XFCE: - kill X (press ctrl+alt+backspace) - type: xwin xfce4 - to start XFCE with ROX as the icon manager type   xwin xfce-rox instead
  • To start JWM: - kill X (press ctrl+alt+backspace) - type: startx jwm
 Other Window Managers
Using a WM other than the default one can be risky.    - Rox Filer  
  - PupGet
  - Dotpup
Hardware
  - Video
  - Sound
  - Networking
  - Input Devices
  - Others
Goodies
  - Games
  - Linux Tutorial
  - More
Links
  - Puppy
  - Others
Miscellaneas
  - Misc
 What is a WM?
WM means "Windows Manager".
'Windows Manager' + 'File Manager' = 'Explorer' in Win XP

The windows Manager that comes with Puppy 1.0.5 is called JWM. Personally I prefer another WM called IceWM (available as a DotPup), which is very easy to use. FVWM95, the default WM prior to version 1.0.5, is now available as a PupGet package. The behaviour of WM is steered by configuration files, e.g. for jwm this is /root/.jwmrc. They are loaded once the graphical desktop boots up. So if you make changes to these files, you may need to restart the WM (e.g. by Start -> Shutdown -> Restart...)

 IceWM
Install:

All modifying can be done by editing the config files 
in /root/.icewm (hidden).

Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/keys (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'. See a sample file here.
Set Preference:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/preferences. Use the search function of any text editor to find the item you want to change.
  • Example: # ShowTaskBar=1 # 0/1 this entry means that task bar is shown by default, to hide the task bar, change the line to: ShowTaskBar=0 # 0/1 symbol '#' is used to comment out the line, you need to remove it after making any changes.
  • More
Window Options:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/winoptions
  • Example: mozilla-bin.dTitleBar: 0 = don't show Mozilla's title bar
  • More
Start Menu:
  • Edit /root/.icewm/menu
  • Example: prog Bubbles ballorange16 bubbles.tcl below the line menu Games face-win24 { will add a program called "Bubbles" in the Games sub-menu, with the icon "ballorange16" (located in /usr/local/lib/X11/mini-icons). Click on the entry will execute "/usr/local/bin/bubbles.tcl"
  • More
Usage:
  • Press 'Ctrl+Esc' to bring up the Start Menu. Move the menu and sub-menus up and down by rolling the mouse wheel.
  • Press 'Ctrl+Alt+Space' to get a quick command line in task bar
  • To put an icon on the right side of the task bar: right-click a window's title bar and select Tray Icon.
  • If you don't want IceWM set the background, exit to the prompt (Ctrl+backspace) and restart X by typing "startX icewm"
Themes:
  • If the theme is available as a DotPup, install it like you would with any DotPup. If you downloaded a theme.tar.gz file from somewhere else: 1. From the start menu select "Utilities --> guiTAR archiver" (or TkZip) 2. Open the downloaded file 3. Extract the file. It extracts to a new folder. 4. Move the whole folder to: /root/.icewm/themes 5. Your new theme will appear in the 'Themes' menu of the start menu.
  • Create your own theme
 Jwm
Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit /root/.jwmrc (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'.
  • For example, adding this line: <Key key="F1">exec:dillo /usr/share/doc/index.html to root/.jwmrc, Puppy help pages will popup when you press F1.
  • To run rxvt by pressing Ctrl+F2 you can use <Key mask="C" key="F2">exec:rxvt
  • C is the modifier to use Ctrl+ key combinations. Other alternatives would be: "S" shift+key, "M" alt+, "SC" shift+control+key
  • More explanation
  • Since Puppy 1.0.5 we now has a GUI configuration tool, jwmConfig. Launch from the menu: Start -> Control Panel -> JWM configuration.
 Fvwm95
Define Hotkeys:
  • Edit root/.fvwm95rc (backup first!). It's in a hidden directory. To see the directory, right-click in Rox, choose 'Display -> Show Hidden'.
  • For example, adding this line: Key F1 A A Exec dillo /usr/share/doc/index.html to root/.fvwm95rc, Puppy help pages will popup when you press F1.
  • If you configure your keys here, they can not be used in applications. So you might want to setup more rarely used keys. To run rxvt by pressing Ctrl+F2 you can use Key F2 A C Exec rxvt
  • See the difference to the example above ? C is the modifier to use Ctrl+ key combinations. Other alternatives would be: "A" single key, "S" shift+key, "M" alt+, "SC" shift+control+key, ... see the .fvwmrc95rc for other examples.
 XFCE
Install:
  • Download it from this page. Click to install. See the page for more information.
  • You also need to download the xinitrc.pup from the same page. This will ask you to overwrite .xinitrc, click on ok.
  • Please reboot before and immediately after installation.
  • To start XFCE: - kill X (press ctrl+alt+backspace) - type: xwin xfce4 - to start XFCE with ROX as the icon manager type   xwin xfce-rox instead
  • To start JWM: - kill X (press ctrl+alt+backspace) - type: startx jwm
 Other Window Managers
Using a WM other than the default one can be risky. 
Use at your own discretion. If encounters problem, 
press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to kill X and type startx jwm 
to switch back to the default WM.

WM related software:

PuppianL






Also see



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