xfpager, and general observations

[Dmitry DELTA Malykhanov]

Harry,

Here is the description of my own environment, where I'm testing new
window managers, desktop environments and things like this. It's not an
easy thing to configure and use, but it's completely separate from you own
environment and you will not have to restart your X session anymore! IMHO
it's worth the time you'll spend setting it up. Here is the description:

NOTE: I'm running Red Hat 7.3, so package versions on your machine
will be different, packages _names_ should be the same

1. make sure you have the following packages: openssh-server,
openssh-clients and XFree86-Xnest

$ rpm -qa | egrep 'openssh-server|openssh-clients|Xnest'
openssh-server-3.1p1-6
openssh-clients-3.1p1-6
XFree86-Xnest-4.2.0-8


2. make sure sshd is running:
bigtux(dmitry)dmitry>/sbin/service sshd status
sshd (pid 886) is running...

if it's not -- start it (as root)
# /sbin/services sshd start


3. create test user (so any experiments will not affect your real
environment), as root user:
# /usr/sbin/useradd -d /home/xfce -s /bin/bash -c 'XFCE test user' -m xfce

assign valid password (as root user):
# passwd xfce
Changing password for user xfce.
New password: <typing password here>
Retype new password: <typing again>
passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.


4. do the following (you must have X11 session running!), in the
xterm (or your favorite termnial under X):

bigtux(dmitry)dmitry>ssh xfce at localhost
The authenticity of host 'localhost (127.0.0.1)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 6c:10:bb:30:65:3f:77:ff:f0:25:f7:d2:80:6b:d9:f3.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'localhost' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
xfce at localhost's password:
/usr/X11R6/bin/xauth:  creating new authority file /home/xfce/.Xauthority
[xfce at bigtux xfce]$

NOTE: key fingerprint on you machine will be different. 'bigtux' is my
hostname.


5. make sure that X11 forwarding is working:

[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ xterm

the new xterm should appear, you can close it

Congratulations! Now you have separate environment for experiments.


6. check PATH environment var, to make sure xfce user has access to
your xfce installation:

[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ echo $PATH
/opt/bin:/opt/java/bin:/usr/local/bin:/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/home/xfce/bin

in my case xfce installed under /usr and /usr/bin is in the PATH, so
I'm ok here. On your machine /usr/local/bin must be there


7. as 'xfce' user start Xnest X server (don't forget to put it into
background with '&'):

[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ Xnest :1 &
[1] 2477
[xfce at bigtux xfce]$


8. as 'xfce' user start xterm which will use Xnest server:
[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ xterm -display :1

xterm will appear in the Xnest window ("display"). Note: on the Xnest
"display" there is no window manager yet! That's ok.


9. start your favorite window manager (which is of course xfwm :)) from
the xterm running under Xnest control and you will see WM running into the
Xnest window, under different account and completely isolated from _your_
environment!

[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ xfwm
xfwm message (type main):  Xinerama extension disabled

xfwm message (type SessionInit):  X Session Manager not available
Using builtin session management instead

/home/xfce/.xfce/xfbdrc File not found.
Loading GNOME menus
Loading KDE menus

Now you don't even have to restart Xnest, just exit XFCE (the xterm still
be running) and start it again. And either way, your experiments will not
affect _your_ X11 session, since everything will be running in the
"virtual" X server under different user account. (trick with ssh'ing to
the same host is just an easy way to solve X11 authenticaion issues)

Note: you may wish to run xfce_setup script, before starting xfce
as 'xfce' user under the Xnest control. I didn't, that's why
"/home/xfce/.xfce/xfbdrc File not found." is there and when I'm clicking
on "exit" button on xfce panel it shown dialog window "can't create file".

Note: if you have session management enabled (and by default it is
enabled) xfwm will always start an extra xterm (because it will consider
the already running xterm as a part of current session), just close this
extra xterm.

========================================================================

OK, I hope you will be able to setup such environment, so here goes the
test case for you:

remove everything from /home/xfce/.xfce dir and /home/xfce/.xfwmrc if
there is one. Then try to start xfwm _without_ xfce panel. In order to get
xfpager running, you have to add the following lines to the ~/.xfce/xfwmrc
file:

AddToFunc "InitFunction"
+ "I" Module xfpager
AddToFunc "RestartFunction"
+ "I" Module xfpager

that's because normally xfce panel is starting xfpager for you, but we
don't want to start panel this time. Thus we have to tell xfwm to start
xfpager. Of course, add '*xfpager.geometry +100+300' to the xfwmrc too.

Now start xfwm _without_ xfce panel:

[xfce at bigtux xfce]$ xfwm -noxfce

and tell us what will happen

P.S. And just another crazy idea. You may wish to try my build:

http://d726f6e.freeshell.org/xfce/xfce-3.8.16-2_intl.i386.rpm

actually, it's for Red Hat 7.2, but it should work on your machine.

On Sat, 17 Aug 2002, Harry Putnam wrote:
> > Dmitry Malykhanov wrote:
> > I'll send detailed instructions how to set up your environment to the
> > xfce-dev list later. Is it ok?
>
> Deferring to your judgement on this.  And I'll look for you post here
> on xfce-dev.

--
It's me -- Delta at SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org

"I don't advise it, citizen, mn-e-eh... I don't advise it. You'll be eaten."