Can't Start xfwm4

[Biju Chacko]

On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 17:19:06 -0400, John Lowell wrote:

> jasper & oliver,
> 
> Many thanks for your replies. I have managed to locate and install the
> startup-notification package from the repository of my distro, Arch Linux.
> 
> Here's a follow-up question for you. As you know, I'm running exec xfwm4 via
> a ~/.xinitrc file. Installing startup-notification certainly solved the
> error message problem I was getting from XFree86, but I now reach xfwm4, and
> the mouse functions properly, but there is nothing else there. I installed
> the settings package as was recommended in the on-line manual, that is to
> say xfce-mcs-manager, and have even tried opening it by adding the lines
> exec xfce-mcs-manager and exec-settings-show to ~/.xinitrc but nothing
> changes. I have the plain background and mouse mobility and that's all. I
> had assumed that xfwm4 might function like fluxbox or openbox. I'm wrong
> about this?

xfwm4 is a window manager *only*. It doesn't do anything else. So if *you* don't
start a window to manage, you won't have anything to look at. You also won't
have any way to start up programs, because xfwm4 doesn't provide menus or
launchers or taskbars or things.

OTOH, if you installed xfrun4 then xfwm4 provides a default key-binding to
launch it: Alt-F2. You could then use it to run whatever apps you want.

An easier method would be to run an xterm from your .xinitrc. All-in-all, I
think running the complete environment would be your best bet for getting a
useful desktop.

At the very minimum, I'd suggest running xfwm4, xfdesktop and xfce4-iconbox.

HTH,

-- b

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Biju 'botsie' Chacko                        biju_chacko at vsnl dot net
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