On 2009-07-16, Chris G <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
> How does running openbox (or fvwm if it was me) with xfce
> differ from running it with gnome?
I'm not exactly sure what you're asking.
When you run openbox with xfce, you're replacing xfwm4 with
openbox. You're still running xfce4-session, xfdesktop,
xfce4-panel, etc. When you use openbox as the WM under gnome,
I presume (having never run gnome) there are other gnome
desktop environment components that are still being used.
> ... and more to the point how do I set things up to do one or
> the other? If I just install (say) fvwm using apt-get then
> I'll get a choice at login time of xfce *or* fvwm and if I
> select fvwm I basically get a gnome system with fvwm as the
> window manager.
I don't use graphical logins, so I don't really know how that
works.
> Is there a way to get an 'xfce' system with fvwm as window
> manager?
I would guess you do it the same way you do for openbox: start
fvwm (passing it the option that tells it to replace the
existing wm). Then exit xfce with the "save session" checkbox
enabled or tell xfsession via the command line to do save the
session and exit.
Here are a couple links on using openbox instead of xfwm4
http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Help:XFCE/Openbox
http://rubenerd.com/p1197/
I'm a bit puzzled as to why both of these links use the command
killall xfwm4 ; openbox &
rather than
openbox --replace
The "replace" option has been common for window managers for
ages hasn't it?
> That would actually work well for me as then I can still
> (presumably) use all the ready made xubuntu
> set-up/configuration tools but I can arrange my
> desktops/windows using fvwm.
I'm still using xfdesktop and xfce4-panel. [It sure would be
nice if xfce stuff was named consistently.] If you want fvwm to
handle things like paging and root menus, you'll need to shut
down xfdsktop and suchlike.
--
Grant Edwards grante Yow! My Aunt MAUREEN was a
at military advisor to IKE &
visi.com TINA TURNER!!