The ultimate fvwm thread (Page 1 of 4)

Screenshot of your FVWM desktop please :)
One photo is sometimes worth 1000 words ;)

In fvwm, you can use the same apps as in any other stacking window manager to make a kind of desktop environment, and in this thread i would like to share my /rather naive/ way of setting it up.

There are some manuals on setting up fvwm online, but in fact they are quite old and i would like to write something anyone could understand and use right now with current !# install.

DestroyFunc InitFunction
AddToFunc   InitFunction

+ I Exec exec nm-applet 
+ I Exec exec gnome-power-manager 
+ I Exec exec volwheel 
+ I Exec exec nitrogen --restore
+ I Exec exec tint2

This section would autolaunch your apps similar to the way autostart.sh does.

2. InitFunction versus StartFunction versus RestartFunction

Unless you're someone as foolish as I am, and are still using FVWM 2.4.19, FVWM 1.24 and FVWM 2.2.5, this is going to be of consideration to you. OK, I joke. This is really only of importance to the small minority of people running FVWM stable (2.4.19). For the rest of you running 2.5.X (at the time I writing I would hope 2.5.16) then you need to be made aware of the following:

You don't need to use InitFunction

Gasp! It's true. In FVWM 2.4.X, you do need to use it because the Test command does not include tests for Init, Reboot, etc. However for FVWM 2.5.X, forget InitFunction, and incorporate it into your StartFunction. Here's an example:

DestroyFunc InitFunction
AddToFunc   InitFunction
+ I Exec exec xsetroot -solid pink
+ I Exec exec xconsole

DestroyFunc  StartFunction
AddToFunc    StartFunction
+ I Module FvwmProxy
+ I Module FvwmButtons myBar

Put the two together, and from within your StartFunction you can define what's in InitFunction via the use of the following:

+ I Test (Init) ...

Hence:

DestroyFunc  StartFunction
AddToFunc    StartFunction
+ I Module FvwmProxy
+ I Module FvwmButtons myBar
+ I Test (Init) Exec exec xsetroot -solid pink
+ I Test (Init) Exec exec xconsole

And that's it. There you have it. You now have a StartFuction which FVWM reads at Init, Reboot and Exit. The same logic applies for RestartFunction:

You don't need to use RestartFunction

What is even more perplexing about this is I have seen a lot of configs which define the following:

DestroyFunc  StartFunction
AddToFunc    StartFunction
+ I Exec exec xterm -T Wooo -ls

DestroyFunc   RestartFunction
AddToFunc     RestartFunction
+ I Exec exec xterm -T Woo -ls

Now, guess what this does. That's right, when you reboot FVWM you get two copies of the same xterm running. That's because, again, StartFunction is read by FVWM at initialisation and reboots. FVWM hence re-reads RestartFunction and StartFunction and does the same thing twice. How do you get around this. Easy: remove the definition for RestartFunction entirely. If that application is only intended to be started during a restart (slightly odd scenario) then use:

DestroyFunc  StartFunction
AddToFunc    StartFunction
+ I Test (Restart) Exec exec xterm -T Woo -ls

DestroyFunc DeleteWin
AddToFunc DeleteWin
+ I Delete

Mouse 1 2 N DeleteWin

DestroyFunc MaxWin
AddToFunc MaxWin
+ I Maximize

Mouse 1 4 N MaxWin

DestroyFunc IconWin
AddToFunc IconWin
+ I Iconify

Mouse 1 6 N IconWin
Mouse 1 I N IconWin

Thomas, I'm also wanting to do my taskbar with FvwmIconMan/Buttons like you've got setup.  I'll post what I've got soon, I need help getting standalonetray/xclock swallowed.  PS: you gonna set your #! avatar to stitch as well?   That's a nice color you and your mom put on him.

big THX, I'm playing around with it now.  BTW, I tried buidling .31 from your git tree but it didn't seem to work as you explained on FVWM forums.  Is there something I'm missing?

./configure && make deb-inplace  ..  gnu make configure wouldn't run. It would on the FVWM 2.5.31 tarball but not the git stuff.