configuring FVWM

[Gentree]

Hi,

I have been using FVWM for a number of years ( without really changing its setup ) and I really appreciate its lean, efficient , nothing-but-WM approach.

However, I now need to transfer this to a new Gentoo and I cannot find out how/where the all the config files are so that I can reproduce the same setup.

[cboldt]

You need to bind the mouse/wheel action to the function

[Gentree]

thanks cboldt

You may notice that was my thread last time I went through this nightmare. The code I posted above comes from there but it no longer works.

I think default setup has been changed and the "desk" variable probably no longer exists. I'll have to dig.

FVWM infinitely flexible but also infinitely complicated to set up. You effectively need to learn a new programming language just to get it to work

This is not helped by the near total lack of support material anywhere on the web.

I find that a bit odd, there's usually someone doing stuff no matter how obscure it is. I guess the learning curve is so steep most people fall off.

_________________
Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist
AthlonXP-M on A7N8X. Portage ~x86

[cboldt]

$[desk.pagesx] and $[desk.pagesy] still exist. So do the other FVWM variables in the WheelScroll function. I haven't studied the logic in the WheelScroll function, but assuming it makes some sort of sense, the only way the function doesn't work is if the function isn't called - and that situation only arises if the Mouse binding doesn't work.

I didn't notice that you were the author of the previous! Oops!

Anyway, I'd be looking at the Mouse action bindings - probably write a simple function to debug it. My experience doesn't extend to acting on wheel activity (no wheel here), but my first step would be to make sure Mouse 4 and 5 do something.

[1clue]

I've run into this problem too.

I used fvwm back in the early days (1.x, 2.0 back when it was called fvwm2) but have been away from it since then.

I'd love to try again but have no time to make a config from scratch, and have not yet found an acceptable file to use that actually works on a current version of fvwm.

Right now I'm stuck with xfce, which isn't too bad but not quite what I want.

[Gentree]

Yes, I was using XFCE before I moved to FVWM. It was pretty good but it started getting a bit bloated with tuns of extra widgets and stuff, which was the antithesis of it's original appeal.

At some stage it got unusably slow on my deliberately basic NVidia graphics card ( the old ones with passive cooling ) and they were not at all interested in finding out why. So I set out in search of something more minimalist and got into FVWM.


I think it probably appeals to the same mentality as Gentoo does , so I would not be surprised if a fair number of the FVWM user base is here on Gentoo.

Maybe I should start a thread for us all to chip in links and configs to make a some kind of resource list.

Now I think about it, what I'm aiming to reproduce is probably something close to the way I had XFCE4 configured.

This one looks quite clean , but I have not got around to testing it yet.
http://pemarchandet.free.fr/fvwm.html

[EDIT] Well, that turns out to be a lot less clean that it appears in the screen-shot. Rather clunky on my screen and incomplete. Oh, well.
_________________
Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist
AthlonXP-M on A7N8X. Portage ~x86

[dmpogo]

[cboldt]

That "Arctic" theme looks pretty sharp, especially considering that it's ten years old. I grabbed the fvwm.tbz2 file to check out how the theme and its parts are done, and want to "warn" anybody who might not know better, the archive will unpack into .fvwm, and puts all its configuration files into .fvwm/conf/ The archive contains other folder/directories that could clobber your existing config.

[cboldt]

I think learning curve is a part of it, but so is just the time aspect of it. It takes time to get the desktop to look and act the way you want it to, and it's considerably easier (even when you know how to use fvwm) to use some other WM that is "close enough."

I've stuck with fvwm just out of preserving work habits. I have four desktops, four windows each (in a 2x2), and about 20 apps (mostly terminals) are started when I start X. A few handy key-combos to navigate the WM (Ctl-Alt right left switches desktops, Ctl-Alt up down rotates around the windows), careful choice of apps in each desktop/window, and then the habits form.

Nothing fancy to look at, xplanet in the BG (clouds approximately up to date, random earth orientation each 15 or so minutes), three conky's, one for the local machine, one each for two others on the LAN; root-tail showing me incoming mail, auth.log, and iptables activity.

I bet I have a month full time into getting it setup - but most of that was 10 or so years ago. Who the heck is willing to put that much time into their desktop! No sane person, that's for sure!

[Gentree]

A month I can believe. I seem to recall spending over a week just to get something basic configured.

thanks for the warning about the Arctic tarball, but I never untar blindly. I extract to a new directory first.

It was actually incomplete and a bit of a mess, relying on lots of stuff that was not in the archive.

What is really frustrating me is that I have a config I have been working with since 2009 and is fine, but it won't transfer across to my new Gentoo.

I must have made some changes that I can't find.
_________________
Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist
AthlonXP-M on A7N8X. Portage ~x86

[cboldt]

As my usage has evolved, I found it beneficial to have one config arrangement portable across multiple machines, so it's been fairly painless to export or adapt to new hardware. I make changes on one "master" machine, and the changes are propagated via rsync and a cron job. That's no help to your immediate problem, obviously.

Fvwm lends itself to "Rat's nest" configuration, with information and functions spread across many files. Just now reviewing my config (which sits on top of fvwm-themes) I see a function to disable mouse wheel. That got me to wonder if your situation might be related to that or something similar.

[Gentree]

yes, I've just found this as it happens.

[cboldt]

Preserving your settings depends on how you invoke fvwm. My arrangement is "on top" of fvwm-themes, so I stash all my stuff in ~/.fvwm/themes/personal.

Startup is via `startx`, with "fvwm-themes-start" being the command in .xinitrc.

Fvwm-themes does some thrashing and makes a long winded init script on the fly, chief among them being ~/.fvwm/themes/current-main/themes-rc-2. That fvwm script reads many other files into the setup, last among them will be any "startup" file you have stashed in ~/.fvwm/themes/personal.

My stash is broken into a few pieces, and by reading them from "~/.fvwm/themes/personal/startup," they get the last word.

[Gentree]

Thanks, that's very helpful.

I'd forgotten about .xinitrc , that is where I set my b/g image, one detail I had not fixed yet.

[cboldt]

`man fvwm` says the file that fvwm reads, if none is pointed to on the startup command line, is /.fvwm/config

Installing fvwm-themes doesn't molest that file (if it exists), but starting up with `fvwm-themes-start` bypasses that file.

At any rate, my strategy has been to collect my settings in files that won't be molested by fvwm-themes, with a 'startup' file that calls and reads my settings files, and calls and reads the commands that start programs on the desktops. I think I ended up with the filename ~/.fvwm/themes/personal/startup by figuring out or finding out what fvwm-themes was doing when it started up.

From my "fvwm personal" directory, `wc -l applications bindings colorsets globalfeel menus-extra startup styles` shows a total of 1622 lines, many of which are wholesale cribbed from elsewhere. I have a few hundred lines of module and FvwmScript coding too. Took a long time to get to this point, but maintenance is pretty easy now. Complicating things a little bit for me, I coded a single fvwm startup/config that would work across my desktop, and a couple laptops, each with different screen geometry - and part of my background is root-tail, but the files read on one machine may not exist on another, etc. That 1622 lines also has at least a few comment lines.

I don't mind sharing it, with the caveat that it's not designed to be portable to other people's systems.

[Gentree]

It would be useful to have something to pick from. One thing I find very surprising is that there is so little out there in terms of examples, or any kind of web support worth speaking of.

I'd have thought that however obscure a WM is there'd be a little kernel of hardcore users somewhere.

:/
_________________
Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist
AthlonXP-M on A7N8X. Portage ~x86

[cboldt]

I don't want to use a lot of space in "sharing" this, so some of what's here is truncated, but certainly enough to get a handle on how my fvwm startup is organized. One thing nice about fvwm is that the order of defining functions and bindings is unimportant - so, you'll see things appear, wonder "what is that?" and the answer comes later.

~/.fvwm/themes/personal/startup

[Gentree]

many thanks. I'll take time to trawl though all that later. It's going to take time to digest.

It should help improve the rather minimalist I have now. I like minimalist desktops but a couple of buttons for most frequent things like email client and browser would be ergonomically useful.

I'll post if I get stuck but that looks pretty explicit.

A7N8X is a great mobo. I have two of these Nvidia dual channel Athlon boards, the other is ABIT AN7. The A7N8X is out of service now due it screwing it's own BIOS. I had to interrupt the boot a few of times due to a broken fan. I think on the third try it tries to reprogram itself to default config At that stage I had my head under the bench and did not see the warning on the screen.

After that happens, it's completely dead and you don't even get a blink from the BIOS. Of course this occurred at the worst possible moment when I was in a rush to get something out.

I need to send it off to get it re-flashed.

I suspect a huge number of perfectly good systems end up at the tip because of this kind of thing. They look completely stuffed.
_________________
Linux, because I'd rather own a free OS than steal one that's not worth paying for.
Gentoo because I'm a masochist
AthlonXP-M on A7N8X. Portage ~x86

[cboldt]

Here's a tip for playing around - use FvwmConsole.

[cboldt]

My A7N8X probably just needs a set of caps, and it'd be good to go. I think it was a bout 4 years ago it gave up. Some time before that, we had another desktop have a MoBo go bad, that had a K-8 chip on it, so I replaced that system with something relatively current, hijacked her K-8 and bought a $30 MoBo to replace the A7N8X (which is local photo/music/file server). Decided just a few months ago to update, so the server now has a AM2+ board and AM2 chip. Gigabyte F2A88XM-D3H and "Trinity" chip. Few year old technology, still a big boost for me. MoBo, CPU, and 8G of RAM for $140.