Re: Gnome and Debian

[crispin iinet net au]

On Tue, Aug 21, 2001 at 03:35:31PM -0400, Steve Dondley wrote:
> I'm a Linux newbie and I am pretty much baffled by all the different window managers.  I'm running
> Debian 2.2rev3.
> 
> Problem #1:  When I run "xstart", I'm always thrown into the iceWM desktop manager.  How do I change
> this?

You can make an .xsession file
For a system wide change, in /etc/alternatives there are symbolic links to what you use for each 'thing'. /etc/alternatives/x-window-manager points to the default window manager.

> Problem #2:  When in iceWM I only have a few window managers to choose from and change to...none of
> them are sawmill.

You probably don't want to jump straight to sawmill. See #5

> Problem #3:  I do have the choice of running enlightenment from iceWM.  When I switch to
> enlightenment, I have a chance to choose from a whole bunch of other window managers that I couldn't
> when in iceWM.  Why is that?

The way iceWM is configured.

> Problem #4:  I can choose sawmill from enlightenment.  But when I do, the screen blanks out and I'm
> thrown back to the command line.  WTF?

Agreed. WTF?

> Problem #5: When I type "xstart sawmill" from the command line, a butt ugly background (black and
> white dots) comes up.  There is absolutely nothing else on the desktop.  I can only do a middle
> mouse click to view the menu.

Thats sawmill! A lot of window managers are more than just window managers. wmaker, blackbox, all of these have launching dock bars and wall papers and all that sort of stuff as well as window management functions. sawmill doesn't. It ONLY manages windows. for example. If you get to this screen. Then press ctrl-alt-F3 (or some free terminal). Log in as the same user. run 'export DISPLAY=:0' and then a programme 'abiword' Then go back to the graphic desktop (ctrl-alt-F7 probably. But try others if not). You will see that abiword is launched and being managed by sawmill. Thats all it does.

If you want the other functionality, you have to use other programmes. gnome provides a wall paper, desktop and dock bar. sawmill provides the window management. So if your .xsession has 'gnome-session' in it, then gnome will launch sawmill as its window manager. Then you get sawmill managing windows and gnome providing the rest.

Crispin