Anyone else here use FVWM?

[Colonel Panic]

Every so often, when I forget how complicated it is to set up and get working the way I want, I install the fvwm window manager and start tweaking it. I'm still convinced that at least potentially it's my ideal wm, because of its lightness and extreme configurability.

Unfortunately the fvwm forum seems to have disappeared;

http://fvwm.lair.be/

Any other fvwm users here who are willing to share their config files with me and others here who might be interested?

Thanks in advance,

Colonel Panic .

[Pita]

I have used it for quite a long time and had great fun configering it,
like 4x4 virtual screens each with a different colour. Now I am hooked
on fluxbox.

I will check if I still have my config files.

Have a look at this:
http://www.mail-archive.com/fvwm@lists.math.uh.edu/index.html#16432

Regards

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for replying Pita. I like Fluxbox as well and use it in my other Linux distro (5.9 SOHO; I'm posting from 6.0 Standard at the moment). What I like about FVWM though is the sheer range of options for resizing and manipulating windows; there are eight different forms of maximization, for example, and windows can be iconised either to a taskbar, to an icon manager or to an icon on the desktop. Lots of choice which I don't see on any other WM.

I'd be interested in seeing your config files if you still have them. For now I've installed the "themes" and "themes-extra" packages from the FVWM themes page and am using Alex Wallis's AWOL theme which has a comprehensive range of functions, almost like an early version of XFCE. It's quite old school in appearance but I'm OK with that.

[Pita]

To my consternation I can't find nowhere any more my ~/.fvwm directory.
Must have somehow deleted it which is a shame after all the work and time
I spent on it. There is a chance it is still in an old computer. If get the time I will
check it out.

So sorry.

[kidd]

If you want a highly configurable wm with fairly smart defaults, you can try some tiling wm like wmii, awesome wm, or ion3.

I use ratpoison and stumpwm, that are probably the most minimalist ones (not recommended as a first contact with tiling wm).

Those wm are so configurable that you can write programs in your .*rc files, so if you don't feel like coding a bit, they won't fit you.

Have you tried any of those 'strange' wms?

[kidd]

I've started a series of posts (let's hope the series doesn't end at number 1) about
some alternative and light windowmanagers I've tried during the last years.

Starting with what I'm using now (probably not recommended to wide public): Ratpoison
http://puntoblogspot.blogspot.com/2009/11/lightweight-window-managers-part-1.html

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks, I'd be interested in that. I might give ratpoison a go sometime, I installed evilwm a while back. The only problem with keyboard-operated window managers like evilwm, ion, ratpoison etc. is that you've got to learn a lot of commands in order to do anything - you can't just click on an icon or a menu as you can with a mouse-operated one.

[Colonel Panic]

To my consternation I can't find nowhere any more my ~/.fvwm directory.
Must have somehow deleted it which is a shame after all the work and time
I spent on it. There is a chance it is still in an old computer. If get the time I will
check it out.

So sorry.

Don't worry. If it's any consolation, I've twice accidentally deleted either every file on my hard drive or whole partitions with files and installations on them. You pay to learn.

[kidd]

The great thing of evilwm is that there are only a handful of shortcuts.

My recommendation when you start using a heavy keyboard app is print a quickref and have it near your keyboard.  in less time than you think, you'll need it less and less... and maybe in two weeks, you'll be able to throw it.  At least for evilwm.

A good point you made is about icons and 'visual feedback'.
2points on that:

• If you have to share your user in a given machine, you definately cannot install evilwm as a default wm.
• A launcher is highly recommended, due to the lack of icons.  If you use only a few programs, you can try a program to add keybindings. (but yeah, this means extending your quickreference card)

 

Stay tunned for more posts.  I'll spam here with the new posts announces, if noone objects. A little rename of the thread title would be nice too (for future reference)

[Colonel Panic]

I've just done a search, and as I thought I've not only used but posted about ratpoison before;

http://forum.vectorlinux.com/index.php?topic=5485.0

I thought I had, should have mentioned it earlier. Sorry.

[kidd]

No problem

Let's hijack that other thread, as it has a more sensible title.

[Colonel Panic]

Fair enough. I'm trying bbkeys out at the moment in conjunction with FVWM and other mouse-operated WMs and it's probably all I need (at least once I've worked out how to configure it).

[Colonel Panic]

A quick update; the odd thing is that bbkeys seems to work better with fvwm than it does with blackbox (or any other window manager I've tried so far).

[kidd]

you can try xbindkeys or keylaunch.  I've successfully used both on several wm's.

Btw, I thought all *box wm had it's own shortcut app.

links:

http://www.nongnu.org/xbindkeys/xbindkeys.html

http://www.oroborus.org/?node=Download

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for these two links. I've downloaded both of the keybinding apps here.

I've since found though that bbkeys works with fluxbox and openbox, two good window managers, so I'll persevere with it for the time being.

There's a certain inertia involved in moving over to a new keybinding app because of the time it takes to set it up (I've probably invested half an hour already on bbkeys). The great thing is that you can then use the configuration file in future installations of Vector or even other Linux distros (whisper).