Desktop environment based on Fvwm

INSTALL / DEINSTALL

Fvwm-Nightshade is based on Fvwm but for full functionality you have to install more than Fvwm. Below all dependencies are listed.

Dependencies

Required - absolutely needed for proper work

  • Fvwm >= 2.6.5 (compiled with all features if possible)

  • python-2.7 (for python scripts)

  • python-xdg (for menu creation with fns-menu-desktop)

  • xterm (for some functions like displaying man pages, tailing .xsession-errors, …)

  • conky (for clock/date, cpu graph)

  • xscreensaver (for locking desk, screensaver)

  • feh (for displaying wallpapers)

  • ImageMagick (needed for thumbnailing, menu icons, …)

  • librsvg2 (fns-menu-desktop need this library to convert svg icons)

  • stalonetray (needed for the Systemtray)

  • cpufreq/cpufrequtils or cpupower (needed for the governor tool to control cpu states)

  • polkit-gnome (for user applications to use root apps with pkexec)

  • x11-apps (A collection of common X Window System applications)

  • gksu (wrapper around su to let you have a graphic interface)

  • pcmanfm (for icons on desktop and device mounting)

  • libgtk2-perl (for SimpleGtk2 library. To show FNS GUI tools)

  • liblocale-gettext-perl (for SimpleGtk2 library. To localize FNS GUI tools)

  • networkmanager-gnome (to have a network controlling tool resides in the systray)

  • volumeicon (volume control in the systray)

  • pm-utils (utilities and scripts for power management)

  • qtconfig for qt4 (Qt 4 configuration tool)

  • lxappearance (GTK+ theme switcher)

  • gtk2-engines-murrine (for FNS themes)

  • gtk2-engines-pixbuf (for FNS themes)

Suggested - nice to have

  • fdpowermon or cbatticon-gtk2 (important for notebooks - show the battery state)

  • blueman (shows the bluetooth state in the systray)

  • pm-utils (needed for suspend and hibernate)

  • grun or gmrun (comfortable replacement for FvwmForm "Run" command)

  • compton or xcompmgr (composite manager for X11)

  • transset or transset-df (true transparency for windows in conjunction with composite manager)

  • clipit or parcelite (clipboard manager for systray)

  • xneurs (tool to change all around keyboard like language, layout, etc)

Step 1: Installing Fvwm

First of all you have to install Fvwm.

Get latest Fvwm

  1. from distribution if available

  2. from Fvwm homepage

Note

Since Fvwm has been switched to Github the different build processes (rpm, deb, src) have to be tested again and if remained described in the future below. Sorry for this inconvenience.

Step 2: Installing Fvwm-Nightshade

  1. Download package from http://fvwm-nightshade.github.io/Fvwm-Nightshade.

  2. Unpack it and switch into the expanded directory.

    Important

    Don’t use file-roller because the tool cannot handle unix rights in zip files. Use unzip instead.

  3. Switch into the unpacked directory.

  4. Now you have different possibilities to install Fvwm-Nightshade:

General

Fvwm-Nightshade will be installed to /usr/local/ by default. So root permissions are required. Run

# make install

If you want to install Fvwm-Nightshade to another directory you can change the prefix:

# make prefix=<other_dir> install

If you want to install FNS to a directory else then /usr you have to add

PATH="<other_dir>/bin:$PATH"

in a file called <number>_common_xsessionrc or so in /etc/X11/Xsession.d/ that Fvwm-Nightshades executables will be found.

If you haven’t installed a display-manager like GDM, XDM or LightDM you can add the option displaymanager=no to the make call:

# make install displaymanager=no

If Fvwm is installed in another directory then /usr/share/fvwm you have to told make where because there are some scripts which have to be installed into Fvwm.

# make fvwm_path=<path_to_fvwm> install

If you haven’t root rights you can install Fvwm-Nightshade locally. All you need is a directory e.g. ~/.local with write permissions.

Now you can install Fvwm-Nightshade with the following make call:

$ make prefix=~/.local install local=yes localperldir=~/.perl displaymanager=no

Don’t forget to install the following required packages:

  • python-xdg (normally installed on most systems. Look for pyxdg)

  • xterm (normally installed with xserver but some distributions swapped it out in a seperate package)

  • conky

  • xscreensaver

  • feh

  • ImageMagick

  • librsvg2 (fvwm-menu-desktop need this library to convert svg icons)

  • stalonetray (not in all distributions available. See Tips)

  • cpufreq (nedded for the Governor tool to control cpu states)

  • x11-apps (A collection of common X Window System applications)

  • gksu/Beesu (wrapper around su to let you have a graphic interface)

If you want some packages from recommended and suggested install them also. If you have problems to get some packages see also Tips.

deb

Run

# make deb

A Debian package is created in the directory above. Install it with the two liner:

# dpkg -i fvwm-nightshade-<version>.deb
# apt-get -f install

rpm

Type in the terminal

# make rpm

A rpm package is created in /home/<your_user_name>/redhat/RPMS/noarch/. Install it with

Fedora/Redhat:

# yum --nogpgcheck localinstall /home/<your_user_name>/redhat/RPMS/noarch/fvwm-nightshade_<version>_noarch.rpm

SuSE:

# yast -i /home/<your_user_name>/redhat/RPMS/noarch/fvwm-nightshade_<version>_noarch.rpm

For others (dependencies must installed before):

# rpm -ivh /home/<your_user_name>/redhat/RPMS/noarch/fvwm-nightshade_<version>_noarch.rpm

Arch

Type in the terminal

# make arch

The package is created in the directory above. Run as root

# pacman -U fvwm-nightshade-<version>-any.pkg.tar.xz

Gentoo

An additional overlay repository for custom ebuilds which are not in the official Portage is needed. It will be set over the PORTDIR_OVERLAY variable in /etc/portage/make.conf. The normal personal per-machine overlay is /usr/local/portage. But another could used also.

The Fvwm-Nightshade ebuild has to be created from the template in gentoo/. Also the dist package for the installation. This can done this with one step.

Type in the terminal:

$ make gentoo-prepare

The make rule creates the dist package ../fvwm-nightshade-<version>.tar.gz and adds the current version of the downloaded package to the ebuild name and saves it in the current directory.

A sub directory fvwm-nightshade in the category x11-themes have to be created (if you use the overlay /usr/local/portage you need root permissions!):

$|# mkdir -p <overlay_directory>/x11-themes/fvwm-nightshade

Copy the versioned fvwm-nightshade ebuild into your personal overlay repository:

$|# cp fvwm-nightshade-<version>.ebuild <overlay_directory>/x11-themes/fvwm-nightshade/

Copy the dist package as root to /usr/portage/distfiles:

# cp ../fvwm-nightshade-<version>.tar.gz /usr/portage/distfiles/

Create the manifest:

$|# ebuild --force <overlay_directory>/x11-themes/fvwm-nightshade/fvwm-nightshade-<version>.ebuild digest

Unmask the package with your system architecture ⇒ ~x86 or ~amd64 :

# echo x11-themes/fvwm-nightshade ~x86 >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

Install Fvwm-Nightshade with

# emerge x11-themes/fvwm-nightshade

Perhaps you need some additional USEs. Emerge told you which. Echo them into /etc/portage/package.use:

# echo "<USEs>" >> /etc/portage/package.use

Emerge again.

Fvwm-Nightshade is installed. Congratulation!

If you haven’t a graphical login manager copy xinitrc template into your home directory

$ cp <system>/share/doc/fvwm-nightshade/xinitrc-example ~/.xinitrc

or add the following line to your .xinitrc:

exec fvwm-nightshade

and start the xserver with

$ startx

Change the base settings and enjoy.

If you have a graphical login manager there’s now a new entry "Fvwm-Nightshade" in your sessions dialog. Login, change the base settings and enjoy.

If you have installed Fvwm-Nightshade locally and want to use a display-manager copy (with root rights) fvwm-nightshade.desktop-example from the doc directory to /usr/share/xsessions:

# cp <system>/share/doc/fvwm-nightshade/fvwm-nightshade.desktop-example /usr/share/xsessions/fvwm-nightshade.desktop

Deinstallation

General

To remove Fvwm-Nightshade expect ~/.fvwm-nightshade run as root

# make uninstall

If you have installed Fvwm-Nightshade to another directory you have to change the prefix:

# make prefix=<other_dir> uninstall

That applies for local installation without root rights, too.

Also, if Fvwm is installed in another directory then /usr/share/fvwm you have to told make where Fvwm is located

# make fvwm_path=<path_to_fvwm> uninstall

Since 0.6.7 make install creates an install log. For previous versions which haven’t this file you must use

# make uninstall-alternative

It checks the default installation locations and try to uninstall all installed files. Maybe some files won’t found. Excuse the inconvenience.

For all others use the package management system.

Tips

How to get the required packages

Some distributions haven’t all packages in their main repositories. But you can get them over some other ways.

OpenSuse:

http://software.opensuse.org/search

To install a downloaded package use yast (as root) to solve package dependencies with

# yast -i <path_to_rpm_package>

or, if you have zypper installed use (as root)

# zypper install <path_to_rpm_package>
Fedora:

https://apps.fedoraproject.org/packages/

http://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/search

To install a downloaded package use yum (as root) to solve package dependencies with

# yum --nogpgcheck localinstall <path_to_rpm_package>
Arch:

https://www.archlinux.org/packages/

https://aur.archlinux.org/

To install a downloaded package use pacman (as root) to solve package dependencies with

# pacman -U <path_to_arch_package>
Gentoo:

http://en.znurt.org/

Slackware:

http://www.slackabduction.com/sse/index.php

Some other package search sites:

http://pkgs.org

http://rpm.pbone.net/

http://www.rpmseek.com/index.html