Joes Window Manager

Basic config of Light-Weight Window Manager on Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS Server install.

NOTES: As 'root' user

1. Install xorg (X Window System) and jwm (Window Manager)

"apt-get install xorg jwm mc" - make sure xorg is installed FIRST - installing jwm first then xorg does NOT work :-)

'mc' is 'Midnight Commander' - a very useful text-based file manager.

2. If you run "startx" now, you will get a cursor and a locked machine - at least I did

This is due to no config file being found.

The location for the system-wide config file was not created for me so:

"mkdir /etc/jwm"

3. Locate the jwmrc config file - this tells jwm and xorg how everything is set up - if xorg? cannot find this config file, you get the above result

I found a default one here:

'/usr/share/doc/jwm/examples/example.jwmrc.gz'

Note the '*.gz' on the end - this indicates it is compressed, and needs uncompressing first.

4. Copy the config file to '/tmp' (a place where we can do temporary file operations where we can't screw any system settings up)

"cp /usr/share/doc/jwm/examples/example.jwmrc.gz /tmp"

5. Move to '/tmp' directory

"cd /tmp"

Do a "ls" to make sure you see the above *jwmrc.gz file is present - if not something is wrong.

6. Uncompress the config file

"gunzip /tmp/example.jwmrc.gz" - this should leave a 'example.jwmrc' file in the '/tmp' directory - do another 'ls' to make sure.

7. Copy the config file to the correct location AND rename it at the same time

"cp /tmp/example.jwmrc /etc/jwmrc"

8. Check to make sure the file is in the right place '/etc/jwm' and is named correctly 'jwmrc'

'ls /etc/jwm'

9. Fire up xwindows/xorg to see if it works

"startx"

Hopefully you boot into a very minmal window manager with at least a menu you can click on :-)

Helpful Links:

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/xwtf.html

http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/index.shtml

Part of CategoryWindowManager