I never got that to work properly either, couldn’t get fvwm to show up in the gdm sessions menu, I’m now using entrance (which is in ~x86), but it doesn’t seem to remember the last wm that was started so I have to select Fvwm every time I login…
Most people seem to just start fvwm from console though…
Starting from console is actually quite easy, make a file called .xinitrc in your home directory and put this in it:
Make sure gdm doesn’t start on boot so uncomment the line saying DISPLAYMANAGER=“<something>” from your /etc/rc.conf . You can now login on your console and when you get a prompt just type “startx”, this should now start fvwm
ok here is the “super happy fun guide to adding stuff to gdm”
This is what i had to do at work on fedora and redhat… I assume it works on other distros:
Note: replace FVWM (and alts) with blackbox, fluxbox, IceWM, etc… for other WMs
this needs to be done as root so su now
$su
Ok now time to make a shell script for gdm: #cd /etc/X11/gdm/sessions #nano FVWM
Now put these lines in the file and save/quit:
#!/bin/bash
exec /etc/X11/xdm/Xsessions fvwm
Ok now make the shell script execuatable: #chmod 755 FVWM
Now we need to edit that Xsession file… #cd /etc/X11/xdm #nano Xsession
Now lets scroll down to this big switch/case
find the lines:
Now insert the follwing lines:
fvwm|FVWM)
exec -l $SHELL -c “$SSHAGENT /usr/share/apps/switchdesk/Xclients.fvwm”
;;
Now save & quit
Finally now to make one last file… #cd /usr/share/apps/switchdesk/ #nano Xclients.fvwm
Inside put:
#!/bin/bash
exec fvwm2
save and quit
Thats all… it should work. I am doing this from memory. Hope this helps
EDIT: this also sets up some stuff for KDM
Personally I detest XDM/KDM/GDM I use startx (then again i just use fvwm). I’d imagine it wouldn’t be so hard to make a short script in .xinitrc to pick a WM from a menu
I don’t have that directory, but if you do then I suppose you’ll have to add it there, look at the KDE and Gnome ones on how to create your Fvwm files.
And just for the record, I have my session files in /etc/X11/Sessions , I have no idea if those files are used though as I use xdm.