I want to install and set up FVWM for something work-related. It has to support a wallpaper, and be able to run a browser and another work-related application. Because this has to run on new and old harware, and because we have the OS already on disc, I use Fedora Core 2. I have already read some of the stuff and tried some things already, but because I’m bounded to a time-limit and therefore don’t have the time to experiment myself, I thought to ask a few questions here:
Because this workstation is going to be installed on a remote site, it has to be stable, because I don’t have the time to drive to the remote site, just because the pc crashed or something.
Which choice do I make then? do I use the 2.4.20 (stable) or the 2.5.23 (unstable), because I read somewhere that for basic functions, the 2.5.x version is stable. And which is the best thing to use? an rpm-package or one of those tar.gz-binary-files? Does the 2.4.20-version support wallpapers, because it doesn’t have the fvwm-root module.
I am trying to set up the pc to this FVWM, I want FVWM to start automatically when the pc is booted, how do I go about achieving this? I already editted the /etc/inittab-file so that the default-init is at run-level 4 (which is not used).
I made sure the basic .fvwm2rc config file is in the root home-directory. I also created a .xinitrc file with in it the following:
#!/bin/sh
fvwm2&
So it comes done to the following:
Is using Fedora Core 2 a bad idea, or doesn’t it matter?
Which release do I use, and which install method?
Which files do I have to change to make FVWM work, and startup automatically at boot?
2.5.23 should behave on an stable way. You can use the latest 2.4.x, though, if you don’t need any newer feature.
That entirely depends on the distro you are using and how it is configured. Most distros use runlevel 5 by default to run X, but don’t assume that. You should check your distro documentation or forums. They are probably the best places to know how to run X on startup using your distro’s native init system. Once you know how X will be launched, then to start fvwm is another matter.
Another approach you could probably use is to set up something like mingetty to auto-login on console at startup with a given user, and then use the shell initialization files (usually ~/.bash_profile, if you use bash) to launch startx. Then you can use your ~/.xinitrc to launch your window manager with just a line like “exec fvwm” on that file.
Neither of them is really relevant, except for the fact of configuring your init system adequately, which is completely a distro thing, and not related to fvwm.