Well, I guess it’s completely feasible. I just rely on some path for the icons and wallpapers but these things can be modified easily. I’ve set some variables to address that kind of issue at the very beginning of the main configuration file: fvwm_icon, fvwm_wallpaper_dir. With some adjustment, Gnome is completely removabe.
pem,
Sorry, I did not intend to say transparencies, shadows.
They are missing on my desktop!
jupiter,
Thanks, I’ll give a look.
OK. Shadows are achieved via the composite extensions of Xorg and the composite manager. There’s a good howto in the gentoo wiki on this topic. Note that this is a bit buggy. That’s why I’ve set up an on/off entry in my menu.
uhmm …
Well, I’m using Debian with XFree86, and I must check if it works under it and what packages are needed. Or who knows, I’ll install Xorg
Anyway, I’ll try to make some other changes on the config and will post my doubts.
About the fonts used, I think that your configs are using Blippo font, which I don’t know yet how to install it, or configure it. Plus, gnome-font-properties seems to start a daemon which changes all fonts on system, but assuming that I don’t want that daemon running, where can I configure the fonts!?
For the shadow effect, I think that only Xorg is able to provide you the appropriate extensions that xcompmgr manages. It"s called composition or composite.
For the font, I was just advising you to use gnome-font-properties for easy picking a font from thus already installed on your system. It’s a nice tool. Once, you’ve chosen the one that you like, just modify the font entries in the configuration files (check my fgrep command in my former answer to your font question). If you don’t want to use this tool, you also can ask your system which xft font are installed (xft fonts are nicely rendered 
), with the fontconfig utilities on the command line:
fc-listIf you have nautilus installed you could also use it to view your fonts, just point it to “fonts:///” 
By the way, if you like the Blippo font that I use, it part of the freefont packages provided by the Gimp team. Maybe you can find it along with your distro, otherwise you can find it here.
im very new to fvwm, but id like to start using your theme and work on creating my own from there. But I 'm not sure what I’m doing wrong, I untarred your config into ~/ but the menu looks nothing like your screenshots ( iwish i could take one but dont know how really) it is black with a bunch of text like: “Dossier personel&/home/me/.fvwm/deco/smokey/menu_right” as menu entries…
and neither top or bottom bars seem to be using the bg images they are on your screenshots.
help? thanks
The main reason your seeing all the ‘gibberish’ is becasue u don’t have the gnant gnome icon theme installed. so where it tries to look for the particular image its not finding anything so in it’s place it writes out the command.
I think earler in the thread someone set it up so u don’t have to use Gnome Themes but i’m not to sure.
Yep, that’s exactly the point. To build this very heavy menu, I’ve ground a lot of stuff on the bitmaps. Thus, if some required bitmaps lack, the menu displays only some parts of its commands.
Ok, I’ve installed Gnant icons, the menu is a little better but not much… and everything else remains weird looking. I realize that the wallpaper probably needs to be set, but im not worried about that now. Anyways here is a screenshot.
The blackness everywhere isss due to the wallpaper not being set or else the RbPath of your X-server isn’t set correctly, which I somehow doubt as not everything is black and white…
Unless you meant somenthing else that’s weird looking?
Well doesnt everything look off? including the backgrounds of both top and bottom bar. I dont know it just seem very far from looking like your screenshots.
Hi Swim. It doesn’t look that off. You need few things to be done before having your config set as mine. Though, its always better to have a config set as you need it.
First thing, as you mentionned it, you need to handle the wallpaper. As I’ve already described it, I use Esetroot for handling my wallpapers. This tool comes along with Eterm. My wallpaper are stored in ~/MyPictures. If you don’t own any good wallpaper, I advise you this site. It really worth the click. 8)
Next. According to the iconification I see on your screenshot, it seems that you didn’t install ImageMagick. It’s a very nice set of graphic tools on the CLI. I sometimes use GraphickMagick which is a bit faster. Install it, you won’t regret it.
You seem also using XFree. As you may have read it in previous posts, I recommend Xorg. It’s composite extension (through xcompmgr) provides shadowing and transparency. That’s for the eye-candy part. Just one thing though, composition is a bit buggy. On my former PC, it was working like a charm. It does not anymore since I’ve acquired my laptop. By the way, it seems that you’re also using a laptop according to your screen resolution. BTW, I intend to put a battery management (via acpi) in the topbar.
I see also that you need some work in the dockbar. The mail indicator and the weather menu are pretty unconfigured. If you didn’t check it, they rely on perl scripts. I’ve already detailed how to tune them in former discussions.
Last but not least, I always recommend mrxvt, which you have installed but not yet tuned. It’s the fastest term I’ve used so far (and may be the best looking one). You should have a look at the very beginning of this thread. I’ve provided my conf for this beatifull app.
Happy customizing! 
ok things are looking much better thanks. But Im not sure I understand how to and what to change to match the theme to my screen resolution, which is 1400x1050. As is the top and bottom bars are uncentered.
thx
Now that you mention it … the calculations provided for the topbar and the dock are based on a 1600x1200 screen. At the time I’ve written these themes, I wasn’t sure wether to automatically calculate these things or not. In my current config, they are still set by hand but now they match a 1280x800 resolution. I’ve set some variables for an easier modification of them. Maybe the automatic calulcation is on its way …
Anyway, there are 3 items that need to get modified:
- In ~/.fvwm/config, the IconBox needs to get tuned:
[code]# (SreenWidth(1280) - LeftBorder(20) - RightBorder(20))
(ScreenHeight(800) - TopBarHeightAndBorder(60) - DockHeightAndBorder(90))
Style * IconBox 1240x650+20+60, IconFill top left, SloppyFocus[/code]
- In the ~/.fvwm/conf/topbar.fvwm2rc, the TopBar needs a huge refresh:
[code]# This size corresponds to: ScreenWidth(1280) - Border(5) - Border(5)
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_width 1270
This size corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_width - 223
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_iconman_width 1047
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_icon_width 125
This end of IconMan position corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_width + fvwm_topbar_i
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_endim_pos 1172
This volume level position corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_endim_pos + EndIconManW
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_volume_pos 1184
This inter application position corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_volume_pos + Volum
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_interap_pos 1220
This wifi position corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_interap_pos + InterApWidth(6)
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_wifi_pos 1226
This end of topbar position corresponds to: fvwm_topbar_wifi_pos + WifiWidth(3
SetEnv fvwm_topbar_end_pos 1262
…
*FvwmTopBar: ( $[fvwm_topbar_icon_width]x40+0+0, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_head.png)
*FvwmTopBar: ( $[fvwm_topbar_iconman_width]x7+$[fvwm_topbar_icon_width]+0, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_up.png)
*FvwmTopBar: ( $[fvwm_topbar_iconman_width]x26+$[fvwm_topbar_icon_width]+7, Swallow “FvwmIconMan” “FvwmIconMan -g $[fvwm_topbar_iconman_width]x26”)
*FvwmTopBar: ( $[fvwm_topbar_iconman_width]x7+$[fvwm_topbar_icon_width]+33, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_down.png)
*FvwmTopBar: ( 12x40+$[fvwm_topbar_endim_pos]+0, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_endim.png)
*FvwmTopBar: ( 36x40+$[fvwm_topbar_volume_pos]+0, Swallow “VolumeLevel” FvwmScript $[fvwm_script]/VolumeLevel \ $[fvwm_theme_img]/volume4.png \ $[fvwm_theme_img]/volume3.png \ $[fvwm_theme_img]/volume2.png \ $[fvwm_theme_img]/volume1.png \ $[fvwm_theme_img]/volume0.png) *FvwmTopBar: ( 6x40+$[fvwm_topbar_interap_pos]+0, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_interap.png) *FvwmTopBar: ( 36x40+$[fvwm_topbar_wifi_pos]+0, Swallow "WifiSensor" FvwmScript $[fvwm_script]/WifiSensor
$[fvwm_theme_img]/wifi4.png
$[fvwm_theme_img]/wifi3.png
$[fvwm_theme_img]/wifi2.png
$[fvwm_theme_img]/wifi1.png
$[fvwm_theme_img]/wifi0.png)
*FvwmTopBar: ( 8x40+$[fvwm_topbar_end_pos]+0, Icon $[fvwm_theme_img]/topbar_tail.png)[/code]
- In ~/.fvwm/conf/dock.fvwm2rc, only the dock position needs a refresh:
[code]# This size corresponds to: (ScreenWidth(1280) - DockWidth(779)) / 2
SetEnv fvwm_dock_x 250
…
*FvwmDock: Geometry 779x75+$[fvwm_dock_x]-5[/code]
On the topbar, you will probably see some garbage on the border. This is due to the pixmap’s shape applied on this FvwmButtons. If you go this far, I will provide you with other hints on this issue.
By the way, I’ve noticed also a font issue. I heavily use Blippo in my screens.
Here comes the render for my battery monitoring applet in the topbar:
I’ve set a design for my two themes. I’ve also coupled its management with festival for a speech status. Very funny, I can’t keep my mouse away from clicking on it. 
Very cool! I just checked your posted config. Doesn’t appear you’ve updated it to include the cool battery monitor. Hope you’ll chose to do so, I’d love to have it on my laptop too.
It was not uploaded yet 
I was checking how to ehnance the speech synthesis by using Esound. Anyway, now it’s available
By the way, the battery level is based on ACPI and be carefull not to scratch your current config 
hi pem
I 've downloaded your config for a try, and have made some modifications to fit for my desktop ,however in the .xsession-erros i still got the errors: no such command – MouseFocusClickRaises , MiniIcon… it does like this , i cant remember more clearly. also bad option–padding 170 20 , \ blabla…
are these commands and options not supported by new version of fvwm any more?
I am new for fvwm , could u kindly help, if the question is stupid , just show a smile si vous plait…