setting up fvwm as my windows manager on ubuntu 14.04

Other things FVWM Installation
1

I’m setting up a new computer running ubuntu 14.04. Could somebody please advise how I can get fvwm to show up as an option at the login screen? In the old days, using ubuntu 12.04 and lightdm, the fvwm option magically showed up as an option. Now, all I get is a password prompt, and no choice of window manager.

Thanks very much for any advice!

Leo

2

Add a text file “fvwm.desktop” under /usr/share/xsessions/ with the following content][Desktop Entry]
Name=Fvwm
Comment=Fvwm
Exec=fvwm2
Terminal=False
TryExec=fvwm2
Type=Application

[Window Manager]
SessionManaged=true
[/code]
– Thomas –

3

the script you proposed was already in /usr/share/xsessions and being ignored.

The ubuntu.desktop script that does work is

[Desktop Entry] Name=Ubuntu Comment=This session logs you into Ubuntu Exec=gnome-session --session=ubuntu TryExec=unity Icon= Type=Application X-LightDM-DesktopName=Unity

When I removed ubuntu.desktop from the directory,
I got the error message “Failed to start session”

I tried modifying fvwm.desktop to mimic this, i.e., replacing session=ubuntu with session=fvwm2 and Name=Ubuntu with Name=Fvwm

but nothing I could think of worked.

Could you advise please?

Thanks! leo

4

Hmmm … as I don’t using Ubuntu I can only guess … After googling a bit I found this:
Changing window manager in LightDM

Another thing could be an entry in fvwm.desktop preventing the start. I’ve had this issue with Fvwm-Nightshade in the past. Try this shorter version without ‘TryExec’][Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Fvwm
Comment=This session logs you into Fvwm
Exec=fvwm2
Icon=
Type=Application[/code]
Else I can’t help you and you should post your problem in the Ubuntu forums.

– Thomas –