2004.10_Desktopia-Fvwm Themes-Customizing Settings to Create a Unique Desktop.pdf

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deskTOPia

Getting a New Look

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and desktop themes are

no exception. FVWM themes give one of the oldest window managers a really

new look, and whet one’s appetite for more. BY HAGEN HÖPFNER

The first package – a developer version

of FVWM2 – is required, as the FVWM

version provided by Suse Linux is incom-

patible with the current FVWM themes.

The second package contains the theme

add-on itself, and the third has a variety

of different dressings for the window

manager.

Making sure you are root, enter the

following command in the download

directory:

theme extensions. If you log on in text

mode, add:

exec /usr/bin/fvwm-themes-start

to the .xinitrc file in your home directory.

If you built FVWM themes from the

source code, modify the path to use

/usr/local/bin instead of /usr/bin . If you

log on to the GUI, add the script to the

drop-down menu for your login man-

ager. If you have the KDE variant, KDM,

you can open the Control Center and

select System Administration | Login

Manager to do this. Click the Adminis-

trator mode button to assume root

privileges, and add a new session type

with the fvwm-themes-start command in

the Sessions tab. The next time you log

on, the entry should appear in the KDM

drop-down menu.

J ust a few years ago, FVWM [1] was

rpm -Uhv fvwm*.rpm

one of the most widely spread win-

dow managers. However, if you

think that time has passed by the classic

desktop, think again. FVWM is not only

one of the most highly configurable win-

dow managers, it can also use the

FVWM themes add-on [3] to quickly and

easily change its appearance. All of this

is menu-driven, meaning that users who

are wary of editing configuration files

can avoid the risk.

to install all three packages. However,

you can use your distribution’s package

manager if preferred. The package man-

ager will automatically install any other

libraries required by FVWM themes.

If you intend to build FVWM themes

yourself, you need to build the current

FVWM version first, followed by fvwm-

themes-0.7.0.tar.bz2 and then finally the

extra themes ( fvwm-themes-extra-0.7.0.

tar.bz2 ). For the first two packages, use

the normal commands: ./configure ;

make ; su -c make install . Then use the

fvwm-themes-config Perl script installed

by the previous steps to add the extra

themes. The command for doing this is:

Up and Running

The shiny new FVWM will launch into

the standard look shown in Figure 1. You

need to update the selection of themes,

before you can choose a new theme. To

do so, click the desktop background to

access the main menu. Then select

Package Manager Based

Install

You will find the source code and some

pre-compiled binaries for RPM and

Debian based distributions at [2]. Suse

Linux 9.0 works fine with the fvwm-

2.5.8-2.i386.rpm , fvwm-themes-0.7.0-2.

noarch.rpm and fvwm-themes-extra-

0.7.0-2.noarch.rpm RPM packages, for

example.

fvwm-themes-config --site U

--install fvwm-themes-extra U

-0.7.0.tar.bz2

Hagen Höpfner has a

higher degree in

Computer Science

and is a member of

scientific staff at the

Otto-von-Guericke

University of Magde-

burg, Germany. Between time spent

tinkering with his collection of Linux

computers, Hagen likes to direct his

creative energy into song-writing,

composing lyrics, and playing the gui-

tar for a rock band called “Gute Frage

!?” (translates “Good Question”).

Assuming that the Installation of fvwm-

themes-extra-0.7.0 is completed message

appears when you are finished, your

desktop wardrobe now has an extra 16

outfits for the window manager.

Desktopia

Only you can decide how your desktop

looks. With deskTOPia we regularly take you

with us on a journey into the land of win-

dow managers and desktop environments,

presenting the useful and the colorful view-

ers and pretty toys.

Getting Started

The fvwm-themes-start takes care of

launching the window manager with the

October 2004

www.linux-magazine.com

FVWM Themes

deskTOPia

LINUX USER

Figure 1: This is what the FVWM themes look like when you launch FVWM for

the first time.

Figure 2: Make one from five: “OSX” with title bars from “QNX”, buttons

from “ICE”, the “RedmondXP” background, and the “Sa” color scheme.

Refresh with no cache below Theme Man-

agement | Refresh and Reload to tell

FVWM to reload its data from the hard

disk. The Theme Management menu is

also the place to go to choose a new

theme.

The quickest way of dressing your

desktop is to select a theme, and then

click on all in the submenu that then

appears. This tells FVWM to load the

whole collection of definitions supplied

by the theme author.

What you get will differ from look to

look: some themes just have simple ele-

ments, such as window buttons and

dressing. Others have all kinds of extras,

including a wallpaper, window dressing,

menu styles and the color scheme. OSX

is a good example and reminds users of

the Macintosh – at least in part: the

menu bar at the top of the screen does

not show you the menu for the active

program.

need to select three elements: win-

dowlook , colors-decor , and buttons for

the window buttons.

If you then select the color scheme

from another theme, ( colors ), note that

you will overwrite the current title bar by

doing so. To prevent this, lock the win-

dow frame colors by selecting Theme

Management | Current | colors-decor |

Lock this component . This will prevent

FVWM from changing the title bars until

you release this entry again, no matter

what theme or colors you choose. This

feature also allows you to lock down

other parts of the desktop, meaning that

you could use the same background no

matter what theme you have. With a bit

of imagination, you can design a desktop

that no-one else has (see Figure 2).

If it bothers you that the focus shifts to

the window below the mouse on mouse

over in almost all themes, there is a

menu function to stop FVWM doing this.

Select Configuration | Global Feel GUI ,

check Click on a window to get Focus

(see Figure 3). This tells FVWM to

behave just like Windows or the KDE

default. Windows are activated by click-

ing, and keep the focus until you click on

another window.

If you prefer to tile open windows,

rather than allowing them to overlap,

you can additionally enable Placement is

smart if there is free place, stairs if not .

This tells FVWM to cascade windows

only when it runs out of room on the

desktop. There is also an option to tell

the window manager to tile new win-

dows. If it runs out of room, it will ask

the user to place the window rather than

deciding itself. To do so, FVWM displays

a window frame at the cursor position,

allowing the user to click to drop the

window at the current position.

If you want add theme extensions to

modify FVWM even further to reflect

your requirements, such as increasing

the number of virtual desktops, you have

no option, but to use your editor. The

FVWM Themes FAQ at [3] provides an

introduction to editing FVWM configura-

tion files. Even without manual editing

of configuration files, FVWM themes can

easily hold their own with other desk-

tops.

Variety is the Spice of Life

If you fail to find a theme that you like,

despite the collection of 20 on offer,

there is nothing to stop you designing

your own desktop. You can select com-

ponents from available themes, just like

building blocks. Start off with the look

that comes closest to what you are trying

to achieve.

For example, if you decide to emulate

the Windows XP theme, first select

Theme Management | RedmondXP |

background . This tells FVWM to replace

just the background in the current

theme. To add window dressing you

■

INFO

Figure 3: GUI-based dialog for minor modifica-

tions.

[1] René van Bevern,“The Chameleon”,

Linux Magazine, Issue 46, p. 78

[2] FVWM Themes:

http://fvwm-themes.sourceforge.net/

[3] FVWM Themes FAQ: http://fvwm-themes.

sourceforge.net/doc/FAQ

www.linux-magazine.com

October 2004

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