newbie friendly

[total newbie]

what is a newbie friedly desktop manager that would run on an old 486?

my tiny linux had fwm2 setup on it and i dont like it so no1 suggest that

[demian]

Just for the record. FVWM it the greatest window manager since sliced bread and anyone how says it isn't is a damn liar. Although I must say that the default configuration looks like ****.

An alternative that might run well enough would be windowmaker. It has a GUI configuration tool that might make it easier for you to configure it to your likings.

If you want to give fvwm another try feel free to grab my example config files (http://www.nord-com.net/goedeke/fvwm/) and I'll assit you in setting things up.

[mrBen]

I never thought I'd hear myself say it, but FVWM doesn't look half bad in your screenies.

[total newbie]

your fwm looks really good how do i MAKE mine look like that?

[mrBen]

Originally posted by total newbie
your fwm looks really good how do i MAKE mine look like that?

Erm - I think that's why you can download his config files ;)

[total newbie]

just gonna try and set em up

my internet is on windows and when i copy the files to a floppy .etc they always come up as file~1 under linux :mad: windows is so annoying

[mrBen]

Are you dual booting? If so, just mount your FAT partitions, and the names stay the same.

[total newbie]

the anwser to that is no the linux system is a different comp

[total newbie]

how do i unzip them and and where do i put them?

[demian]

You can unzip them with the command

tar jxfv fvwm_config_1.0.1.tar.bz2

if that doesn't work try

tar yxfv fvwm_config_1.0.1.tar.bz2

or

bzcat fvwm_config_1.0.1.tar.bz2 | tar xfv -

This will create a directory called fvwm_demian with all the config files in your current working directory. To make fvwm use these files, move the fvwm_demian directory to your home directory and rename it to .fvwm (mind the leading dot). Also delete (or rename) any of the .fvwm?rc files already in your home dir (the old config files).

Now restart fvwm and be prepared to encounter all sorts of errors because you will have to change bits and pieces in the config files to reflect your local system setup. But we'll sort that out.

[total newbie]

it doesnt wrk! prob cus my x server is only set to 16 colours

i got no background and the menus were totally black and i couldnt read them :confused:

[dunbar]

XFCE

[demian]

Well, 4bit color depth certainly isn't much and in fact I do use more than 16 colors with my configuration. The fact that the menus are black seems to indicate that you are running an older version of fvwm. I use fvwm v2.4.8 and I know for sure that I use features not included in fvwm v2.0.x not sure if v2.2.x will work. Probably not.

So maybe you need to upgrade to the latest stable version.

XFCE certainly is the lightest desktop environment and gives you more features than a bare bone window manager but I doubt you've got the resoureces to run it. By the way what amount of video memory and RAM are we talking about.

There are some very simplistic configuration examples for fvwm available from www.fvwm.org

[total newbie]

thanks for that info i am going to change to a newer version of linux will let you know what i get to run then phaps it will run your config files