duckland.org news (windowmanager)

An Update to 'Window Managers?'

Don Harper — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 23:12:00 GMT

An Update to 'Window Managers?'

Way back, I wrote a quick blurb on Windows Managers for running under X.

Well, a while back I switched to Ubuntu for my OS of choice. As you may know, the fine folks at Ubuntu switch the default window manager to something called Unity, which cause a stir. I tried it for a while, but decided that it was too heavy, and to mouse-centric.

So, what to do? Well, I went back to my old standby wmfs, Window Manager From Scratch. This is a modern WM with systray support, full Ximirama and Xrandr support, tiles, and is mainly driven from the keyboard. Life is good.

To install (same steps as for Fedora, RHEL, or Ubuntu), download the source, and install the needed development libraries for: X11, Xft, freetype, Xinerama, Xrandr, and Imlib2. I used the native packages from the OS. Then, simple do a

make
sudo make install

(you do build software as a normal user, right?)

This will install all the needed bits and configs into the correct place. Under Ubuntu 11.10, there was an entry from the login screen to let me chose wmfs.

Config is handled in $HOME/.config/wmfs/wmfsrc which you can copy from /etc/xdg/wmfs/wmfsrc.

The wmfs website has very nice documentation as well as likes to some people’s configs with screen shots.

It runs very fast, and very lean:

 Private  +   Shared  =  RAM used       Program 
  3.9 MiB + 310.0 KiB =   4.2 MiB       wmfs

Check it out, I am sure you will like what you see.

dvtm - dynamic virtual terminal manager

Don Harper — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:04:00 GMT

dvtm - dynamic virtual terminal manager

He’s back! And with with something new/cool:[dvtm

Screen - terminal multiplexer

Don Harper — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:06:00 GMT

Screen - terminal multiplexer

I usually have one screen running at all time, and in that screen session, I ssh to various hosts that I am working, and have screen running on those hosts.

Additional Links

gnu screen - Google Search GNU Screen - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) GNU Screen - Summary [Savannah] GNU Screen - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia GNU Screen - Jonathan McPherson Screen User’s Manual start [GNU screen] Deadman.org: SSH-Agent Forwarding and GNU Screen http://www4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/~jnweiger/screen-faq.html Remote terminal session management using screen How to use screen to detach from and share terminal sessions z o r g . o r g - A Brief Introduction to Screen www.zorg.org! Linux, Home Automation, VoIP, Radio Scanning, PMR446, CB Radio, Cryptography, Handspring Visor, Psion Series 3 and much more. screen - The Terminal Multiplexer [Power Sessions with Screen

Window Manager for tty?

Don Harper — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 23:01:00 GMT

Window Manager for tty?

The package screen is
something that has been around for a long time.

With screen, you can have many session running on on tty, and you can
switch to another session with out touching a mouse. With the proper
configuration, you can get notified if there is some change (like if
you have a IM client up) or if there is no output (say, if you are
watching a compile session).

You are in the zone working, and then you notice the time, and you
have to log out and go home. Is this a problem? No, with a simple
d, you can disconnect the screen session, log out, go home,
log back into that machine, and resume your session just where you
left off.

One of the other really feature is cut and paste between sessions.
The is very handy when adapting code (or articles) into a new file.

Screen References

BigAdmin Feature Article: Installing and Using GNU Screen
Google Search: gnu screen howto
BigAdmin Feature Article: Installing and Using GNU Screen
GNU screen: start
GNU screen: tutorial
[GNU Screen: an introduction and beginner's t utorial

Window Managers?

Don Harper — Sun, 30 Jul 2006 23:07:00 GMT

Window Managers?

Why would a web site dedicated to the CLI have a section on Window
Managers? Well, simple.

Some times, you just have to have X running. Some web sites I have to
do research at use Flash, or photo editing/managing, or my iPod (none
of the CLI tools let me manage play lists very easily).

Plus, I cannot get the same resolution on the console as I can under
X.

So, what is a CLI user to do? Why, get a Window Manager (wm) that is
meant for us!

The features I look for include small footprint and full keyboard
integration. The current one I use is wmi-10, but it is no longer
under active development. The group working on it has moved to on to
wmii, but I do not like the changes,
so I am off looking for a new one to use.

From time to time, I will post how my search is going so you can see
what is out there.